What’s in President Biden’s $106 billion foreign aid package?
President Joe Biden sent a foreign aid request to Congress on Oct. 20 totaling $106 billion. The bill included funding for Ukraine, Israel and Biden’s immigration priorities and was presented as a package deal.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has joined with a group of Republican senators to propose splitting off funds for Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal.
What’s included in the bill?
The Washington Post reported Biden’s bill would allocate $14 billion in aid to Israel, $61 billion in funding to Ukraine, $14 billion for immigration and $10 billion for humanitarian aid. Unherd included that the bill promised $7.4 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
Some Republican members of Congress have become more opposed to sending money to Ukraine, and Biden’s bill would tie funding Israel with sending $61 billion more to Ukraine to aid in its war with Russia.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said, “It is the president’s job, our job, to make clear to Congress what the needs are, what happens if this critical funding is not delivered.”
She continued, “We are doing our job by letting Congress know what these critical needs are and we expect them to act and act swiftly,” per Politico.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also responded to Biden’s aid package and said, “It’s pretty clear that the supplemental that was sent over is just a starting point. We are going to go over it with a fine tooth comb,” ABC reported.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., responded to Biden’s funding request in a statement. He said, “There is overwhelming bipartisan support for Israel and we can get an aid package passed in the Senate quickly. The same cannot be said about Biden’s asks on Ukraine aid, which is far broader than just lethal aid to defeat Putin.”
How would Biden prioritize money for the border?
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, raised concerns with the bill over where it would allocate money for border security. He told Fox News, “The border funding that is included is all designed to accelerate the processing of illegal immigration. In other words, it’s not designed to stop the crisis at our southern border. It’s designed to make it worse.”
The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the specific breakdown of proposed funds. It described its goal of stopping fentanyl from entering the country and outlined a request for an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judge teams, 1,600 asylum officers “to speed up processing of asylum claims,” 1,000 Customs and Border Protection officers, detection technology for the southwest border, and “investigative capabilities to prevent cartels from trafficking fentanyl.”
