Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an attempt to convince Congress to support President Joe Biden's supplemental funding request valued at more than $100 billion.
The funding request, which was announced less than two weeks ago, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, roughly half of which is for the Pentagon to replenish its stockpiles that have been depleted as the U.S. aids Ukraine, and more than $14 billion for Israel. While the majority of Congress publicly supports aiding both, there is a vocal minority on the Right that disagrees with continuing to aid Ukraine, while there's a similarly vocal faction on the Left that has sought to limit U.S. support for Israel.
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"This funding will enable us to tackle grave humanitarian needs created by autocrats and terrorists, as well as by conflict and natural disasters in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan, in Armenia, and other places around the world," Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Food, water, medicine, other essential humanitarian assistance ... must be able to flow into Gaza civilians must be able to stay out of harm's way, a task that's made even more difficult, as Hamas uses civilians as human shields, and humanitarian pauses must be considered."
"I think it's important to remind ourselves that what happens in Ukraine and what happens in Israel matters not to just Ukraine and Israel. It matters to us, it affects our national security, as well," Austin added.
The lawmakers on the committee were mostly supportive of Austin and Blinken's efforts the last three weeks and of the supplemental request, while the secretaries sought to underscore Iran's support for Russia and their support for Hamas as a reason the funding request should be met.
A pair of delegations from Iran and Hamas traveled to Moscow for a meeting last week, further demonstrating Russia's stance on Israel's war against Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that left roughly 1,400 Israelis dead, the vast majority of whom were civilians.
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Austin and Blinken's testimony came a day after House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), introduced the House’s $14.3 billion Israel aid package on Monday, which would be paid for in full by offsets in funding for the Internal Revenue Service, but Democrats have already dismissed the proposal. The House had been unable to provide additional funding to support Israel or Ukraine due to its lack of a speaker over the previous three weeks.
"Politicizing our national security interests is a nonstarter. Demanding offsets for meeting core national security needs of the United States — like supporting Israel and defending Ukraine from atrocities and Russian imperialism — would be a break with the normal, bipartisan process and could have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead," the White House said in a statement. "There is strong bipartisan agreement that it is in our direct national security interest to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty against appalling crimes being committed by Russian forces against thousands of innocent civilians — including attacking them with Iranian weapons."