Israel Security Assistance Support Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I strongly oppose H.R. 8369, which is a cynical, political exercise by my GOP colleagues to attempt to sow division and use the United States-Israel relationship and American security assistance to advance their own political agenda.
Despite what you have heard and will hear from the other side of the aisle today, Madam Speaker, there is no bigger champion for Israel's long-term security as a Jewish state than President Joe Biden. As I am, the President is committed to eliminating Hamas, and that is clear by what took place recently when he defended, along with other allies, Israel from an Iranian attack.
He visited Israel during wartime, and he has delivered unprecedented aid. To suggest that he is abandoning or harming Israel is absurd. He has been with Israel as a Senator, as a Vice President, and as a President. To insinuate that now, all of a sudden, he is not with Israel is not true at all.
Now, I hear my Republican colleagues argue that leveraging 2,000- pound bombs should not have been done publicly. That approach has not worked. For months, the Biden administration publicly and privately urged Israel not to launch a major offensive in Rafah without credible plans to avoid mass casualties and to try to evacuate Palestinians to a safe space.
The United States has also repeatedly pressed Israel to cease using large warhead ordnance that results in excessive civilian casualties in densely populated civilian areas. Our humanitarian values are to try to save innocent lives, not saving Hamas, but trying to save innocent men, women, and children while we pursue Hamas--not cutting off all weapons, cutting off these huge bombs that kill innocent individuals--by utilizing munitions that are more appropriate for urban warfare to get Hamas.
To date, Israel has presented no plan to mitigate civilian harm or commitment to not using the 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah. To the contrary, what we heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu last week was that he repeatedly affirmed Israel's plans for an all-out assault on Rafah. That is when the Biden administration confirmed it would temporarily withhold a small number of large warhead bombs so that they would not be used in Rafah.
My Republican friends also seem to think that President Biden's actions are unprecedented, but there is a history of the United States withholding certain security assistance to Israel. Many of my GOP colleagues call themselves Reagan Republicans. Recall that President Reagan did the exact same thing based on concerns with Israel's military actions on two occasions in 1981 and 1982.
These 2,000-pound bombs in question can create a crater up to 50 feet wide and 36 feet deep when dropped. They have a lethal fragmentation to a radius the size of multiple football fields. Such bombs have no place in urban combat, not in Gaza and not in Rafah, one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. The United States has a duty and obligation under law to make sure our weapons are not disproportionately killing civilians.
This bill, H.R. 8369, prohibits the Biden administration from exercising its executive branch prerogative in holding or suspending U.S. arms transfers to Israel, including these large warhead munitions and any other defense article.
It also forces the administration to deliver any such item to Israel within 15 days of enactment and, if the administration is unable to comply, it freezes significant parts of the Defense Department, the State Department, and the National Security Council budgets. According to the Defense Department itself: Withholding defense-wide operations and maintenance funds would jeopardize DOD's ability to fulfill its constitutional obligation to defend the United States which could cause significant harm to United States national security.
Further, these budgetary freezes would undermine U.S. defense leadership when we are simultaneously competing in the Indo-Pacific, supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian war of aggression, and working with our partners in sub-Saharan Africa on security challenges. Again, this is all tremendously dangerous for our own national security.
The bill also includes a blatantly political attack on military officers, hardworking civil servants, and U.S. Government employees by mandating Inspector General investigations into individuals, not agencies or departments, and orders the withholding of their salaries in a brazen and politicized witch hunt.
All of these concerns would have been made clear had my Republican colleagues not rushed this bill through without any kind of regular order. Had it been marked up in the Foreign Affairs Committee, we would have been able to highlight that this legislation undercuts a number of crucial existing United States laws that are in the Foreign Affairs Committee's jurisdiction, including the Arms Export Control Act, the Leahy Law, and executive branch policies including the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and National Security Memorandum 20.
Let me repeat: President Biden paused one arms shipment. One. The President continues to focus on freeing the hostages, to put the onus on Hamas to reach a deal, and supports Israel's right to eradicate Hamas.
That is the position of President Joseph R. Biden. Let's be clear about it.
In conclusion, consider the facts and the context. We should oppose this bill moving forward because it is not good for Israel, and it is not good for the United States of America.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, to correct the record, President Biden never said, as I hear my colleagues saying, that he is suspending all weapons to Israel. He said specifically the 2,000-pound bombs that cause death to innocent Palestinians are the only things that were paused here, not all weapons.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, let me just say this really quickly. One of the speakers before him said Democrats and terrorists are against Israel. That just shows how political this is.
Democrats and Republicans have always been with Israel. To try and distort it and say Democrats are against Israel shows that it is just a partisan argument and not for the benefit of Israel. It is for trying to play politics with this issue.
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Mr. MEEKS. Wasserman Schultz).
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this bill, which, despite what the authors claim, threatens to defund our national security and torch the indispensable U.S.-Israel relationship, and it is all being done to score cheap political points.
By now we are accustomed to Republicans bringing up nonsensical messaging bills to distract from the fact that they blocked vital aid to Israel for 6 months.
Last week, I spoke out against the delayed weapons shipment and urged the U.S. and Israel to resolve disagreements privately to maintain the united front against Hamas.
The White House and Israel are now clear that those weapons are not needed for the Rafah operation. Just this week, the Biden administration finalized more than a billion dollars in assistance to Israel. Instead of coming together to show bipartisan support for Israel's defense, Republicans return to their political playbook, cynically exploiting Israel as a political wedge issue. However, this isn't another nonbinding resolution.
This dangerous, cynical bill is not pro-America or pro-Israel. The bill before us threatens to block funds to our military, the same Armed Forces which defended Israel against an Iranian missile onslaught.
This bill also imperils our diplomats who work nonstop to get hostages released. Undercutting American security undercuts Israel's security.
A plan to defund U.S. national security agencies that send assistance, share intelligence, and help defeat Hamas is exactly how you cut off your nose to spite your face.
October 7 made clear that Israel's needs can evolve overnight. I won't abide by Republicans holding our national security hostage so they can micromanage our Commander in Chief and feign how pro-Israel and pro-military they are.
If you don't like the President holding up one limited shipment for a week, and I don't, you should be livid about Speaker Johnson holding up all military aid for 6 months.
I won't allow shortsighted, partisan stunts to masquerade as bipartisan support for Israel. Republicans need to stop the games. Israel needs real, consistent support, not Republican users who have repeatedly made it clear that Israel cannot count on them.
Mr. GOLDMAN of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud American Jew who steadfastly supports Israel's right to exist as a democratic Jewish state and its right to defend itself after Hamas' barbaric and unprovoked attack on October 7.
The United States must continue to support Israel, to defeat Hamas, release the hostages, including Americans stuck in Gaza, and provide all funding, weapons, and intelligence necessary in order to do that, and that is President Biden's clear policy, as well.
This bill does not do any of that. It does not support Israel. It does not provide any additional funding, any additional weapons, nor any additional support for Israel. Even though Republicans delayed for 6 months, I was pleased when this body finally, in a show of bipartisanship, voted to support Israel with the supplemental aid package several weeks ago. This bill is designed to undermine that bipartisan support, which Israel desperately needs.
As a Jew, I am, frankly, sick and tired of the Republican Party using Israel as a political weapon to divide us, which aids Hamas, Iran, and Israel's enemies.
Mr. Speaker, I have one simple request of my Republican colleagues: If you truly care about Israel, please stop using it as a divisive political pawn. Just stop.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
Mr. Speaker, I have said from the beginning that today this debate is a cynical, partisan exercise by my Republican colleagues to attack the Biden administration and advance their political agenda.
Mr. Speaker, I have been here for 26 years, and any time Israel came up previously, we didn't play politics with it. We tried to sit down and work it out and come out unified, Democrats and Republicans. Especially in any foreign policies, one of the things we have done, especially on this committee, is try to work together so that the other countries of the world did not see a divided America but rather a unified America with our allies.
This is true with, for example, Ukraine. After many of my colleagues talked about the delay that took place to pass the supplemental, the whole idea even then was to negotiate together to try to come out with a bill that showed unity; not play politics with it; not try to say, as we have heard in this debate by some on their side: Oh, the Democrats are in cahoots with the terrorists.
That is not who we are. That is not who we should be. We should be the United States Congress talking and working. We are not going to always agree on everything, but to have dialogue and conversation on an issue in a matter that is so serious as this, as we did, as Mr. McCaul said correctly.
On October 8, we wanted to make sure that we put a resolution on this floor that over 400 Members of the House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans, could support. We didn't start out agreeing on everything in that resolution. We sat down, and we worked and debated. We went back and forth, and then we came up with a resolution that we could proudly put on the floor to say that the United States Congress is together, that we are not divided.
Mr. Speaker, that is not this bill. We didn't do that on this bill. We didn't even try. Why? Politics--politics in such a crucial time as this, with all that is going on.
We were together and made sure that we were working together. We were talking to our Arab colleagues about normalization with Israel. Why? It is because that makes for a better Middle East. It is good for Israel. It is good for our allies in the region. It is good for the United States of America.
That is not what this bill is all about. This bill is not good for Israel, and it is not good for our allies in the region. Chairman McCaul is correct when he said that we want to make sure that Saudi Arabia plays and has normalization with Israel as well as others in the Gulf area.
Speak to them and ask them if this bill will make the area better. Speak to them and include them in that dialogue. Because if we want a better Middle East, peace for Israel, and the Jewish state to move forward where they don't have to worry about a threat, we need to work together, not alone.
That is the dialogue and conversation we should be having. That is who we should be as leaders. That is who we should be as the indispensable nation. Those are our values.
We should value every human life. We should be concerned when we see people starving, innocent individuals. That shows who we are. That is leadership. That brings people together. That is good for Israel, and that is good for the United States of America, not this.
People are watching all over the world. Who are we? Are we just going to continue to divide? Are we going to be a nation divided? We can't sit down to talk and work things out? I know we can. Mr. McCaul and I do it all the time.
We are having a markup right now, 14 bills in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We didn't start out agreeing, but we worked it out. We have 14 bills today, all of them bipartisan. That is who we are. That is who we should be.
You heard Mr. Sherman say he is working now on another bill that we can work on together. That is who we are. That is who we should be.
Let's make a difference. Let's not play politics on the House floor. Let's make a difference. We can do this. We are better than this. We are better than this.
I saw today on our committee--and I am proud of this committee-- Democrats and Republicans talking back and forth on their differences, trying to figure out how we can change this and move so that we can pass a bill in the committee. I was listening as we were doing certain things, and truthfully, it made me proud to see how we were working together.
I say to my colleagues on the other side: Let's not do this. We are better than this, especially on foreign affairs. I mean, we are going to have our political domestic issues, but not on foreign affairs. Let's not play politics here. There is too much at stake, just too much at stake for us, for others.
They expect more from us. Let's give them more. Let's show them we can work together. Let's show them why we are the greatest country that this planet has ever seen. We are the United States of America.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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