By Catie Edmondson,Martín González Gómez,Kayla Guo,Robert Jimison,Albert Sun and Karen Yourish
Votes on the Foreign Aid Bills
Source: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
The House passed a long-stalled foreign aid package on Saturday that gives funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a majority of lawmakers backing money for American allies across the globe. The package, which now goes to the Senate, is almost certain to become law.
The Senate passed similar legislation in February. But in the face of distinct bases of opposition to different elements of the legislation, which threatened to tank the package as a whole, Speaker Mike Johnson advanced the foreign aid using a convoluted strategy: It split the package into three parts, each of which received its own vote, added a fourth bill with Republican priorities as a sweetener and melded it all together again once everything passed.
The plan, laid out in a rule that passed on Friday, was concocted to capitalize on the pools of support for each part of the $95 billion package, while preventing opposition to any one piece from taking down all of them.
How Different Factions Voted
Note: Progressive Democrats are members of the House Progressive Caucus. Hard-right Republicans include members who were supported by the House Freedom Fund during the 2022 midterms, opposed Kevin McCarthy’s election as speaker in January 2023, or voted to oust Mr. McCarthy from the speakership last October. The fund is the campaign arm of the House Freedom Caucus, a hard-right faction founded in 2015.
A majority of Republicans voted against Ukraine aid on Saturday, in a reflection of the stiff resistance within the G.O.P. to continuing to aid Ukraine against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s invasion. The coalition that voted against the bill extended from right-wing members of the House Freedom Caucus to leadership, such as Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 House Republican. On Israel aid, on the other hand, most Republicans voted “yes.”
Thirty-four right-wing Republicans also opposed aid to American allies in the Indo-Pacific, while Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, declined to take a yes-or-no position and voted “present.” Representative Bob Good, Republican of Virginia and the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, was one of the 21 members of his party who voted against the Israel package. Echoing one of the many grievances shared by hard-right Republicans who opposed all of the aid measures, Mr. Good said his support for “Israel’s right to defend itself remains unshakeable” but that he disagreed with a measure that would add to the nation’s debt.
While all Democrats voted in favor of aid to Ukraine and all but Ms. Tlaib supported funding to Taiwan, 37 left-leaning Democrats defected to vote against the Israel aid bill. They said before the vote that they opposed unfettered aid to Israel that could be used in its offensive in Gaza. The opposition to the Israel aid represented a minority of Democrats, but reflected the deep resistance to unconditional aid and the divisions in the party on Gaza. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland represented a notable new “no” vote among Democrats, and other standouts included Representatives Donald S. Beyer Jr. of Virginia, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and John Garamendi of California.
Still, 37 “no” votes, while a break from Washington’s ironclad support for the Jewish state, fell short of the opposition bloc progressives had hoped to muster. Thirty-nine Democrats had voted “no” on Friday on the rule to allow the foreign aid package to come to the House floor, a target that progressives just missed on Saturday on the Israel bill. Fourteen of those Democrats voted on Saturday in favor of aid to Israel, while 12 Democrats who voted to allow the package on the floor on Friday then cast votes against the funding itself.
Twenty-five Republicans voted against the fourth bill, which included measures that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States and that would redirect funds from seized Russian assets to help aid Ukraine. Democrats put up a big vote — 174 — in favor of this bill, which was intended to sweeten the overall package for conservatives.
How Every Member Voted
Correction:
April 20, 2024
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the political party of a group of representatives who notably voted “no” on new aid for Israel. They are Democrats, not Republicans.
