McCollum Vote on H.R. 8369, The Israel Security Assistance Support Act

I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act. 

Mr. Speaker, it is deeply disappointing to see the Republican majority continue to play politics with America’s national security. For over a year, Republicans refused to work in good faith with Democrats on bipartisan solutions to fund the federal government, including the Department of Defense, and support our Ukrainian allies in their fight against Putin’s illegal invasion of their nation. Now, Republicans are using assistance to Israel to attack President Biden, and place unprecedented restrictions on the administration’s ability to implement American foreign policy.

Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear that I believe the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, were a barbaric and heinous act that cannot ever be excused. I condemned the attacks when they took place, and I continue to condemn them. I also believe that Israel has the right to self-defense, and I have always supported defensive security assistance to Israel, like Iron Dome.

But as a democracy, Israel, just like the United States, has a certain responsibility to its people and to the world to ensure the protection of civilian lives by defending itself in a proportionate manner.  As a Member of Congress, I have been consistent in this belief my entire career, and I hold Israel to the same standard that I hold the United States to when we use military force. When I have felt that American administrations have failed to live up to this standard, I have said so publicly. That includes former President Trump’s decision to use excessive force in Syria which resulted in the unnecessary deaths of civilians in American airstrikes. Unfortunately, the last seven months have shown that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government has pursued a grossly disproportionate use of force in Gaza as a response to the Hamas terrorist attacks. 

The United Nations now believes that the death toll in Gaza has reached over 35,000 people, many of them women and children. The Israeli government has deliberately used large ordinance to destroy critical infrastructure in Gaza like hospitals and schools. Humanitarian assistance has been repeatedly stalled, and Northern Gaza faces catastrophic levels of malnutrition. Now it appears that Prime Minister Netanyahu intends to launch a broad military offensive into the city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinian civilians are sheltering. The results would be catastrophic.

The level of death and destruction that Prime Minister Netanyahu has inflicted on Gaza is shocking, has made Israel less safe, and must end immediately. That is why I have called for a regional ceasefire since October of last year. I commend President Biden and his national security team for working with partners in the region to try to secure a ceasefire. I also support President Biden’s recent decision to pause shipments of certain types of offensive weaponry to Israel as a way of preventing further catastrophic loss of life in Gaza, particularly in Rafah. And let’s be clear, the President’s actions to withhold some security assistance are entirely consistent with U.S. law. They are also consistent with the actions of previous Republican administrations, including those led by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Both these Republican administrations withheld and conditioned certain military assistance to Israel to affect a change in Israeli policy when it was misaligned with the foreign policy goals of the United States. This history speaks to why the legislation before us today is so dangerous.

H.R. 8369 would eliminate all control and oversight that the administration has over the flow of taxpayer funded weapons, including highly destructive offensive weapons like 2,000- and 500-pound dumb bombs, to Israel. This legislation would force the delivery of these types of weapons to Israel within 15 days of being signed into law, and it would inextricably tie the administration, and America’s foreign policy itself, to the way Prime Minister Netanyahu choses to prosecute Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. If Republicans had their way and this bill were to be enacted, the Government of Israel would set America’s foreign policy instead of our own President and his administration. The precedent this would create is dangerous. The only nation that should decide where and how the American taxpayer’s dollars are utilized is the United States of America. Full stop.

As if H.R. 8369 were not bad enough, the legislation contains provisions that would withhold funding for portions of the budgets for the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the National Security Council until all assistance to Israel had been delivered. As the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I find the threat to withhold funding for national security agencies charged with defending our nation to be an appalling and shocking abdication of the Republican majority’s responsibilities to govern our nation in a safe and responsible manner.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 8369 is one of the worst pieces of legislation produced by the 118th Congress, and that is saying something. America’s foreign policy decisions are ours to make, led by the administration in office at the time. Forcing taxpayer dollars to be sent to any other nation, while prohibiting the ability of the Executive Branch to provide suitable oversight and ensure that those funds are not being used in contravention of U.S. law, will make America less secure and have tremendous negative consequences. 

I strongly urge my colleagues to vote no, and I yield back.