GOP senators try to force Democrats to take up House’s stand-alone Israel bill

A group of Republican senators launched a “sneak attack” on Senate Democrats on Tuesday evening to try and force a vote on the House’s stand-alone Israel bill.

With there being no official business before the Senate as the chamber waits to receive the House’s continuing resolution that funds the government, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) led a group of his colleagues in moving to proceed on the House’s Israel package. The GOP senator attempted to force floor consideration on the aid bill with colleagues earlier Tuesday to no avail.

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After making the Israel aid bill the pending business of the Senate, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) joined Marshall to announce that they had filed a cloture petition with 17 signatures to force a vote on the Israel bill.

“I’d call it a sneak attack. That’s basically what it was,” Marshall told reporters of what the group was doing.

Alex Brandon/AP

The full Senate was then convened to vote on a motion to table Marshall’s motion to proceed, allowing Democratic leadership to avert moving forward on the House-passed bill, which would provide $14 billion for Israel’s defense and cut money from President Joe Biden’s hallmark Inflation Reduction Act intended to pay for 87,000 new IRS agents.

Cruz accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) of wanting “to hide the Democrats’ opposition to having a vote.

“We’re gonna keep fighting until we get a vote,” Cruz, who has previously voted for Ukraine aid but opposes any future assistance being linked to the Israel bill over inevitable delays, added.

The motion passed with slim yet bipartisan support in a 51-48 vote. A few Republicans expressed frustration about not being warned of the effort, while others blamed Senate Democrats.

“I never surprise my members, and I don’t like it when I’m surprised,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters off the floor of Marshall’s move. “I also don’t like to be surprised by a tactic that is doomed to fail.”

“I don’t know why Sen. Schumer is dragging his feet on Israel aid. That seems like it’s something that everybody agrees on. I haven’t heard an explanation for why he continues to delay it,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner. “If he didn’t like the pay-fors, he could try to strip it out and pass it without those and send it back to the House. But just sitting on it while claiming support for Israel from these terrorist attacks seems to be inconsistent.”

Marshall has been leading the charge to urge Senate leadership to reverse course on backing Biden’s request to combine Israel aid with assistance packages for Ukraine, Taiwan, and U.S. border security. The supplemental request has received broad support from House and Senate Democrats, though Republicans have had varied reactions.

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The vast majority, if not all, of the Senate GOP conference is in favor of Israel aid. The same cannot be said for Ukraine’s assistance. While more than half of the 49 Republicans support some type of continued aid to Ukraine, there is a vocal part of the conference that strongly opposes such measures.

As a result, GOP senators are disputing whether Israel aid should be separated from a larger bill to allow members who support that effort but oppose Ukraine funding to vote for it.