House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a revised version of its proposed stopgap funding bill that removed a $1 billion provision to restore Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system capabilities to help the bill’s passage ahead of a looming government shutdown.
The funding was stripped from the continuing resolution (CR) bill that would keep the government open through Dec. 3, with House appropriators confirming the measure will be worked into the final fiscal year 2022 defense spending bill.
“Let me be clear, the United States must fully live up to our commitments to our friend and our ally Israel. To that end, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and I have committed to including additional funding in the final bipartisan and bicameral fiscal year 2022 defense appropriations bill,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said during a Rules Committee meeting ahead of floor consideration for the revised version of the CR this week.
The Iron Dome funding was stripped from the original version of the CR rolled out Tuesday morning following pushback from progressive lawmakers, with Democrats requiring unified support to pass the measure facing Republican’s opposition to the broader bill’s inclusion to suspend the debt ceiling through December 2022.
During the House Rules meeting, Republicans noted their overall support to pass a stopgap funding measure and the CR’s inclusion of funds for emergency disaster relief and aid for Afghan evacuees, while citing the debt ceiling issue as the primary point of contention.
“You have the votes to pass it [in the House]. That’s fair enough. But you know you don’t have them in the United States Senate. And if any of you think you’re going to break [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on this, good luck with that. It’s going to be an interesting spectacle to watch. So I suspect in a week or so we’ll be back here again with a bill that I can support and that I think many people on my side of the aisle will [too],” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the House Rules ranking member, said during the meeting.
DeLauro also pointed to McConnell’s opposition to a CR attached with a debt ceiling hike, noting the Iron Dome decision likely won’t affect the outcome of the bill in the Senate.
“He’s still opposed one way or another,” DeLauro said.
The full House has yet to take up the Appropriations Committee’s $706 billion FY ‘22 defense spending bill advanced by the panel in July. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to mark up its own defense spending bill for the next fiscal year (Defense Daily, July 13).