A group of Tennessee congressional lawmakers have criticized President Joe Biden’s budget request for Congress to fund an aid package for both Ukraine and Israel.
On Friday, the White House announced the details of Biden’s $105 billion funding request, with the majority of the funding – $61.4 billion – intended for Ukraine. Further, under Biden’s request, Israel would receive $14.3 billion. The rest of the requested funds would go towards humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other places and fund various initiatives geared toward the Indo-Pacific.
In addition, Biden also wants approximately $14 billion for efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, including boosting the number of border agents, installing new inspection machines to detect fentanyl, and increasing staffing to process asylum cases.
During his address to the nation on Thursday, Biden said the $105 billion aid package is a “smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations, help us keep American troops out of harm’s way, help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful, and more prosperous for our children and grandchildren.”
However, Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said Biden’s request to tie funding for Ukraine and Israel in the same aid package is “irresponsible.”
“There is an immediate responsibility on Congress to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and to hold that aid hostage by linking it with a myriad of other issues – including bailout for sanctuary cities and more money for Ukraine – is irresponsible. These separate funding requests should be considered as such,” Blackburn said in a statement.
U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) agreed, saying, “Border security and aid for our indispensable ally, Israel—after the Jewish people faced their deadliest day since the Holocaust—cannot be held up for more aid for Ukraine.”
Regarding the proposal’s border security funding, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said, “Giving the Biden Admin more money to fuel its disastrous open-borders resettlement operation is insanity. It would worsen the border crisis, not stop it.”
“Because the Biden Administration refuses to implement common sense border-security policies and instead focuses on shell-games to hide the crossing numbers, the obvious answer is for Congress to pass a law requiring serious border-security policies,” Hagerty added. “What policies are needed? Stopping illegal immigration isn’t complicated—if the Administration allows illegal aliens to cross our border and be released into America, then they’ll come in droves. If they can’t get in, then they won’t come. After nearly 3 years, it’s clear the Biden Admin won’t fix this, so Congress must pass legislation to force real border security and end catch-and-release, not throw more money at the President who created the problem in the first place.”
U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) also led a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) opposing Biden’s funding request, saying it is a “misguided attempt to force through aid for Ukraine by tying it to support for the Jewish people and out nation’s security.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden.
