Rep. Duncan Votes NO on Democrat Foreign Aid Rule
Washington, D.C. — After Democrats on the House Rules Committee pushed through an aid package that offers up weak-kneed legislation that violates the legislative process, Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-3rd SC-Laurens) voted NO and released the following statement:
“I’m disappointed to see the Republican-controlled House cede power to the Democrats by allowing them to dictate what Rules are brought up for consideration on the House Floor and voting through their preferred legislation,” said Congressman Jeff Duncan. “This Rule ignores the number one issue for Americans— securing our border. Additionally, the Rule presents watered-down versions of bills the House has already delivered to the Senate. The bills considered under this rule should have included a ‘pay for’ — a federal program to defund and reallocate money to cover the cost of the aid.
“I stand by securing our border through H.R. 2 which passed in May of 2023 and giving Israel aid via H.R. 6126 which passed the House in November 2023. The Senate should debate the bills, pass them, or amend them for return to the House. That’s the legislative process. The American people gave the House majority to Republicans. We should stand by the legislation we have passed instead of allowing Democrats to control the Chamber and ‘show vote’ for political cover.”
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After the aid package passes:
Rep. Duncan Comments on Passage of the House Foreign Aid Package
Washington, D.C. — After the House passed the foreign aid package and conservative policy addendums that provide assistance to fight back on radical regimes that are the enemies of America, Congressman Jeff Duncan released the following statement:
“I’m disappointed that this aid package pretends that America isn’t $34 trillion in debt and facing the onslaught of Biden’s Border Crisis,” said Congressman Jeff Duncan. “It’s my belief that these bills should have secured our border and included a ‘pay for’— a federal program to defund and reallocate money to cover the cost of the aid. However, that is not what the House was given for consideration.”
“Right now, we are at a crucial point where we must provide aid to Israel as they are attacked by evil Hamas terrorists and Iran, the leading sponsor of terrorism. If we turn our back on Israel, our one ally in the Middle East will fall. Hamas and Iran want the total annihilation of Israel. We must help them as they fight for their life. Secondly, Ukraine needed support in their fight against Putin and the Kremlin in Russia. While I have issues with prior Ukrainian administrations and corruption, I believe providing military assistance through the transfer of weapons and economic assistance through loans will at minimum serve as a check on Russian aggression. Putin’s advances must be stopped before he attempts to topple more countries in his onslaught. Lastly, the aid package for Taiwan lets us support an ally as China attempts to destroy them and grow the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) empire. Providing aid while simultaneously building up America’s military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific will stop China in their tracks. China is no friend to America and wants to see our downfall. By supporting the freedom of Taiwan, we limit the power of China.”
“Additionally, the aid package will combat China here at home by deplatforming all applications owned by Bytedance which is beholden to the CCP; introduces sanctions on Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and countless other terrorist organizations; sanctions those supporting war criminal Bashar al-Assad; and sanctions ports importing or exporting Iranian oil and monitors for China purchasing Iranian oil.”
“Today, the House did not pass the End the Border Catastrophe Act, which largely mirrors H.R. 2. It builds a border wall, limits asylum, reinstates remain in Mexico, and limits the options to legally immigrate to create efficiency. However, the bill did remove the E-Verify requirement that I supported in H.R. 2. Though I still support H.R. 2 as the best solution to Biden’s Border Crisis, this legislation is an improvement over the current Biden policies. It should be brought back up under a rule.”
“While I believe the legislation could have been drastically better that what we were given in the Democratic Foreign Aid Rule, I could only vote on the bills before me and what was in the best interest of the Third District of South Carolina.”
“I voted YES on H.R. 8034, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act; YES on H.R. 8038, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act; YES on H.R. 8036, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act; NO on H.R. 8035, the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act; and YES on H.R. 3602, the End the Border Catastrophe Act.
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The Congressman's official Facebook page here.
MORE DETAIL:
Aid to Ukraine, Israel overwhelmingly approved by U.S. House in bipartisan vote
BY: JENNIFER SHUTT
SC Daily Gazette - APRIL 21, 2024 1:42 PM
WASHINGTON — Military and humanitarian aid could be on its way to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan within weeks after the U.S. House took a series of overwhelmingly bipartisan votes Saturday to approve $95 billion in emergency assistance — and the Senate appeared poised to agree.
The approval in a rare weekend session ended months of deadlock. House GOP leaders struggled with whether they should block or provide aid amid ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine as well as mounting concerns about China’s approach to Taiwan.
The decision to debate aid to Ukraine, and pass the bill with a majority of the yes votes coming from Democrats, presents a risk to Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership role in the party, amid rising anger from far-right party members.
The three bills — as well as a measure to ban the popular app TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells it — now go to the Senate as one package, where leaders hope to vote on the legislation as soon as Tuesday.
President Joe Biden, who sent a supplemental spending request to Congress asking for the aid six months ago, is expected to sign the bill once it reaches his desk.
The three emergency spending bills will provide significant boosts in funding for the U.S. departments of Defense, Energy and State, which will use that money to help Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as other allies.
How did SC representatives vote?
South Carolina’s delegation split their vote on all four bills.
Only Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill, a member of the hardline Freedom Caucus, voted “no” to all of them. For the aid to Israel and Taiwan, the rest of the delegation voted “yes.”
On the aid to Ukraine, Joe Wilson was the only Republican to join Democrat Jim Clyburn in voting “yes.”
The biggest split (4-3) came on the TikTok bill, with Reps. Nancy Mace, William Timmons and Norman voting against.
“I’m disappointed that this aid package pretends that America isn’t $34 trillion in debt and facing the onslaught of Biden’s border crisis,” Rep. Jeff Duncan of Laurens said in a statement after the votes.
But “right now, we are at a crucial point where we must provide aid to Israel as they are attacked by evil Hamas terrorists and Iran, the leading sponsor of terrorism. … We must help them as they fight for their life,” continued Duncan, the only member of South Carolina’s delegation not seeking re-election.
“Secondly, Ukraine needed support in their fight against Putin and the Kremlin in Russia. … Putin’s advances must be stopped before he attempts to topple more countries in his onslaught,” he said, though he voted against the Ukraine bill. “Lastly, the aid package for Taiwan lets us support an ally as China attempts to destroy them and grow the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) empire.”
Ronald Reagan cited repeatedly
Far-right Republicans railed against the bills, and the decision by Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to hold a floor vote, while their colleagues in both parties said the funding would help protect democracies around the world, aid refugees fleeing war and bolster America’s defense industrial base.
GOP lawmakers repeatedly referenced former President Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” foreign policy strategy, choosing the party’s long-held standard-bearer over the isolationism championed by other leaders.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said the last few years have “produced echoes of a dark time in world history” that began nearly a century ago.
“In the 1930s, evil regimes bent on aggression, domination and even genocide took their first steps down a dark road that would eventually lead to world war,” Cole said. “Tragically, the democratic West turned inward then; standing idly by while fascist regimes began to take aggressive actions against their weaker neighbors.”
“There was time then to put a stop to aggression,” Cole added. “If only we had had the fortitude and the wherewithal to stand firmly on the side of freedom.”
Actions today by China with respect to Taiwan, Iran’s aggression toward Israel and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stand as a modern threat to democracy, leaving a choice for the United States and other democracies, Cole said.
“Peace through strength cannot be delivered through appeasement,” Cole said. “We cannot wish our way to national security and we cannot thrust our heads into the sand while aggressive nations threaten their neighbors.”
U.S. defense of democracy
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the emergency spending bills provided an opportunity for Congress to signal to the world that the United States defends democracies.
“We have a moment today to say ‘No’ to tyranny,” DeLauro said. “We have a moment to take back the moral high ground for the United States and say, ‘We do not walk away from an ally. We do not walk away from freedom. We do not walk away from human rights. We do not walk away from democracy.’ That is not the United States of America.”
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is leading an effort to remove Johnson as speaker through a motion to vacate that so far has attracted two more backers, argued during debate that Congress should enact new border security and immigration policy instead of foreign aid.
“The federal government continues to fund the military industrial complex and this is a business model that requires Congress to continue to vote for money, to continue to fund foreign wars,” Greene said.
“And this is a business model the American people do not support,” Greene added. “They don’t support a business model built on blood and murder and war in foreign countries, while this very government does nothing to secure our border.”
Biden wrote in a statement released after the vote that the bills would “deliver critical support to Israel and Ukraine; provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, and other locations impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world; and bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
“It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia,” Biden wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the House for passing the assistance in a social media post.
“Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it,” Zelenskyy wrote. “The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”
How the Ukraine aid would be spent
Nearly $48 billion of the $60.84 billion total for the Ukraine aid bill would go to the U.S. Defense Department to provide weapons and supplies for Ukraine’s military, to replenish stockpiles of weapons and other equipment sent to Ukraine and to bolster U.S. Armed Forces European Command’s operations.
The U.S. State Department would receive nearly $9.5 billion in forgivable economic loans to dispense, $7.8 billion to send Ukraine defense equipment and $2 billion for security assistance.
The U.S. Energy Department would get $149 million “to prepare for and respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine,” according to a summary of the bill.
Florida Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations spending panel, said that lawmakers had the choice to “turn our heads away, and hope to appease this great evil, or we can stand with our allies and confront this nefarious scourge.”
“History has taught us that appeasement does not work and it was attempted not that long ago,” Díaz-Balart said.
The Ukraine bill, he said, “requires a clear strategy from the administration that defines and prioritizes U.S. national security interests” and categorized the economic aid as a forgivable loan for the first time.
Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, co-chair of the Ukraine Caucus, gave an impassioned speech advocating the United States as a defender of democracy around the world, rejecting calls from some lawmakers to stop support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
“For those who may naively think America can sit on the sidelines and seek isolation, please know this old adage — If you take no interest in foreign affairs, foreign affairs will find you,” Kaptur said.
House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, urged support for aid to Ukraine, saying that “China, North Korea and Iran are eagerly aiding and abetting (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, because they know a Russian victory there will seriously undercut American credibility and deterrence and leave our allies exposed.”
“I fear Putin will use victory in Ukraine as a springboard to invade Eastern Europe,” Rogers said. “We can’t let that happen.”
House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to reject amendments from Republican Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Greene and Kat Cammack of Florida.
Spartz’s proposal would have removed several sections from the bill. Greene’s would have zeroed out all the funding levels in the bill. And Cammack’s would have removed all non-military funding in the bill, like economic aid.
Funding for Israel
The $26.38 billion Israel aid bill would direct $13 billion of that to the U.S. Defense Department to provide that country with funding for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Iron Beam defense systems.
An additional $9.15 billion would go to the U.S. State Department for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and other “vulnerable populations” with an additional $3.6 billion for security assistance to Israel, according to a summary.
Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she has visited Israel three times since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. Her visits bolstered her support for emergency spending for that country, she said.
“It is incomprehensible that the Israeli hostages captured on Simchat Torah are still in Hamas captivity as we approach Passover,” she said. “I rise to finally provide long overdue aid to our ally Israel as she fights to defend herself against threats on multiple fronts.”
Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan rebuked how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted the war in Gaza, saying that widespread bombings are “a collective punishment of all Palestinians in Gaza.”
Pocan said that Netanyahu’s decisions not to accept a two-state solution, his refusal to listen to U.S. warnings against invading Rafah and his decision to strike Iran after the White House urged against it, all mean that Netanyahu should no longer be trusted with offensive weapons.
“Enough is enough,” Pocan said. “I support the people of Israel, who don’t want bombs raining on them from extremists in Gaza, and the hostages must be released. I also support the Palestinians, who deserve human rights and dignity.”
The deaths of 35,000 people so far in Gaza, a figure provided by health authorities in Gaza, and the possibility that thousands more civilians will die from starvation and disease is unacceptable, he said.
“We are better than that, so is Israel. I’m not sure Netanyahu is,” Pocan said. “And that’s why I can’t vote to provide him with more unconditional offensive weapons today.”
Indo-Pacific assistance
The $8.12 billion bill for the Indo-Pacific would divvy up the funding to several entities, with $5.6 billion going to the U.S. Defense Department for “integrated deterrence” and the submarine industrial base.
The U.S. State Department would receive $2 billion in foreign military financing for allies in the region, according to a summary.
California Republican Rep. Young Kim spoke in support of providing additional support for Taiwan, saying that if Chinese leader Xi Jinping “is successful in his ambitions to take Taiwan, it will directly hurt our economy, our national security and our leadership globally.”
“We need our allies and partners to trust us and our adversaries to respect us,” Kim said. “This is about freedom versus authoritarianism. This is about maintaining a world order that is safe for future generations. History will judge this institution and our country based on how we vote today.”
Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer said the House was “finally doing the right thing” by approving the bills.
“Today moral courage and sound strategic thinking finally defeat the partisan cynicism and the political calculation of a small minority of this body who have held our national interest hostage,” Beyer said.
TikTok divestment
The 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, a 184-page bill, bundles together numerous measures, including language that would ban the social media app TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells it amid national security concerns about that government having access to Americans’ data.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said during debate that section of the bill wasn’t about eliminating Americans’ access to TikTok, but forcing its parent company to sell the site.
“It’s not really about TikTok, it’s about ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok and is indisputably controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” Krishnamoorthi said, noting this bill extends the time for divestment from six months to one year.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said forcing the sale of TikTok would protect American children “from the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”
“It is a modern day Trojan horse of the CCP, used to surveil and exploit America’s personal information,” McCaul said.
That bill also includes the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act, or Repo Act, that would allow the United States “to confiscate Russian sovereign assets that have been frozen in the United States and transfer them to assist in Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts,” according to a summary.
Jennifer covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include congressional policy, politics and legal challenges with a focus on health care, unemployment, housing and aid to families.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
