Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said Wednesday he is collaborating with colleagues from both parties in Congress to draft a separate piece of legislation providing foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and addressing security at the southern border similar to a Senate proposal that was roundly rejected by Republicans.
Fitzpatrick, a member of the House Ways and Means and Intelligence committees, said Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will be briefed on the proposal when it’s finished and details could be released as early as Thursday, Politico reported. Fitzpatrick did not provide names of lawmakers with whom he was working.
"Stay tuned in the next 24 hours, I think you’ll see something that I think will be bipartisan," he said, according to Politico. He added he wasn’t sure if it would be a formal proposal from the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus that he co-chairs with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.
The Democrat-controlled Senate on Tuesday passed a $95.34 billion aid package 70-29 that included $61 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, and $4.83 billion to support partners in the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan, and deter aggression by China. It also would provide $9.15 billion in humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Ukraine, and other conflict zones across the globe.
The House in November passed a stand-alone-aid package for Israel worth $14.4 billion, but it languished in the Senate as Biden pressed the upper chamber to tie aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific to security of the U.S. southern border. But a bipartisan deal was strongly opposed by Republicans because of concerns it didn’t do enough to secure the border, and the deal never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Asked if the alternative foreign aid proposal would contain humanitarian funds to Gaza, Fitzpatrick said "not likely in this one." Politico reported that limiting the scope of aid would mirror GOP arguments the U.S. should only be funding the weapons needed for Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said he broadly supports the aid in the Senate package, Politico reported, but argued the House should not accept it as is.
"They finally got something through, but it’s not just a function of ‘the House accepts what the Senate does,’" he said. "You negotiate, and that’s my objective, to get support for Israel, for Ukraine."