Congressman LaMalfa Supports Israel, U.S. Border Security, and Taiwan/Pacific Bills, Opposes New Unaccountable Ukraine Spending

(Washington, D.C.) –  Today, the House voted on and passed four separate foreign security supplemental bills that in total provide $95 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) voted in support of three of the four bills, H.R. 8034, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 8036, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, and H.R. 8038, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act. H.R. 8034 appropriates $26 billion for equipment and munitions for Israel’s defense capabilities, military industrial base, and U.S. military operations in the region. H.R. 8036 includes $8 billion for a variety of defense and industrial base investments in the Indo-Pacific region, including naval capacity infrastructure and local munitions production. H.R. 8038 is a package of multiple bills, including legislation to require TikTok to be transferred from CCP control in order to still be used in the United States, repossess and transfer frozen Russian assets to pay for Ukraine aid, and a significant number of Iran divestment and sanction bills that were passed by the House earlier this week.

Congressman LaMalfa voted against H.R. 8035, the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which spends another $61 billion partly towards Ukraine’s needs. There are military related funds and weapons, more funds for refugee assistance, a portion goes to directly pay for Ukrainian government’s operations, as well as the country’s nuclear power plant maintenance. There is also an $8 billion loan. These funds do not include significant accounting or cost controls or any of the accountability reforms that had been sought to ensure the funds are not stolen or used for corrupt purposes. There is no mechanism that the loan would be paid back. The portion that replenishes our own armaments has no controls that require it to remain in U.S. stockpiles but could be shipped immediately onward to Ukraine once again, undercutting the claims that approximately half of the spending is to rebuild our own stocks. Ukraine money should have been leveraged to extract true US border fixes as Democrats badly want Ukraine money and have been unyielding on doing anything to stem the tide at our own border. 

The House also voted on, ,and Congressman LaMalfa supported H.R. 3602, the End the Border Catastrophe Act, which was brought up separately. Because H.R. 3602 was considered under suspension of the rules - a streamlined process that sidesteps the Rules Committee’s approval and amendment process but requires a two-thirds majority for passage - the bill failed to meet the two-thirds threshold by a vote of 215-199 and was doomed to fail.  


"Allowing the advancement of a new $61 billion to Ukraine while border security measures fail is extremely frustrating. This vote was a wasted opportunity to leverage for our country needed border security while upholding our strategic alliances. Instead, Americans get another round of debt for Ukraine’s security, while our border resembles Swiss cheese. Unlike the Ukraine portion, the rest of the package was at least reasonable and gained my support. It ensured our joint military defense project with Israel has the interceptors it needed against further Iran and Hamas aggression”said Congressman LaMalfa.

Congressman Doug LaMalfa is a lifelong farmer representing California’s First Congressional District, including Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba Counties.

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