House rejects bid to cut $3.3 billion in aid to Israel

The House rejected Rep. Thomas Massie’s bid to erase $3.3 billion in U.S. assistance to Israel, defeating the Kentucky Republican’s amendment 314-104 with 10 members voting present. Massie was the only Republican to support the measure, while 103 Democrats voted yes and 98 Democrats voted no.

The vote exposed a split at the top of House Democratic leadership. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents New York’s 8th District, opposed the amendment and warned in a letter to Democrats that it was overly broad and could affect humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building, U.S. Embassy operations, and efforts to confront Hamas and Hezbollah. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts’s 5th District voted for the measure, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California’s 11th District joined her.

The roll call underscored how far the Democratic caucus has moved since an earlier Israel aid fight. Just over two years ago, only 37 House Democrats backed a similar effort, a number that now has been nearly tripled. The new 103-vote bloc does not come close to passage, but it gives critics of aid to Israel a much larger public bench inside the caucus and shows how pressure from the party’s progressive wing and the war in Gaza has forced the issue into the center of Democratic politics.

Even so, the amendment still failed by 210 votes, a margin that shows the Republican House majority and most Democrats remain far from a vote to cut off Israel funding outright. The more telling number for future fights is the Democratic yes tally itself: 103 votes is a new baseline for any effort to condition, narrow, or cut aid, and it gives anti-aid lawmakers a point from which to argue that the party’s internal divide is no longer marginal.