The US House of Representatives is set to vote on a foreign aid package over the weekend which will give billions of dollars in support to several regions including Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region. In addition, a bill forcing ByteDance's divestment from TIkTok has found its way into the package. While there is sure to be pushback from either side of the aisle, is there enough bipartisan goodwill to see the package passed?
Stifel Chief Washington Policy Strategist Brian Gardner joins Market Domination Overtime to give insight into the House Foreign Aid package and the chances of it passing.
On the chances of it passing, Garner claims the bill "will go to the Senate and I suspect it will ultimately pass. The TikTok issue was something that was kind of interesting because there was some apprehension about the TikTok legislation by some Senate Democrats, among others, that's apparently been addressed. So you're going to have a series of individual votes on these different bills that are going to be cobbled together, merged together, sent to the Senate, and I think it passes. "
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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
- Well, Israel's latest strike on Iran fueling fears of an expanding conflict in the region. The US now considering giving more than 1 billion in new arms for Israel. That's according to reporting from the "Wall Street Journal." That proposed transfer coming as an existing US aid package, which includes support for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan is heading for a vote this weekend.
Brian Gardner, Stifles Chief Washington policy strategist is joining us now for more. Brian, thank you so much for being here. I want to start on the situation in the Middle East because I'm curious to what degree would the tensions there have to worsen to push the US to give even more aid specifically to that region of the world.
BRIAN GARDNER: I think the US is probably pretty locked in the Middle East. So any increase in tensions in the Middle East are probably going to get some kind of US response. So I don't think-- the answer to your question is the bar is not that high. It's in the US interest to cooperate and work with, collaborate with other players in the Middle East, not just Israel, but the Saudis and other Arab governments that are interested in containing Iran.
So I think there will be further US response at some point. What that bar is, I don't know, but it's not that high.