Opinion |

San Diego congressional delegation is all in on foreign aid package

Bipartisanship, if not total unity, was key to the House of Representatives’ approval on Saturday of the $95 billion foreign aid package targeted for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other regions.

The five-member San Diego County delegation, however, had both on the main funding bills. Some members also highlighted their support for little-known aspects of the legislation beyond the marquee provisions.

Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, pushed for humanitarian relief for refugees in Sudan. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, won an amendment urging the Biden administration to direct $500 million in military aid to the Philippines.

Jacobs and the three other local Democrats — Reps. Mike Levin of San Juan Capistrano and Scott Peters and Juan Vargas of San Diego — stressed that their votes for the sweeping international security package were tied to humanitarian assistance, particularly for civilians in Gaza, but for other vulnerable populations as well.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Issa was the only one of the five who had not issued a statement nor appeared to make any public comments about about the votes. He did not join the majority of Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid, which has been a source of tension between hard-right GOP members and other Republicans amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion of the country.

Democrats unanimously backed the funding for Ukraine, enabling Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to win approval of the most contentious component of the package.

Republicans overwhelmingly supported the Israel aid, as did Democrats, though a notable number of Democratic progressives voted against it.

What Congress approved was a slightly smaller version of the $118 billion foreign aid plan proposed by President Joe Biden in October.

Opposition to the aid for Ukraine by former President Donald Trump perhaps had been the main obstacle to the package for months. But The New York Times suggested that in recent days Trump “soft-pedaled his opposition” to the Ukraine aid as his hush money trial in Manhattan approached.

Issa, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in January told NBC News, “funding for Ukraine comes with expectations that we have to bring the parties to the negotiating table.”

The legislation approved Saturday did not condition the aid on negotiations.

Long a staunch backer of Israel, Issa has suggested Biden has not been supportive enough of the U.S. ally and regularly criticizes the president on foreign and domestic issues.

On Thursday he said, “Israel is in a fight that it must win” on the social media platform X.

Amid all the high-stakes international funding, the push for aid to the Philippines received scant attention.

By voice vote on Saturday, the House approved an amendment from Issa encouraging the State Department to allocate $500 million in Foreign Military Financing to the Philippines, according to Defense News, which called the amendment “symbolic.”

The $8 billion measure to help Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific allies like the Philippines received strong support, 385-34.

An Issa spokesperson did not respond to an email or text seeking comment about the overall package or the amendment for the Philippines.

The statement issued by Jacobs, who also sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, appeared to lay out her priorities in the package. Aid to Sudanese refugees and Palestinians in Gaza was mentioned first, then the security aid.

Jacobs said she visited refugees along the Sudan-Chad border last month “and saw firsthand their dire need for help.”

An estimated 25 million people have been displaced amid fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, which erupted into a large-scale conflict in April 2023.

While the aid package does not include a specific amount for the Sudan region, Jacobs’ office noted that Biden reaffirmed on Saturday his commitment to using some of the $9 billion in humanitarian aid largely focused on Gaza for other regions, including Sudan and Haiti.

Jacobs reiterated her reluctance to support security aid to Israel.

“While I’m deeply concerned about further military assistance to Israel, I couldn’t in good conscience vote against this lifesaving humanitarian assistance when millions of people around the world are suffering,” she said in the statement released Saturday.

Peters struck a similar theme.

“I would have not voted for the security assistance to Israel if it did not include desperately needed humanitarian aid for the innocent civilian population of Gaza,” Peters said in a statement, adding that he wants the hostages held by Hamas returned and the fighting in Gaza to end.

He emphasized the delay in getting the package approved.

“For months, America unnecessarily ceded our global leadership in the fights against fascism, dictatorship, and terrorism due to politics,” Peters said. “Thankfully, today, a bipartisan majority in the House decided to put politics aside and reclaim our position in the world.”

While also not mentioning Republicans directly, Vargas had a similar critique.

“For months, House Democrats have repeatedly called on House leadership to bring forward legislation that supports our democratic friends and allies in Ukraine, Israel, and in the Indo-Pacific, and delivers much-needed humanitarian aid to civilians around the world, including in Gaza,” he said in a statement Saturday.

“Today, we finally had the opportunity to vote on this urgently needed legislation.”

Levin, who faces the toughest re-election challenge among the five local members in November, was the most blunt.

“While I’m glad that the House passed a national security package, it took far too long to do so due to Republicans’ ongoing chaos and dysfunction,” Levin said in a statement. “Thanks to the work of House Democrats, we were able to pass this package despite opposition from extremist members of the House Republican Conference.”

Of course, no one expected partisan harmony to emerge, regardless of the fate of the foreign aid package.

But it was a rare moment when enough people were on the same page — and notably among the San Diego delegation — to get something important done in Congress.