for current military operations in the region in response to recent attacks. i m going to ask all of you to stay with us as we wrap up one hour. we will start another one right now. will start another one righ now. a very good day to you. it is top of the hour on the east coat. welcome to alex witt reports. we have ben following breaking news the last few minutes, all unfolding on capital held in a rare saturday session. the house has approved tens of billions in aid for ukraine. lawmakers waving ukraine s national flag on the house floor minutes ago. there are numerous votes happening today on critical foreign aid. the house has also passed more than $8 billion in aid to taiwan and the indo pacific. up next, what we are watching underway right now is billions more in aid which i have articulated the details of. it will be going to israel. i will bring in nbc political
we are not ensured that in a time of divided government and in a time when there are a lot of different opinions. but there is no question that the house has made many strong improvements to the senate bill and the product we sent over there is much better. this package i will note because it is very important also includes national security priorities and many of them but it is the only way that we could have gotten democrats to support aid to israel. that s a fact. there is a lot of misinformation out there about the bill and i want to make one point about one issue that has been drawing a lot of the attention. could any of the funding go to hamas or terrorist organizations and we put safeguards in the legislation to ensure that unrwa is not funded, the u.n. amgancy that included participants in the october 7th attack on israel. we also had language that prevents the funding from going to hamas or any other bad actors. that is an important element of
there. but that is considered sovereign soil. that has to worry the biden administration right now about the potential for a greater regional war. it is a concern that the administration has voiced at points over the last several months since we have been watching what happened in gaza and has been happening between israel and hamas. we know that the administration s position has been to try to de-escalate the tensions that seems to be growing in the middle east. so as we have seen different members of the biden administration . i m sorry as i warned, we will have to go to speaker johnson. let s take a listen. i think we know which flag that is. i said these are not normal times. they re not. the world is destabilized and it is a tinder box. it is a dangerous time. three of our primary adversaries, russia, china and
money to go to gaza. there are a lot of reasons you could vote for or against a bill. but it is striking to see the difference on the policy bills. absolutely. let me offer the break down of the appropriations act 2024. it is breaking down the $26.3 billion for israel in this way. $4 billion to reflenish the iron dome and david s sling, missile defense systems, another $1.2 billion for the ern beam defense system that countered short range rockets and mortars as well. $3.5 billion for the procowerment of the advanced weapons system and the inansment and development of critical munitions. $4.4 billion to replennish defense articles and services provided to israel, $2.4 billion
had been trying to do this for along tile. they finally got speaker mike johnson to agree to a process to bring this up and democrats with help of many institutional republicans who are pro-ukraine helped carry it over the line. the interesting thing about this is that these are all unique coalitions. it is a different coalition that passed ukraine aid, some democrats and some republicans. it will be a different coalition that passes israel aid, mostly republicans and some democrats over the objections of many progressives who wanted to slap conditions on how the netanyahu government can use the aid out of concerns for their actions in gaza. the final vote is to come but this looks to be good shape to pass. it mirrors the $95 billion package that president biden wanted. it will go to the senate where there will be support from chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell to get it done. just got word that it is done and it has passed, just getting the word from the control booth.