Congress’s annual defense spending bill includes $500 million in funding for joint military projects with Israel, including a reversal of the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to cease production of a missile interceptor used to defend the Jewish state from Iranian attacks, sources briefed on the matter told the Washington Free Beacon.
The GOP-controlled House is scheduled to vote this week on the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an $895 billion spending bill that is a must-pass for Congress before it breaks for the holidays. The legislation funds the American military and virtually all defense priorities across the globe.
Included in the bill is $500 million for U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation, which has emerged as a top priority for GOP lawmakers as the Jewish state continues to battle Iran-backed forces along its border. With the outgoing administration delaying some American arms shipments to Israel, Congress is working to ensure that joint defense projects are safeguarded into the next year when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The House version of the NDAA includes $47.5 million more than the White House requested for U.S.-Israel defense collaboration on emerging technologies, as well as $30 million more than requested for joint anti-tunneling projects, which are vital to ensuring Hamas and Hezbollah cannot conduct Oct. 7-style cross-border raids. It also reverses the Biden-Harris administration's decision to eliminate funding for the production of certain ship-based surface-to-air missiles that were critical to defending Israel from two separate Iranian attacks this year, according to the House Armed Services Committee.
"When I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel in October, I reiterated that Congress’s support for Israel is ironclad," Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), the committee's chair, told the Free Beacon. This year’s NDAA, Rogers underscored, "continues to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship by investing in U.S.-Israel military cooperation and joint exercises."
The United States spent roughly $50 million on anti-tunneling projects it conducted with the Israel Defense Forces last year. That spending is set to increase to $80 million for fiscal year 2025. Another $47 million will fund U.S.-Israel collaboration on emerging defense technologies, including directed energy weapons, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
The bill also seeks to combat growing anti-Semitism across the globe by prohibiting the Pentagon from carrying any goods produced by "entities that have or are engaged in boycotts of Israel," according to the House committee’s summary. It also bars the Pentagon from "using or citing casualty data from Hamas and other terrorist organizations."
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