Senate Passes Iron Dome Funding for Israel
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Friday passed $225 million in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome program.
The House is in session Friday and will vote to approve the measure, a senior GOP leadership aide confirms to ABC News.
The upper chamber had considered, and failed to pass, that money late Thursday night. Included in Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s supplemental-funding bill to deliver $2.7 billion in emergency border funding, the Iron Dome money had been entangled in the politics of President Obama’s $3.7 billion border funding request.
The border money, with Iron Dome funding included, failed to clear a procedural hurdle Thursday night on a 50-44 vote. Republicans blocked final consideration.
Friday morning, with the Senate in session and no votes scheduled, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put forth a provision that mirrored what was in Mikulski’s bill. As part of an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Senate approved it on unanimous consent, without a roll call vote as no senators objected.
On the floor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., praised the deal as “much needed. Not only the funding but the signal that the Congress will send and the president will send” of U.S. support for Israel in its current conflict.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel requested the money earlier this month as emergency funding to beef up Israel’s stockpiles of missile-defense munitions.
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