Statement by Senator Cruz on the vote on the foreign aid package

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after voting against Cloture on today’s foreign aid package:

“This is one of the toughest votes I have cast during my years in the Senate. It was a close call, because there are good elements in the bill that I wholeheartedly support. First, as always, I strongly support military assistance to Israel, especially in times of war. That’s why several Republican senators and I took the floor last November to force a standalone vote on military aid, but it was blocked by every Democrat in the Senate. Emergency military aid should have gone to Israel more than six months ago, and every day of delay is due to obstruction by Democrats.

“Second, the bill forces the Chinese Communist Party to give up control of TikTok in the US. This is incredibly important for our national security and helps protect our youth from CCP propaganda.

“Third, the bill includes $8 billion in funding for our Taiwanese allies to defend themselves against the CCP’s aggression. I have long emphasized that China represents the most significant long-term threat to the national security of the United States. Taiwan is on the front lines of China’s global aggression, and it is critical that the US continues to stand with the people and government of Taiwan.

“That said, the other elements of the bill were too problematic for me to support the entire package. First, the bill spends more than $9 billion on so-called humanitarian aid, much of which will go to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and will certainly be used to finance even more terrorism.

“Secondly, I am very concerned about the $3.4 billion earmarked for ‘migration and refugee assistance’. The Biden administration has historically used this funding to pour money into NGOs that assist with illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.

“Finally, the overriding reason I could not support this bill is that it did nothing to secure the Texas-Mexico border. As I have said many times, we are facing an existential crisis—a full-blown invasion—at our own southern border. The Democrats desperately wanted to pass this Ukraine aid bill – so much so that the world saw the ridiculous spectacle of Democrats happily waving Ukrainian flags on the floor of the United States House of Representatives; it’s hard to imagine that those same Democrats would ever part with an American flag with the same glee. Once again, I introduced HR 2 as an amendment to this bill that would have done much-needed work to secure our border. If HR 2 had been added to this package, I would have voted in favor of military aid to Ukraine without hesitation. But I cannot continue allocating money to secure the Ukrainian border before we secure our own.”

###