Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

‘God wants us to do the right thing’: How Schumer persuaded House Speaker Johnson to pass foreign aid bill

In an exclusive interview, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bipartisan passage of aid to Israel ‘was a great victory’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the recent bipartisan passage of a $14.3 billion military aid bill to Israel, without imposing any conditions, a “great victory” for the Jewish state.

In an exclusive interview on Sunday, Schumer said that he dedicated significant time to discussions with House Speaker Johnson, emphasizing the importance of passing the comprehensive foreign aid package, crucial for Israel’s defense, all without bowing to extremist demands.

“I told him, you’re a person of faith, as am I. God wants us to do the right thing,'” Schumer, who is Jewish, shared about his conversation with Johnson, who is Christian. 

Since its Senate approval in Feb., Johnson held up the bipartisan $95 billion aid package to help Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan due to fierce pushback from some GOP House members who oppose sending aid to Ukraine. Earlier this month, Johnson introduced a compromise by splitting the aid into four separate bills to secure majority support and Democratic approval. Last Tuesday, the Senate approved the aid package in a bipartisan vote of 70-29. Three Democrats voted against the bill due to the absence of conditions on Israel and the remaining opponents were Republicans. 

Schumer said the vote was a strong message against the extremists on both the far right and far left. He was aided by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who firmly backed the bill. 

“It was classic how I operate,” Schumer said. “I kept it bipartisan. I kept the pressure on extremists in the House. And it’s the second bill in a row where there are no conditions.” 

He brushed off the opposition from the three Democrats who voted against the bill — Sens. Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Jeff Merkley —  describing their efforts as having “tried and failed.”

Schumer said he was satisfied with the result. “You know, having a majority leader who’s committed to Israel is vital for Israel’s relationship with the U.S.,” he said. “This is the tachlis, getting the money that Israel needs,” he added, using the Yiddish word for the bottom line. 

“Israel is extremely happy,” Schumer said. 

The Senate leader also said he is “pushing” the Biden administration to “send a very strong stance” against possible arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials. “The ICC has been biased against Israel for decades.” 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.