Braun: No Israel aid without border deal

Braun explains vote against defense bill

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said no Senate Republican will support aid to Israel or Ukraine without major concessions from the Biden Administration on border security.

In an interview for All INdiana Politics, the Indiana Republican said the Senate should have passed a package the House approved last month, which set aside $14.5 billion for Israel aid in exchange for cutting billions from the Internal Revenue Service in a standalone bill. He said the United States has to measure each dollar in aid carefully and ensure it is used effectively.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will call a vote next week on an aid package, currently worth roughly $105 billion, for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The package includes some spending for border security, but Senate Republicans, including Braun, said it needs far more.

“They’re all security issues and if, sadly, you can’t get someone to address what is the biggest priority of all the considerations independently,” Braun said, referring to the border. “You’ve got to sometimes use it to where you get that done first or you’re not going to get to the others.”

If Democrats offer a border deal he can support, Braun said he still would prefer to see the border, Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan broken out into four separate bills.

The aid package would be a supplement to the roughly $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act Congress approved on Wednesday. Braun voted against that bill, along with two members of Indiana’s House delegation, fellow Republicans Jim Baird and Victoria Spartz. Braun told News 8 he voted against it because it borrows too much money from future generations.

“If we’re ever going to fix the federal government, it’s going to have to be done across the board,” Braun said. “Defense, domestic, and entitlement programs, and until we do it, future generations are going to be burdened with a mess.”

The defense bill requires a full audit of the Department of Defense within five years. Braun called the provision “window dressing” and said previous audits already have shown severe accounting problems at the Department of Defense.

Also on Wednesday, a Senate committee approved a bill co-authored by Braun that would allow the FDA to deny drug applications for opioid painkillers that aren’t clinically superior to other available drugs. It also would allow the FDA to review the public health impact of every new opioid drug approval. Braun said the goal is to provide more scrutiny for new drugs. The bill is co-sponsored by two Democrats, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin. Braun said the committee approval is a good sign and he thinks the bill has a good chance of becoming law.