New Hampshire’s federal delegation toed the party line Tuesday in both chambers of Congress, helping pass a massive $95 billion foreign aid bill, but failing to block the impeachment of controversial Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen cast their votes for the aid package — which includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel — around six in the morning. The bill passed by a 70-29 vote. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R- La.) says he will not bring it to the House floor for a vote.
“By passing this bill, the Senate is sending a strong message to our adversaries and allies alike that the United States stands on the side of freedom and against autocrats and terrorists,” Shaheen said after the vote. “It comes at a critical time in Ukraine’s fight for democracy—and without this continued aid from the United States, Ukraine’s fight may fail. We cannot abandon them now after they’ve sacrificed so much in their fight for freedom.”
The bill also includes more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, the West Bank, Ukraine, and elsewhere. For years, the Hamas terrorist organization has used foreign aid to fund the tunnel network it uses to carry out attacks on Israel, tunnels directly under the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. About 10 percent of UNRWA’s members are believed to be part of Hamas, and the Senate bill bans the agency from handling the relief aid.
Both Hassan and Shaheen are longtime UNRWA supporters who oppose efforts to shut down the agency over its ties to terrorism and antisemitism.
About 13 hours after the Senate vote, the House voted to impeach Mayorkas by a 214-213 margin. An attempt by the GOP-controlled House to impeach Majorkas last week failed by one vote. Both times, Kuster and Pappas opposed impeachment.
Mayorkas is the first sitting cabinet official ever to be impeached. In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap resigned before being impeached.
Majorkas has repeatedly claimed “the border is secure,” before insisting that he and the Biden administration “don’t bear responsibility” for the more than 8 million migrants who’ve crossed the border since Biden took office. House Homeland Security chair Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) wrote an editorial for The Wall Street Journal explaining why the GOP House took this historic step.
“Mr. Mayorkas directed the release of millions of inadmissible aliens into the country,” Green wrote. “In the interior, he directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel not to detain most illegal aliens, including criminals. In his September 2021 enforcement guidance, the secretary directed that unlawful presence in the country was no longer sufficient grounds for removal and that criminal convictions alone weren’t enough to warrant arrest.”
Pappas didn’t agree.
“We must take action to secure our southern border, crack down on the trafficking of deadly substances like fentanyl, and reform our broken immigration system,” Pappas said after the previous impeachment vote. “This impeachment vote accomplished none of those things.”
Immigration is a top issue for New Hampshire voters, most of whom disapprove of how President Joe Biden has handled the border chaos. Support for Biden’s management of the situation hit an all-time low last month when just 32 percent of Americans said they approve of the job he’s doing.
Pappas, who wrote in Biden’s name on the First in the Nation presidential ballot and said the 81-year-old incumbent is fit to serve another five years in the White House, is under fire from the GOP over the immigration issue.
“As Joe Biden’s enabler in Congress, Chris Pappas is choosing to let Biden’s Secretary of Open Borders off the hook for the disaster they have caused for every community. Pappas is not serious about securing our border,” said NRCC Spokeswoman Savannah Viar.
