Dems Nix Spending Bill’s Iron Dome Funding, Will Offer as Free-Standing Legislation

Moving quickly to avert political damage inflicted by the far left wing of the party, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday that the $1 billion budget earmarked for replenishing the Iron Dome batteries that worked overtime for 11 days last May, which was cut from the administration’s spending bill, will be sent to Congress as a free-standing bill. Action on the emergency funding could come as early as this week. The announcement follows sharp reaction to word that the Iron Dome allocation had been removed from the administration’s funding bill under pressure from the left wing of the party. More than 20 congressmen and women support stripping Israel of military aid or offsetting allocations with financial benefits for Palestinian causes. Palestinian terrorist organizations fired almost 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel during an 11-day period in May. A large percentage of the weapons were neutralized by the Iron Dome anti-missile system that was developed by Israel with American funding.