U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers backs a package deal funding Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers told the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce that “we don’t really have a choice to walk away” on the federal budgeting process. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers Thursday said supplemental funding for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan is possible, but border funding does not have the votes this year.

Rogers, a Republican from Saks who chairs the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, told the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce that “we don’t really have a choice to walk away” on the federal budgeting process, and said both the budget funding the federal government for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, and a supplemental will pass — but it won’t be easy.

“Two years ago, Russia invaded,” he said. “No reason other than they wanted to, they invaded Ukraine. And for first time since World War II — we had an established world order — for the first time since then, a sovereign nation invaded another sovereign nation just to take it,” he said.

Rogers said House members are divided over individual representatives wanting to pass standalone supplementals for Israel and the border. Rogers said the aid has to be put in a package in order to have the votes needed to pass.

“Together, they have a better chance than separately, and that’s just the way the place works,” he said.

He said that there is support for Israel funding from House Republicans, but that Ukraine funding is a sticking point because of “some ignorant members” in the GOP conference. Rogers said that the U.S. does not have a choice on whether to fund Ukraine or not.

“It’s been painful because part of our conference, part of the Republican majority conference, has been arguing that we need to worry about the appropriations first, and we have been,” Rogers said. “And we just couldn’t get the votes for the appropriations because the place is so fractured right now.”

He said that the U.S. is contributing a smaller percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than other NATO countries, and that other countries are pulling their weight. He said the U.S. doesn’t “have a choice to walk away.”

The congressman said that Vladimir Putin has made it clear that the fall of the Soviet Union was the “worst day of his life,” and that he wants to reinstitute some version of it.

“If you look at history over Eastern Europe, Russia has been taking these countries and losing them for literally a millennia. So he wants to do that,” he said, adding that after Putin takes Ukraine, he would move on to invade other countries.

If Russia attacks a NATO country, he said that would be World War III, invoking a potential war for a second time.

“We’re in NATO and in NATO, we have a treaty. We have a treaty provision called Article Five that says any member nation is invaded by an army, every other member of NATO will come to their defense and push that invading army back out. That’s us,” he said.

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