This week President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. This comes after months of debate and negotiation on the particulars of the aid bills, especially with regard to the inclusion of a border security provision.
Matthew Watkins, managing editor for news and politics at the Texas Tribune, said that Texas lawmakers were split on their votes, but not necessarily on party lines.
“You saw the lawmakers in Texas kind of divided on some of this for the Ukraine bill,” Watkins said. “All Democrats voted in favor of it. But nine Republicans from Texas were opposed. You know, a lot of concerns about the way this war is being waged, whether that money should better be invested in the Texas border, things like that.”
The split was present among Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans from Texas, as well.
“Cornyn has been a very strong supporter of this bill and helping our allies abroad more generally,” Watkins said. “Cruz, you know, has pushed a lot of the line of focus on some of the challenges, particularly the U.S.-Mexico border and maybe not sending some of that money (abroad) until some of those problems are fixed.”
Hear more stories from the week in Texas politics in the audio player above.
