WASHINGTON – Sens.John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, both R-ND, issued statements after voting for the National Security Act, 2024, which passed the Senate by a vote of 70 to 29.

“I believe that U.S. support for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan should be focused on military assistance,” Hoeven said. “This version of the bill removed about $20 billion in non-military funding. Also, more than half of the assistance in this bill directly supports our own national defense, including for our forces deployed abroad and the replacement of older equipment transferred to our partners with up-to-date capabilities. That is important for both U.S. national security and that of our allies and partners as they fight against our shared adversaries, including Putin and Hamas, and push back against the malign activities of the Chinese Communist Party.

“At the same time, we should have been able to amend and further improve the bill in the Senate, and we support a plan to convert this assistance into a loan and to remove additional non-military funding. The House will now have the opportunity to improve the bill, and at the end of the day, I believe we need to get aid to Israel.”

“I voted to support the National Security Act because it gives a boost of momentum for the House to take up an imperfect bill and make it better,” Cramer said. “Leader Schumer’s insistence on poor process, including not allowing amendments, has been disappointing. I submitted multiple changes to strip non-lethal aid and restart approvals of LNG (liquidified natural gas) export terminals – one of our greatest national security tools – but they were blocked. The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. By passing this bill, it moves this critical support forward, but gives the House the opportunity to make it better.”