Tlaib Wins Again After Proposing $50 Billion for Housing

Card photograph: ARCHIVE. Rashida Tlaib, Katie Porter and Deb Haaland at a House Oversight Committee hearing, December 19, 2019. Photo: Office of Rep. Deb Haaland / public domain. Cropped for the card. Source photograph.

Rashida Tlaib won Michigan’s 12th District, according to an AP call carried by Fox News. Her return preserves a congressional advocate for cutting U.S. military support to Israel and redirecting military spending toward housing.

Decision Desk HQ also called the race for Tlaib. Republican James Hooper was her principal opponent. The district includes parts of Wayne and Oakland counties; the counts available early Wednesday were still incomplete.

In June, Tlaib introduced 26 amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. One proposed moving $50 billion from military spending into affordable housing. Others sought to block new U.S.-Israel military co-production agreements and remove provisions deepening defense-technology cooperation.

Melat Kiros’s Denver victory adds another arms-embargo advocate to the incoming House. Tlaib’s amendments give that position a series of legislative targets, from transfer restrictions to joint weapons production.

Archive official portrait of Rashida Tlaib, December 11, 2024. Brian Thorpe / House Creative Services, public domain as a U.S. Congress work. Used without alteration. Source photograph.

Restrictions tied to courts and civilian protection

The package included an arms-transfer restriction tied to two triggers: International Court of Justice genocide proceedings with provisional measures, or outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrants against officials in a country’s government. Another amendment would prohibit assistance to entities responsible for specified war crimes, including attacks on medical facilities and obstruction of humanitarian aid.

The amendments were introduced proposals, not enacted restrictions. They would attach consequences to conduct that U.S. policy can otherwise condemn while continuing the military relationship.

The June package also proposed barring Pentagon purchases linked to forced labor or penal slavery. A separate measure would restrict the production, transfer and use of white-phosphorus munitions. These provisions target purchasing and weapons policy rather than simply recording congressional disapproval.

Several amendments addressed the military’s role in immigration enforcement. Tlaib and Delia Ramirez sought to prohibit immigration detention at Guantánamo Bay and on Defense Department property. They also proposed removing the continuing ban on closing or relinquishing control of the Guantánamo detention facility and naval station.

Other provisions concerned people inside the U.S. military. One would stop collection of medical debt incurred by servicemembers while serving for two years and permanently exclude that debt from consumer reports. Another would require suicide-prevention and crisis-line materials across military facilities and communications. Opposition to military expansion was paired with protection for those who serve.

Tlaib also proposed banning congressional ownership and trading of defense stocks, prohibiting military resources for deportation flights, and requiring disclosure of the cost of the U.S. overseas military presence.

Housing paid for by a smaller military budget

Tlaib’s economic program includes tenant organizing protections, home repairs and public banking. The proposed $50 billion transfer would supply housing resources by cutting another federal commitment, rather than asking tenants to wait for money left over after military demands.

Her housing platform also proposes excluding facial-recognition technology from federally supported public housing. That connects the condition of a home with the terms on which residents may occupy it: public assistance should not become an excuse for intrusive surveillance. The same platform supports cancelling medical, utility and student debt.

The transfer and the arms restrictions address two uses of the same public authority: financing homes and financing weapons. Tlaib’s return keeps both proposals in the hands of a representative who has already put them before Congress.