Washington, D.C. – The United States House of Representatives has approved a $1.2 trillion funding bill that would ban funding for the United Nations disaster relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

The measure, approved Friday by a vote of 286 to 134, would maintain full government functionality ahead of the deadline for a partial shutdown.

The Legislative proposals Now it goes to the Senate, which must pass it by midnight Friday, when several government agencies would run out of money. President Joe Biden has promised to sign the bill into law immediately if the Democratic-controlled upper chamber of Congress passes the legislation as expected.

The measure faced opposition from dozens of far-right Republicans who argued that it did not sufficiently curb government spending. After the vote, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from his post over his support of the bipartisan spending deal.

Twenty-two Democrats, many of whom had expressed concerns about the UNRWA provision, joined Republicans in opposing the plan.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), called the law’s passage “an incredible moral failure.”

“Our political process has chosen to literally cut US funding to the only entity that can address the level of suffering and the scale of suffering that is happening in Gaza right now,” Berry told Al Jazeera.

Impending famine in Gaza

The bill comes at a time when the United Nations has warned of the increase Danger of famine in Gaza amid the Israeli blockade. Gaza officials said many children have already died of dehydration and starvation in the past month.

Several progressives had sharply criticized the ban on US aid to UNRWAwhich provides vital on-the-ground services to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East.

In a speech on the House floor Thursday, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib accused Israel of committing “some of the most horrific crimes against humanity” this century.

“The Israeli government has deliberately starved the Palestinian people,” she said.

Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, added that UNRWA is the “major organization that provides much-needed food and humanitarian assistance to starving Palestinians.”

“The members here – all of them – will now contribute to the starvation of Palestinian families,” she said.

senator Chris Van Hollen also condemned the impending ban and expressed disappointment and frustration with the measure.

“UNRWA is the primary vehicle for distributing urgently needed aid in Gaza – so refusing to fund UNRWA is tantamount to denying food to starving people and limiting medical care to injured civilians,” Van Hollen said in a statement.

“It also means cutting support for services – including schooling and healthcare – for over a million Palestinians in the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.”

Van Hollen did not say whether he would vote against the bill. Last month, despite his criticism of the war on Gaza and his advocacy for the UN agency, the senator voted for a bill that would give Israel $14 billion in additional aid and cut funding to UNRWA.

Israel had accused UNRWA of ties to Hamas – allegations were rejected by the agency and major humanitarian groups.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government said that around a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. UNRWA launched an investigation into the allegations. The United Nations also appointed one independent committee to check the agency.

The Israeli accusations prompted more than a dozen Western countries, led by the United States, to do so Break help to UNRWA.

But a report seen by many media outlets last month said: UNRWA said Israeli forces tortured several of his associates in Gaza to force them to admit ties to Hamas.

Many of the countries that had stopped aiding UNRWA including Canada and Australia have resumed funding in recent weeks. But the Biden administration continues to withhold the funds.

Palestinian refugees

On Thursday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the defunding of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees “unconscionable.”

“It’s also not based on solid facts,” she said. “We have intelligence assessments that point to this and I find it highly political.”

The US funding bill includes other pro-Israel measures, including strict limits on US humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

AAI’s Berry said it was important to place the looming ban in the context of broader, years-long Israeli efforts to delegitimize UNRWA.

The UN agency provides health care and education, among other vital services, to millions of Palestinian refugees – people who have been refugees – across the region forcibly expelled from their homes during the founding of the State of Israel and their descendants.

Berry said that while UNRWA’s funding cuts during a famine in Gaza were “shocking,” the problem was even bigger than aid to the Palestinian territories; it is part of it the push to “wipe out Palestinian refugees.”

The White House, which is usually involved in setting the parameters of funding legislation, has approved the proposed legislation, which suggests that this Biden is on board with defunding UNRWA.

“The Biden administration’s policies since October 7 have been tragically flawed,” Berry told Al Jazeera. “And instead of course-correcting, instead of fixing the hole that they put the U.S. in, which has damaged the U.S. reputation in the world, they have been unable to actually turn around.”