Senate Republicans are expressing frustration with the Biden administration over its decision to add Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su — whose nomination to the role was never confirmed — to the presidential line of succession.

In a Tuesday letter to President Biden, Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt and 29 of her Republican Senate colleagues expressed ‘grave concerns’ and requested clarification from the administration for its ‘apparent belief’ that Su is ‘eligible to assume the office of President of the United States pursuant to the presidential line of succession as established by Congress in the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.’

‘As you are well aware, since March 14, 2023, the United States Senate has declined to confirm Ms. Su’s nomination as Secretary of Labor, and she continues to lack adequate support from both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate to be confirmed to that position,’ the senators wrote. ‘Despite that reality and Ms. Su becoming the longest-ever Cabinet nominee to await confirmation in a time when the same party controls the White House and the Senate, the White House has chosen to keep her in place as Acting Secretary of Labor on an indefinite basis and has also listed her on the White House website as a member of the Cabinet ‘[i]n order of succession to the Presidency.’’

Listed ninth in the ‘order of succession’ to the presidency on the White House’s website, Su previously served as California’s labor secretary under Gov. Gavin Newsom from 2019 to 2021.

‘While you and your Administration have clearly decided to ignore congressional intent in keeping Ms. Su in place in her current role, it would be unfortunate if you have decided to further discount congressional intent — and violate the law — by taking the position that Ms. Su is eligible for placement in the presidential line of succession,’ the Republican senators added.

Pointing to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the senators reminded President Biden that Congress has ‘the power to set the presidential line of succession beyond the Vice President.’

‘As Ms. Su has failed to be ‘appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate’ as Secretary of Labor, we strongly urge the White House to clarify its position and views regarding Ms. Su’s eligibility for the presidential line of succession and, in the event it was to become necessary, to assume the presidency,’ they wrote. ‘It is unimaginable to think that this Administration believes someone who has neither been duly elected nor confirmed by the Senate to the position of Secretary of Labor could be President of the United States. Suggesting that Ms. Su is eligible to be in the presidential line of succession is antithetical to our system of governance and the bedrock principles on which our Republic rests.’

‘The Biden Administration continues to attempt to rule by unilateral decree rather than govern with the advice and consent of Congress. Ms. Su doesn’t even have adequate support from members of her own party in the Senate to be confirmed as Secretary of Labor,’ Britt told Fox News Digital. ‘In sum, the Biden Administration is now seemingly asserting both that it can freely ignore the will of the Senate by keeping Ms. Su in place indefinitely as Acting Secretary, and that Ms. Su could instantaneously ascend from her current role to serve as President of the United States.’

‘President Biden should immediately clarify whether he believes someone who has neither been elected by the people nor approved by the people’s elected representatives as a member of the Cabinet could assume the presidency,’ she added.

Additionally, the senators once again called on Biden to ‘withdraw Ms. Su’s nomination and put forward a nominee for Secretary of Labor who is capable of garnering sufficient support on a bipartisan basis to be confirmed.’

Su’s nomination to the role of labor secretary was met with immense backlash, both from Republicans and Democrats, earlier this year. As a result, she was never confirmed to the role and has remained as the acting secretary of labor ever since.

GOP senators accused Su of stonewalling their requests for information on her support for more regulations on gig work in California and a memo sent during her tenure as the state’s top labor official that instructed state employees not to cooperate with ICE officials looking for undocumented migrants.

‘She has avoided answering questions whenever possible and she has refrained from providing distinct specificity to her answers when she has responded to inquiries,’ Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and other Republicans wrote in a letter to Biden about Su’s nomination in June. ‘Given this present state of affairs, we respectfully urge you to withdraw the nomination.’

The nomination of Su, who has been serving as acting secretary since the resignation of Marty Walsh in March, was narrowly approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in April. However, Su has not received a vote by the full Senate, where it is unlikely Su would be confirmed to the post.

In addition to Britt, the letter from Senate Republicans to Biden was signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Senate GOP Whip John Thune, R-S.D.; Senate GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Republican Policy Committee Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; and Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., among others.

Iran called on its Arab-majority neighbors to impose an oil embargo on Israel as the Jewish state wages its war against Hamas.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Wednesday called for the embargo and for nations within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to expel all Israeli ambassadors.

OPEC, the organization of largely Arab nations that overseas oil production in the Middle East, has no plans to impose such an embargo, Reuters reported Wednesday. The organization has no special or emergency meetings planned to discuss such a move.

‘We are not a political organization,’ one OPEC source told Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Iran has spent much of the past week threatening Israel with consequences for its ongoing war against Hamas. Israel has launched thousands of air strikes into Gaza and appears poised for a ground operation following Hamas’ unprecedented terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7.

Iran has threatened to join the conflict itself, and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has also harried Israel’s northern border.

Meanwhile, President Biden’s administration has warned both Hezbollah and Iran to steer clear of the conflict. The U.S. has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups, USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Israel’s top national security adviser has said he anticipates that the U.S. would become involved in the conflict if Iran or Hezbollah intervenes.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put 2,000 troops on high alert earlier this week.

CONCORD, N.H. – Former President Donald Trump may not be the only 2024 Republican contender to rule out participating in next month’s third GOP presidential nomination debate in Florida.

Vivek Ramaswamy would not commit to the Nov. 8 showdown in Miami.

‘I’m considering my options,’ the multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and first-time presidential candidate told Fox News on Wednesday after filing to place his name on the presidential primary ballot in New Hampshire.

Trump, who remains the commanding polling and fundraising front-runner for the Republican nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, pointed to his enormous lead over his large field of rivals as he skipped the first two debates. Late last month, Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said Trump would not take the stage at the third debate.

Trump’s campaign is calling for all future debates to be canceled and that the Republican National Committee – which is organizing the debates – should ‘refocus its manpower and money’ on defeating Democrats in next year’s election.

As first reported last month by Fox News, the RNC raised the polling and donor thresholds that 2024 primary candidates must reach to make the stage at the third debate.

To participate, each candidate must have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors to their campaign or exploratory committee, including 200 donors in 20 or more states. 

The White House hopefuls must also reach 4% support in two national polls, or reach 4% in one national poll and 4% in two statewide polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina – the four states that lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

Candidates are also required to sign a pledge agreeing to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee. They must agree not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debates for the rest of the 2024 election cycle and agree to data-sharing with the national party committee.

Ramaswamy on Wednesday reiterated that he’s reached the criteria for the third debate but may join Trump in opting out. His campaign has been having internal discussions about whether he should participate in the Miami showdown.

The candidate, who took plenty of incoming fire from some of his onstage rivals at the first two debates, said that ‘my view is what best advances substantive debate for the future of the Republican Party and for the future of our country, and so we’re weighing what best accomplishes that.’

‘I’m going to be looking at what best does, and we’ll evaluate whether participating in that third debate really is something that moves the ball,’ he highlighted.

Ramaswamy was joined onstage at the second debate by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who qualified for the first debate, fell short and failed to make the stage at the second showdown.

The RNC announced Monday that it selected NBC News, Salem Radio Network, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and Rumble as partners for the debate, which will take place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

The third debate will be held almost two months before the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, which is the leadoff contest in the 2024 GOP presidential nominating calendar.

The al-Ahali Hospital in Gaza City was struck Tuesday night, and hundreds were reportedly killed in the blast. Hamas initially claimed the hospital was attacked in an Israeli strike; Israel countered after an investigation that it was hit by an errant missile launched by terrorists in Gaza itself. 

Online video making the rounds on social media suggests the al-Ahali Hospital in Gaza City was not directly hit by a rocket on Tuesday, but instead the missile appears to have struck a nearby parking lot, leading to many conflicting claims of who was responsible, where the missile struck and how many people died.

Who’s responsible?

Hamas was targeting Tel Aviv with rocket fire on Tuesday, and has been targeting central Israel multiple times each day.

Shortly after the blast, senior Hamas officials told Fox, ‘After the barbaric attack, it’s too early to talk about this.’

After an investigation, Israel said on Tuesday the rocket was fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department designated foreign terrorist organization backed by Iran.

‘An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the al-Ahli [Baptist] hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,’ IDF officials said. ‘Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.’

While Israel rebutted the claims immediately, President Biden, who was in Israel on Wednesday, stated intelligence from the Pentagon supports Israel’s assertion that the blast originated from rocket fire in Gaza.

Biden reiterated his belief that Israel was not to blame later on Wednesday. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson also reaffirmed the U.S. position.

‘While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,’ she wrote.

Where the rockets fell

The failed rocket launch was initially reported to have been a direct hit on the hospital.

Israeli media showed footage from their own cameras that appears to show at least one rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza falling short and landing on a hospital in their own territory.

Shared by Keshet 12 News, the footage clearly shows multiple rockets launching toward Israel on Tuesday. Moments later, a blast is seen in Gaza midway along the rockets’ trajectory.

Images and video making the rounds on social media tell a different story from the one Hamas initially told.

The images depict a parking lot with several damaged cars, and in the middle, a divot from where an object exploded.

When compared to images of typical Israeli missile strikes that show craters after the explosion, the parking lot had a small indentation, showing a different type of missile may have been responsible for the blast.

While the rocket appears to have struck a parking lot, the Hamas-run hospital treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many others was certainly damaged, but not destroyed.

Casualty numbers

Another conflict point centers around the number of deaths from the blast.

The blast in the parking lot was enough to damage the hospital, but according to sources at the scene, it was not enough to destroy the facility, calling the reported number of deaths into question.

The Gaza Health Ministry initially reported that at least 500 people were killed at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, and Hamas said it was the result of an Israel airstrike.

At this time, the number of people killed in the blast is unconfirmed, though Reuters quoted the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry saying there were 471 people dead as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Biden met with Israeli officials throughout Wednesday, pledging further support for the country and warning Iran and Hezbollah not to intervene.

Anders Hagstrom of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

The U.S. has no responsibility to keep its allies on the ‘cutting edge’ of artificial intelligence (AI) development — unless it is a matter of national security, a former CIA director and retired Army officer tells Fox News Digital.

‘First and foremost is to ensure that we are on the cutting edge,’ retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus said during a recent Zoom interview.

‘Certainly, we should share to varying degrees with our closest partners, and they share with us — again, no one of us is smarter than all of us together in these kinds of endeavors — but it’s not our job entirely to ensure that they are proceeding along these lines, unless it’s, of course, in our national interest to do so, and it is in a number of different cases,’ he explained.

The pace of AI development has dominated conversation since public access to ChatGPT in November 2022, particularly with concerns over who will stay at the top of the game — a race that drove countries to reassess their investments in the burgeoning field. 

China and the U.S. in particular have focused on developing AI as much as possible in different fields, though the U.S. has discussed a far more regulated approach, as opposed to China’s more hands-free environment, as long as the AI passes certain reported threshold tests for reflecting socialist values. 

The U.K. over the summer announced that it would invest $125 million in computer chips to keep pace with the AI development from nations like the U.S. and China, but experts and officials argued even that significant investment was not nearly enough to stay at the top of the field. 

Cooperation has therefore remained a key point of the discussion, especially when the U.S. has certain bilateral intelligence agreements, such as the Five Eyes Alliance with the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

The White House touted one such agreement, the ‘Atlantic Declaration,’ signed in June of this year, as something that would ensure that the ‘unique alliance is adapted, reinforced and reimagined for the challenges of this moment,’ including the ‘handful of critical and emerging technologies’ such as AI that are ‘forming the backbone of new industries and shaping our national security landscape.’ 

Petraeus highlighted ‘interoperability’ as one of the chief reasons the U.S. might look to keep allies at the ‘bleeding edge’ of development, saying that in those cases, ‘it’s incumbent on us to share together,’ because any such agreement is a ‘two-way street.’ 

‘The closer you are as a partner, the more we should be focused on that, but it’s not our job to ensure that everybody is making the most of any more than it is that we ensure that they’re doing well in all the other areas,’ he argued, noting that uneven development of technology and weapons has remained a challenge ‘for decades’ and that a gap in AI development does not present ‘a massive issue.’ 

Such shortcomings in the past have required the U.S. at times to figure out how to compensate and help a country deal with ‘lack of certain capabilities,’ which Petraeus acknowledged often required the U.S. to share what it had or link the country into the larger American mechanisms, as in the case of air support or drones or aerial medevac.

‘Some countries in NATO were on the cutting edge, the bleeding edge of technological advances, [with] the U.S., of course, leading the way and then others are well behind, but we’ve always had this in some respects,’ he said. 

‘That’s the job of the country that leads coalitions, and in the most important cases, that is going to be in the United States.’ 

Petraeus served 37 years in the military, achieving the rank of four-star general and overseeing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan before taking over as director of the CIA — a post he left in late 2012. 

AI at the time remained in a nascent stage and did not have much integration: Petraeus said the most he saw was machine learning and that development ‘galloped ahead’ in more recent years, which he has witnessed through his work at an investment firm.

That pace of development has been ‘nothing short of breathtaking,’ the general said, stressing that it is ‘incumbent on all of us… certainly incumbent on those in the defense world, but also the business world, in the intelligence world, all the other worlds… to identify how this can be employed in ways that improve productivity, efficiency, effectiveness.’ 

Former President Donald Trump and President Biden are running neck-and-neck in a new 2024 presidential election poll, but the data suggests an independent bid by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. could upend the race in Biden’s favor.

According to a Marist poll released Tuesday, 49% of registered voters said they would support Biden, 46% Trump and 5% remained undecided — all without Kennedy in the race.

Those numbers shifted dramatically for Trump and Biden with Kennedy running as an independent candidate, but appeared to hurt Trump’s chances for reclaiming the White House more than Biden’s odds of winning a second term.

The poll showed Kennedy winning 16% support among voters, Trump 37% and Biden 44%. Just 3% were undecided.

The biggest shift with a Kennedy candidacy came from independent voters, showing a massive drop in support for Trump (49% to 34%) and Biden (43% to 33%), according to the poll. Kennedy received support from 29% of independents.

Republican support for Trump also dropped significantly from 91% to 81%, with Kennedy receiving support from 11% of GOP voters.

Biden also saw a drop in support from Democrats with Kennedy in the race, from 91% to 86%, but not as a significant a loss as Trump’s among Republicans. Kennedy received support from 9% of Democrats.

Kennedy announced on Oct. 9 he would be running as an independent after attempting a run against Biden and fellow Democrat Marianne Williamson for the party’s presidential nomination. He ultimately made the decision after the Democratic National Committee maintained its backing of Biden and refused to hold any primary debates.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Hundreds of protesters reportedly gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday night after a rocket hit a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The protest came after a Hamas-run hospital in the Gaza Strip was hit by a rocket on Tuesday, resulting in hundreds of deaths. 

According to Reuters, more than 100 protesters were near the embassy carrying Palestinian flags.

Tear gas was deployed near the embassy. A source told Fox News Digital that around 1,000 people, including supporters of Hezbollah, went to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut after a rocket hit the Gaza hospital.

WATCH: Protesters gather near US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon

The protest was driven by a Hezbollah statement for people around the Arab world to start protests in front of Israeli embassies, but given there isn’t one in Beirut, protesters went to the U.S. and French embassies because of their aid to Israel, the source said.

Protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at demonstrations, which caused a fire near the U.S. embassy in Beirut. 

Jordanian protesters also attempted to storm the Israeli embassy on Tuesday.

According to the Agence France Presse, dozens of demonstrators attempted to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan and got past a security barrier and moved closer to the embassy itself.

Security at the embassy used tear gas to disperse the protesters, according to the report.

According to Palestinian authorities, at least 500 people were killed at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

The IDF claims that the strike was the result of a failed rocket launch in Gaza by terrorists.

‘An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the al-Ahli [Baptist] hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,’ IDF officials said. ‘Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.’

At the Israeli embassy in Amman, police vehicles also attempted to barricade the embassy.

Jordan’s King Abdullah commented on the bombing, calling it a ‘massacre’ and a ‘war crime.’

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Trey Yingst contributed to this report.

A Hamas-run hospital that was treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many others in the Gaza Strip was hit by an airstrike Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, though Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blame the strike on the Islamic Jihad.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, which Hamas said was the result of an Israeli airstrike.

When asked earlier in the day, the IDF said it was investigating the source of the explosion, noting that the hospital is a ‘highly sensitive building’ and is ‘not an IDF target.’

After an investigation, the IDF provided its findings with regard to the source of the airstrike.

‘An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the al-Ahli [Baptist] hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,’ IDF officials said. ‘Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.’

Shortly after the strike, a senior Hamas official told Fox, ‘After the barbaric attack, it’s too early to talk about this.’

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., accused Israel of conducting a strike on the hospital in a post she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

‘Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,’ Tlaib tweeted on Tuesday. ‘[President Biden] this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire [and] help de-escalate. Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.’

Hours after her post to social media, IDF issued its statement on X, saying the hospital was hit by a Hamas rocket from a barrage of missiles, not an Israeli missile.

Hamas was targeting Tel Aviv with rocket fire Tuesday. The group has been targeting central Israel multiple times each day.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are gearing up for another vote on a new speaker late on Wednesday morning.

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Republicans’ candidate for the gavel, fell 17 votes short of the 217 he needed to win on Tuesday afternoon. 

‘We’re gonna keep going. I’ve had great conversations, great discussions with our colleagues,’ Jordan told reporters in the early evening. ‘No one in our conference wants to see any type of coalition government with Democrats. So we’re going to keep working, and we’re going to get to the votes.’

The House is now returning at 11 a.m. for the next planned vote — but even lawmakers are at a loss about what comes now.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday evening that anyone who claims to know what will happen next ‘is full of it.’

Malliotakis, who voted for Jordan, said she intends to keep doing so — and predicted that his support would grow.

‘I think there’s some movement, and that’s positive. So the idea is to build consensus, that’s positive, not to jump ship just because it didn’t work in the first round,’ she said. ‘As I see it, he’s the person who can bring the factions together now. If he can’t, quite frankly, then we have bigger problems.’

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, insisted that Jordan was still a viable candidate. He conceded Jordan may lose votes in subsequent rounds but predicted he’d ultimately win.

‘We may see some leakage tomorrow. But if we stand firm, one, I don’t think leakage will be much. And two, I think that we’ll see it start to come our way on subsequent votes. So I am very optimistic,’ Self told Fox News Digital.

But a senior GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital was less certain. ‘Any momentum that Jordan had coming in today — which I personally thought he had — gone,’ the aide said.

They predicted that Republicans could soon have to ‘start from scratch’ electing a new speaker candidate.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has been teasing the possibility of a compromise with Republicans.   

When Fox News Digital asked Jeffries whether he had outreach from any Republican members on such a deal, he said there were ‘informal conversations’ ongoing — though he declined to give any details.

‘There have been ongoing informal conversations that have been undertaken over the last few days. I think it’s a possibility those can accelerate now that Jim Jordan clearly does not have the votes to be speaker,’ Jeffries said. 

‘There are many good men and women on the Republican side of the aisle who are qualified to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives. There is no circumstance when Jim Jordan is one of them.’ 

When asked about interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., as one viable candidate, Jeffries told another reporter that McHenry was ‘respected on our side of the aisle’ but reiterated that there was not one candidate Democrats were tied to.

But a majority of moderates who were floated as potentially open to working with Democrats have poured cold water on the idea. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who voted against Jordan on Tuesday, wrote on X the day prior, ‘This is just stupid and a 100% falsehood. Not a SINGLE (not ONE) Republican in the House will be voting for Mr Jeffries.’

Malliotakis threw cold water on the idea, pointing out that Democrats were now calling for bipartisanship all voted with eight Republicans to oust ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., two weeks ago.

‘The time to be bipartisan was 14 days ago, and they chose to side with the right-wing fringe to create chaos and bring the Congress to a standstill,’ she said.

Self also dismissed the idea outright, saying, ‘Any Republican that goes across for a coalition government, it would be the death knell, so I just, I don’t even deal with that hypothetical.’

The senior GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital said any Republican who makes a deal with Democrats to be speaker will likely have a hard time commanding the conference.

‘That’s just Hakeem Jeffries saying it in the news so he can say the talking point, of ‘the Democrats wants to do what’s best for the country and we want to work together and bipartisanship,’’ the aide said.

‘There’s no real talk, and if a Republican crosses over to get their support, then that person immediately starts off with no support from the conference.’

Calls from Capitol Hill lawmakers to freeze the $6 billion in Iranian funds reached through controversial negotiations increased this week. 

Nearly 20 GOP senators are calling on the Biden administration to freeze the funds that were released to a Qatar account in exchange for five American prisoners last month. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., led a group of GOP senators on Tuesday, urging the administration to ‘limit Iran’s ability to provide support to Hamas.’ 

She blamed President Biden for sending Palestine over $730 million in aid since taking office through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. 

‘And yesterday, we learned Hamas stole aid from that group,’ Blackburn said. ‘I’ll be introducing legislation to halt all funding for them until Iran is expelled from the UN and investigated for violations.’

‘We must permanently freeze the $6 billion ransom payment to Iran,’ she added. ‘We must halt taxpayer dollars going to the Palestinians, and we must secure our own southern border, and we must stand with Israel.’

Meanwhile, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; John Kennedy, R-La.; and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., linked arms to introduce legislation to also freeze the assets. 

The bill — which senators are seeking a unanimous vote to pass — states ‘any statutory sanctions imposed with respect to Iran… that were waived, suspended, reduced or otherwise relieved pursuant to an agreement between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran… are hereby reinstated.’ 

‘We have reams, reams of evidence that the regime that chants ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ puts its money where its mouth is,’ McConnell said on the floor Tuesday morning.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., is also seeking to block the $6 billion in a bill he introduced Tuesday, which revokes the waiver granted by the Biden administration to release the frozen Iranian funds.

In September, the Biden administration announced it reached an agreement with Iran in which Iran would release five American citizens in return for the Biden administration issuing a waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. Marshall’s bill seeks to revoke the waiver.

‘Hamas is just the puppet, doing the dirty work of the puppet master — Iran,’ Marshall said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Blood is on Iran’s hands, their fingerprints are all over this attack.’

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, also unveiled his legislation on Tuesday. Scott is seeking unanimous consent on his bill, which would handicap the Treasury and State departments to relax U.S. sanctions on Iranian assets. 

The U.S. has a ‘quiet agreement’ with Qatar to block Iran from accessing the $6 billion in humanitarian aid amid Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel, sources familiar with the move told Fox News last week.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo met with House Democrats on Thursday. Sources familiar with the meeting told Fox News that Adeyemo told lawmakers that the U.S. has a quiet agreement with Qatar not to move any of the $6 billion in unfrozen money to Iran for an indefinite period.

A source present in the room told Fox News Digital that Adeyemo told congressional Democrats in that meeting that the U.S. has reached ‘quiet understanding’ with Qatar not to move the money.

Over in the House, China Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., led a bipartisan group of nearly 100 House lawmakers last Wednesday to urge President Biden to refreeze the $6 billion as well. 

At least 1,400 have been killed in Israel and thousands wounded since Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on the nation on Oct. 7.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.