Senate passes Ukraine, Israel funding after months-long stalemate

The Senate passed a $95 billion emergency foreign aid bill Tuesday, ending a bitter months-long fight over $61 billion for the Ukraine war that has deeply divided Republicans.

The bill passed by a vote of 79-18 and now goes to President Biden for his signature.

The aid package, which also includes $15 billion in military aid to Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza and other war-torn areas, says there are not enough guarantees to block aid to Hamas. This has become a new flashpoint among conservative Republicans.

It is providing $8 billion in security assistance to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

It also includes language forcing TikTok’s Chinese owners to leave the popular app used by more than 140 million Americans or face a ban in the United States. become.

But the centerpiece of the plan is the $47.7 billion flowing through the Pentagon to provide training, equipment, weapons, logistics support and supplies to support the Ukrainian military, as well as the replenishment of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine. 13.4 billion to the United States, and $20.5 billion to the United States. Military support in Europe.

The plan also includes $9.5 billion in economic aid to Ukraine structured as forgivable loans, which former President Trump announced when the Senate passed a previous version of the $95 billion aid package in February. This is an idea that has taken shape.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who worked for months to pass the Ukraine aid bill, hailed the vote as a landmark moment.

“Today, the Senate sends a unified message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in times of need. We tell our allies that we stand by you. We stand by our adversaries. tells us to stay out of it,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor.

McConnell took to the floor to praise the prosperity the United States has enjoyed as a world leader, but he told his colleagues that with that leadership comes responsibility toward allies who help maintain peace and order in many parts of the world. told.

He accused his colleagues of prolonging the debate over aid to Ukraine based on what he called “pure fiction” that aiding the war was not a vital national security interest.

“Much of the hesitation and shortsightedness that has delayed this moment is based on pure fiction,” he said, warning that failure to support Ukraine would only encourage “unchecked terrorist violence” against U.S. forces in the Middle East and Israel. did.

He said Asian allies know that “China benefits from Russia’s advances” and that “Beijing is waiting for us to shake it up.”

He warned that delays in delivering weapons to Ukraine were hurting the war effort.

“Make no mistake: delays in providing Ukraine with weapons for its own defense complicate the prospects for defeating Russian aggression. Hesitation and hesitation only exacerbate the challenges we face. ” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, 31 Republican senators voted to advance the foreign aid package to a final vote, following a similar package launched in February after President Trump voiced opposition and called for it to be structured as a loan. There were eight more MPs than those who voted in favor of the .

McConnell said the vote was a victory for his side in the debate with isolationists in his party about the importance of supporting allies in Europe and Asia and deterring Russia, China and Iran. It was welcomed as an expression of the

“I think we’ve turned a corner on the isolationist movement. I realized how uncomfortable its supporters feel when they’re called isolationists. I think we’ve made some progress.” he told reporters.

The bill still faced staunch opposition led by conservatives, including Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

On the Senate floor, Mr. Vance reiterated his argument in a recent New York Times op-ed that military aid to Ukraine will not change the course of the war and that the United States does not have the industrial capacity to provide it. Ta. Have the weapons you need to win.

He warned that U.S. involvement could have unforeseen and unforeseen consequences, tying the next president’s efforts to end the war diplomatically.

Mr. Schumer faced division within his own council over military aid to Israel.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) voted against the package.

Sanders supports military aid to Ukraine and humanitarian aid to Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, while also supporting military aid to enable Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry out “unprecedented attacks against the Palestinian people.” He said he opposes “unrestricted military aid amounting to $8.9 billion.”

The road to getting foreign aid to Biden’s desk is long and politically fraught.

Biden sent a foreign aid request to Congress in October, and the Senate approved the $95 billion aid package on February 13 after efforts to add a bipartisan border security deal negotiated with the White House to it failed. was approved. Trump has played a key role in negating elements of border security, telling allies he wants to deny Biden a victory on a key issue in the 2024 election.

The bill then languished for weeks as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) continued to focus on passing long-stalled government funding and dealing with a recalcitrant right-wing that staunchly opposes aid to Ukraine. It became stagnant.

Johnson didn’t know what to do about the Ukraine funding issue until he met with Republican senators at their annual meeting at the Library of Congress in mid-March and told them he intended to structure some of the aid as loans and add language. He gave colleagues little hint as to how to proceed. He approves the seizure of Russian assets to pay for rebuilding Ukraine.

But he refrained from considering the bill in the face of threats that his conservative critics might try to oust him from the top leadership position.

Johnson visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and met with the former president for an hour, strengthening the right wing.

Trump gave Johnson a big boost, praising Johnson for his “very good job” and declaring, “I support the Speaker.”

Prime Minister Johnson will try to overcome nasty divisions in the conference over Ukraine funding and Democratic disagreements over providing military aid to Israel by splitting the foreign aid package into four separate bills on the House floor. And so.

Still, Democrats had to rally behind Mr. Johnson and help him overcome conservative opposition in the Rules Committee and in procedural votes in the House. Typically, such procedural votes on House rules are strictly partisan issues.

In the end, all four bills were passed by wide margins.

Senate Republican Leader John Thune (S.D.) on Tuesday praised Johnson’s innovative response to the bill.

“I think they did a really great job of building it up there to get a big vote from the House and adding some provisions that will count towards the vote count in the Senate,” he added. talked about. Regarding the ban on TikTok and the language structuring Ukraine’s economic aid as a forgivable loan.

Regarding Johnson’s lobbying of Trump, he said, “I think his involvement with the former president probably helped because he had a pretty…strong position of opposition before.”

U.S. officials told Reuters they were already working on a $1 billion military aid plan for Ukraine that would be approved in the foreign aid package. This includes air defense missiles, rocket artillery, 155mm artillery shells, and anti-tank weapons.