The Senate overwhelmingly passed a $95.3 billion aid package for the war-torn nation of Ukraine and Israel and a defense bill for Taiwan on Tuesday, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk for signature.
The Senate voted 79-18 to pass the foreign aid bill that passed the House on a bipartisan basis Saturday, overcoming Republican opposition to $60.8 billion for Ukraine and opposition from some Democrats to $17 billion for Israel.
Biden, 81, issued a statement a week ago strongly supporting the bill and is expected to sign it soon.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a similar national security bill to the House of Representatives more than two months ago, but House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans have decided against it without additional funding for U.S. border security. rejected foreign aid packages;
“Today, the Senate sends a unified message to the world: America will always defend democracy in times of need,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor before final passage.
“We tell our allies, ‘We support you.’ We say to our adversaries, ‘Don’t interfere with us.’ “We will do everything in our power to protect our democracy and our way of life,” he told the world, adding that “six months of tireless efforts have paid off.”
“Even if our allies and partners are concerned about the depth of our resolve, Moscow, China and Tehran are increasingly convinced that our influence has reached its limits, and here at home there are loud voices calling for abdication. Even if there is, history will record that America stepped up to show leadership and the Senate held firm,” declared Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined with left-leaning Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) to seek amendments to the bill that would cut some funding to Ukraine and Israel, respectively. It was rejected by colleagues. Neither senator voted for final passage of the bill.
Foreign aid also includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid to war-torn areas such as the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a strong supporter of aid to Ukraine, has disparaged Republicans like Sen. J.D. Vance by arguing that U.S. aid does not meaningfully change the facts on the ground. Ta.
“The Ukraine challenge is not Republican. It’s math,” Vance said. I have written In an op-ed in the New York Times last week. “Despite its strict conscription policy, Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can deploy. And it needs more supplies than the United States can provide.”
“That’s garbage,” Graham (R-S.C.) said in a Fox News interview Sunday. “I just got back from there two weeks ago. They changed the draft law. They have all the personnel they need. They need weapons.”
In the end, 15 Republicans (including Senate President John Barrasso of Wyoming) and three Democrats voted against foreign aid.
Last October, the 81-year-old Biden told Congress that $106 billion would be earmarked, including $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel, $9.15 billion for humanitarian aid, and about $2 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. He called for the national security amendment bill to be passed.
The Senate passed a slightly lower $95 billion version of that package in February, but Mr. Johnson (R-Louisiana) declared that his conference would be “self-reliant” on aid funding.
As a result, in April, four countries, including almost the same maximum amount, were made in April, with some small adjustments that forced the provision of $9.5 billion of Ukraine aid in the form of loans. A House package of bills was born. This is a provision proposed by former President Donald Trump.
It also authorized the seizure of $5 billion in Russian central bank assets to help rebuild Ukraine after the end of the war, and sold ownership of the social media platform TikTok to Chinese state-owned tech company ByteDance within a year. I ordered.
McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that the two-month “delay” is undoubtedly “detrimental” before moving on to his call for increased defense spending in the next bill.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) threatened to remove the Speaker for introducing the bill, but later Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ky.) Arizona State) also joined.
Mr. Johnson, with support from House Democrats, stood up to members of his own party and advanced all four bills to the floor, where they passed by wide margins. Only the Ukraine bill was opposed by a majority of the House Republican conference.
“Our three main adversaries, Russia, Iran and China, are working together and pose a global threat to our prosperity and security,” the chairman told reporters after the vote. “Their advances threaten the free world and require American leadership.”
“If we turn our backs now, the consequences could be catastrophic,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “It’s an old military adage that we would rather be involved in a conflict overseas than our own children or our troops.” I prefer to send bullets.”
He added that almost 80% of the military funding, which makes up the bulk of the package, will replenish U.S.-made weapons and ammunition.
In an interview with Politico, Mr. Johnson also revealed that his high-level intelligence briefings had convinced him of the dangers of approving U.S. funding for global conflicts.
“It was intelligence, it was European generals in charge of world freedom, and of course development as well, and everything escalated,” he said. Said The media referenced missiles that Iran launched against Israel earlier this month.
Mr. Greene and Mr. Massey have called on Mr. Johnson to resign because of the bill’s passage in the House, and have criticized past congressional battles over government funding and reauthorization of U.S. intelligence agencies’ legitimate spying capabilities.
