The U.S. Senate is preparing to give final approval to a $95 billion wartime aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Tuesday, with a bipartisan coalition sending the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature. He was very enthusiastic about it.
By an 80-19 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly passed key procedural votes to move the package forward, with the Senate Majority Leader calling it “one of the greatest accomplishments the Senate has faced in years.” praised.
“Many people inside and outside Congress want this policy to fail,” Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech, likely as early as Tuesday evening, shortly after the Senate began moving toward final passage of the bill. “I was there,” he said. “But today, those on the side of democracy in Congress are winning.
“Make no mistake: America is committed to acting like a leader on the world stage and preventing confrontation with authoritarian thugs like Vladimir Putin,” he continued. “We are showing President Putin that betting against America is always, always a grave mistake.”
After months of delays and setbacks, the House of Representatives last week approved four bills to fast-track funding to three U.S. allies, while potentially leading to a nationwide ban on social media platform TikTok. It also approved certain conservative proposals. The measures will be rolled into one big package and taken up in the Senate on Tuesday.
This law includes: $60.8 billion to replenish Ukraine’s military budget as it tries to repel Russia from its territory. $26.3 billion for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones including Gaza. Provides $8.1 billion to the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen defenses against China.
Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call Monday that he would “act quickly” to send desperately needed military aid. including air defense weaponsto the nation following the passage of the bill by the Senate.
In a move to shore up Republican support, the Republican-controlled House added a provision that would block TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese-owned parent company exits the social media platform within a year. Many of the foreign aid items in the bill mirror those passed by the Senate in February, requiring the president to require Kiev to repay approximately $10 billion in economic aid in the form of “forgiven loans.” The first idea that emerged was that . Donald Trump initially opposed aid to Ukraine.
The majority of senators are conservative hardliners who are wary of sending more money to Ukraine, and some progressives who oppose providing additional military aid to Israel while the government is waging war. The bill was expected to support the bill in final passage, over the objections of Democrats. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, pushing the region to the brink of famine.
Biden, who has been pressuring Congress for months to approve the foreign aid request, said he would quickly sign it into law.
Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, called for two amendments to be introduced. One would halt offensive military funding to Israel, citing Americans’ “increasing disgust” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war machine,” and the other would cut funding to U.N. relief agencies. It is something that can be recovered. Anruwa. Both bills were blocked from consideration, with Sanders joining 18 other senators in opposing the bills.
“It’s a dark day for our democracy that the Senate won’t even allow a vote on this issue,” he said in a statement.
Rick Scott announced that he does not support this aid package that would send billions of US taxpayer dollars to Ukraine. In an op-ed published in The Hill on Tuesday, the Florida Republican senator supports TikTok and support for Israel, but argues that it is not in America’s interest to “turn a blind eye and vote on policies.” He said he could not.
The foreign aid package is largely similar to the bill the Senate passed by a decisive 70-29 vote in February. However, several Republican senators who voted against it at the time reversed course and now support the bill. That includes longtime defense hawk Lindsey Graham, who previously opposed the Senate’s foreign aid package because it wasn’t bundled with border legislation, but on Tuesday decided to move forward with it. Voted yes. After visiting Ukraine earlier this year, Graham supported President Trump’s loan plan. Since then, it has pointed to Iranian airstrikes in Israel. As a reason to rush aid to the country.
“Israel needs the U.S. Senate now. There are no excuses,” Graham wrote about X before voting to advance the bill.
Mitch McConnell has made approving Ukraine aid a top priority in his final months leading the Senate Republican conference. In a lengthy floor speech ahead of Tuesday’s procedural vote, McConnell confronted the pervasive and growing tension within the Republican Party of the “America First” isolationism favored by President Trump and his supporters in Congress. .
“Are we going to carry into the 21st century the approaches that failed us in the 20th century? Or are we going to dispel the myth of isolationism and embrace reality?” McConnell said. “Today the Senate faces a test. And we must not fail it.”
