politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved $95 billion in war aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, taking over the bill after months of delays and contentious debates over how involved the United States must be in foreign wars President Joe Biden forwarded.
The bill passed the Senate late Tuesday with an awesome 79-18 majority after the House approved the package on Saturday. Biden, who had been working with congressional leaders to win support, said in a press release immediately after passage that he would sign it on Wednesday and start the strategy of delivering weapons to Ukraine, which is struggling to take care of its front lines against Russia to maintain.
“Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House of Representatives to answer the call of history at this critical juncture,” Biden said.
The bill would also provide $26 billion in war aid to Israel and humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza, in addition to $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. U.S. officials said about $1 billion in aid could possibly be on the way in which soon, with the majority coming in the approaching weeks.
In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said if Congress had not approved the help, “America would have paid a price economically, politically and militarily.”
“Very few things we have done have achieved such historical significance,” he said.
On the Senate floor, Schumer said the Senate was sending a message to U.S. allies: “We will stand with you.”
Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell placed great emphasis on the bill's passage and agreed to tie aid to Ukraine and Israel to make sure passage. They argued that a failure by Russian President Vladimir Putin could have devastating consequences for the United States and plenty of of its global allies if aggression goes unchecked. They worked with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, particularly to beat seemingly stubborn Republican opposition to Ukraine aid – and ultimately won large majorities in each chambers.
McConnell said in a separate interview before the vote that it’s “one of the biggest days of the time I've been here.”
“At least in this episode, I think we turned the tables on the isolationists,” McConnell said.
In the tip, 31 Republicans voted for the relief package – nine greater than when the Senate passed the same version in February and a majority of the GOP Senate Conference. The House of Representatives approved the package in 4 votes on Saturday, with the Ukrainian part passing by a vote of 311 to 112.
The $61 billion for Ukraine comes because the war-torn country desperately needs latest firepower and Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his attacks. Ukrainian soldiers struggled while Russia seized momentum on the battlefield and gained significant territory.
Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday that the United States will send urgently needed air defense weapons as soon because the law is passed.
“The president assured me that the package will be adopted quickly and that it will be powerful and strengthen our air defense, long-range and artillery capabilities,” Zelensky said in a post on X on Monday.
In a bid to win more votes, Republicans within the House majority also added a bill to the foreign aid package that might ban social media app TikTok within the United States if its Chinese owners don’t sell their shares inside a yr. This laws received broad bipartisan support in each chambers.
The TikTok bill was one among several changes Johnson made to the package the Senate passed in February as he tried to push the bill through the House despite significant opposition inside his conference. Other additions include a provision that $9 billion of economic aid to Ukraine are available the shape of “forgivable loans”; Provisions allowing the U.S. to seize frozen assets of the Russian central bank to rebuild Ukraine; and draft laws to impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that sell fentanyl.
Those changes appear to have brought a few of the Senate's nine additional Republicans on board and support from greater than half of McConnell's conference.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime hawk who voted against the foreign aid package in February since it was not paired with laws to curb migration on the border, was one among the Republicans who switched votes. “If we don’t help Ukraine now, this war will expand and Americans who are not involved will be caught up in it,” Graham said.
The package has enjoyed broad support in Congress since Biden first requested the cash last summer. But congressional leaders have needed to contend with strong opposition from a growing variety of conservatives who query U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should as a substitute concentrate on the surge in migration on the U.S.-U.S. border Mexico should focus.
Ohio Senator JD Vance, a Republican and shut ally of Donald Trump, said that despite strong support for funding Ukraine's defense, opposition amongst Republicans is growing.
“The United States is spread too thin,” Vance said. “And I think that argument is winning over the American people and slowly the Senate, but it's not going to happen overnight.”
The growing fault line within the Republican Party between conservatives who’re skeptical of the help and the more traditional “Reagan Republicans” who strongly support it could prove career-defining for the 2 top Republican leaders.
McConnell, who has made Ukraine aid a top priority, said last month that he would step down from leadership after becoming increasingly distant from many at his conference on Ukraine aid and other issues. Johnson, who said he introduced the bills after praying for leadership, faces a fall after a majority of Republicans voted against aid to Ukraine.
Johnson said after the House passage: “We've done our job here, and I think history will judge it well.”
Opponents within the Senate and House of Representatives included some left-wing senators who oppose supporting Israel because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bombed Gaza and killed hundreds of civilians. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., voted against the package.
“We must end our complicity in this terrible war,” Sanders said.
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