The Senate passed $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the bill to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how the U.S. should be involved in foreign wars.
The bill passed the Senate Tuesday evening by an overwhelming vote of 79-18, after the House approved the package on Saturday. Biden, who has worked with congressional leaders to build support, is expected to quickly sign the legislation and begin the process of sending weapons to Ukraine, which has struggled to maintain its front line against Russia. The legislation would also send $26 billion in wartime aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to citizens of Gaza, as well as $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific .
U.S. officials said about $1 billion in aid could be delivered shortly, with the bulk of it expected to follow in the coming weeks.
In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if Congress had not passed the aid, “America would have paid for it.” the price economically, politically and militarily.”
“Very few things we have done have reached this level of historical significance,” he said.
On the Senate floor, Schumer said the Senate was sending a message to America’s allies: “We will stand with you.”
Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have made passing the legislation a top priority, agreeing to tie aid to Ukraine and Israel to help ensure passage and arguing it could There will be disastrous consequences for the United States and many of its global allies if Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression is not contained. They worked with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, to overcome seemingly intractable Republican opposition to aid to Ukraine, in particular — and ultimately won large majorities in both chambers.
McConnell said in a separate interview before the vote that it was “one of the most important days since I’ve been here.”
“At least in this episode, I think we turned the tables on the isolationists,” McConnell said.
The House approved the package in a series of four votes Saturday, with the Ukrainian side passing 311-112.
President Joe Biden opened his 2024 State of the Union address by pledging to continue arming Ukraine in its fight against Russia. “If anyone in this room thinks that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) will stop at Ukraine, I assure you he will not.”
The $61 billion for Ukraine comes as the war-torn country desperately needs new firepower and Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his attacks. Ukrainian soldiers struggled as Russia took advantage of the battlefield momentum and gained significant territory.
Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday that the United States would send much-needed air defense weapons as soon as the legislation was passed.
“The president assured me that the package would be approved quickly and that it would be powerful, strengthening our air defense as well as our long-range and artillery capabilities,” Zelenskyy said in a message on X on Monday.
In a bid to gain more votes, House majority Republicans also added a bill to the foreign aid package that could ban the social media app TikTok in the United States if its Chinese owners do not not sell their shares within a year. This legislation had broad bipartisan support in both chambers.
The TikTok bill was one of 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 within his conference. Other additions include a stipulation that $9 billion in economic aid to Ukraine will take the form of “forgivable loans”; provisions allowing the United States to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; and bills to impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime hawk who voted against the foreign aid package in February because it was not accompanied by legislation to stem migration at the border, was l ‘one of the Republicans who changed their vote. “If we don’t help Ukraine now, this war will expand and Americans who aren’t involved will be,” Graham said.
The package has enjoyed broad congressional support since Biden first requested the money last summer. But congressional leaders have faced strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should instead focus on rising migration on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, a Republican close ally of Donald Trump, said that despite strong support for funding Ukraine’s defense, opposition is growing among Republicans.
“The United States is spread too thin,” Vance said, “and I think that argument is winning over the American people and slowly winning over the Senate, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
The growing divide within the Republican Party between conservatives who are skeptical of aid and more traditional, “Reagan Republicans” who strongly support it, could prove career-defining for both main Republican leaders.
McConnell, who has made aid to Ukraine a top priority, said last month he would leave his leadership post after increasingly distancing himself from many people during his aid conference to Ukraine and other issues. Johnson, who said he introduced the bills after praying for advice, faces threats of ouster after a majority of Republicans voted against aid to Ukraine.
Johnson said after the House passage that “we’ve done our job here, and I think history will judge that well.”
Opponents in the Senate, as in the House, included some left-wing senators who oppose aid to Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bombed Gaza and killed thousands of civilians. Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., voted against the package.
“We must end our complicity in this terrible war,” Sanders said.
NBC Chicago
