The House has passed a more than $60 billion bill to increase military aid to Ukraine.
It’s part of a larger foreign aid package that is likely to pass the Senate and be signed into law.
112 Republicans voted against it — the most ever and a majority in the GOP conference.
The House of Representatives on Saturday passed a bill worth more than $60 billion to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine.
A solid majority of Republicans voted against the bill, which passed by a vote of 311 to 112. 101 Republicans voted for it, and one Republican, Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, voted “present.”
The Ukraine aid bill was introduced after months of delay and despite fierce opposition from the far right, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to call a vote to oust the president of the House, Mike Johnson, if he would authorize such a vote.
Under Johnson’s unconventional plan, the Ukraine bill will be sent to the Senate as part of a package that includes aid to Israel and Taiwan and a third bill that forces the sale of TikTok and allows United States to confiscate Russian assets. Each component received its own vote in the House on Saturday.
The bill is expected to pass the Senate in the coming days, as it broadly mirrors a $95.3 billion national security bill passed by the upper chamber in February. President Joe Biden has pledged to sign it.
Saturday’s vote marked the first time the House approved billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since December 2022, when Democrats still controlled the chamber.
In the two years since the Russian invasion, opposition to aid to Ukraine has grown from a fringe position to a majority view among House Republican lawmakers. Many argue that the money should be spent domestically or that policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico border should take priority.
The new injection of aid comes at a decisive time for Ukraine, which faces an ammunition shortage and insufficient air defense.
Because of the move, Johnson could face a vote on his ouster in the coming weeks. The Republican Party chairman, however, has become more willing to confront the threat from the right, and Democrats have suggested they are prepared to protect him from an ouster attempt if he allows a vote on aid to Ukraine.
“If I operated out of fear of a motion to leave, I would never be able to do my job,” Johnson told reporters this week. “History judges us for what we do. We are currently living in a critical period.”
here are the 112 House Republicans who voted against the bill:
Read the original article on Business Insider
yahoo
