WASHINGTON-
The US Senate approved $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debates over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
The bill passed the Senate by an overwhelming 79-18 vote Tuesday night, after the House passed the package on Saturday. Biden, who worked with congressional leaders to build support, is expected to quickly sign the legislation and begin the process of shipping weapons to Ukraine, which has been struggling to hold its ground against Russia. The legislation would also send $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian aid to citizens of Gaza, and $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
U.S. officials said about $1 billion of aid could be on the way soon, with the bulk arriving 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 approved the aid, “the United States would have paid an economic, political and military”.
“Very few things we have done have reached this level of historical importance,” 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 made passing the legislation a top priority, agreeing to tie aid to Ukraine and Israel to help ensure passage and arguing there could be dire consequences for the United States and many of its global allies if Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression is not controlled. 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’s 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 on Saturday, with Ukraine’s portion passing 311-112.
The $61 billion for Ukraine comes at a time when the war-torn country desperately needs new firepower and as Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his attacks. Ukrainian soldiers have fought as Russia seized momentum on the battlefield and gained significant territory.
Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday that the United States will send much-needed air defense weapons as soon as the legislation is passed.
“The president has assured me that the package will be approved quickly and that it will be powerful, strengthening our air defense as well as our artillery and long-range capabilities,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday.
In an effort to win more votes, Republicans in the House majority 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 sell their stake within a anus. That legislation had broad bipartisan support in both chambers.
The TikTok bill was one of several adjustments Johnson made to the package the Senate passed in February as he attempted to pass the bill in the House despite significant opposition within his conference. Other additions include a stipulation that $9 billion of economic assistance to Ukraine be in the form of “forgivable loans”; provisions allowing the United States to seize frozen assets of the Russian central bank to rebuild Ukraine; and bills to impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a veteran hawk who voted against the foreign aid package in February because it was not accompanied by legislation to curb migration at the border, was among the Republicans who changed their votes. “If we don’t help Ukraine now, this war will spread and Americans who aren’t involved will be,” Graham said.
The package has had broad congressional support since Biden first requested the money last summer. But congressional leaders had to overcome strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should focus on increasing migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, a Republican who is a close ally of Donald Trump, said that despite the strong show of support for Ukraine defense funding, opposition is growing among Republicans.
“America is spread too thin,” Vance said, “and I think that argument is winning over the American people and slowly winning the Senate, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
The growing gap in the Republican Party between conservatives who are skeptical of aid and more traditional “Reagan Republicans” who strongly support it, may come to define the careers of the two top Republican leaders.
McConnell, who has made Ukraine aid a top priority, said last month he would step down from leadership after increasingly distancing himself from many at his conference on Ukraine aid and other issues. Johnson, who said he introduced the bills after praying for guidance, faces threats of being ousted after a majority of Republicans voted against aid to Ukraine.
Johnson said after House approval that “we did our job here and I think history will judge well.”
Among the opponents in the Senate, as in the House of Representatives, are some left-wing senators who oppose helping Israel while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bombed Gaza, killing thousands 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.