The final tally was 79-18, a stirring display of bipartisanship in an era of deep political divisions.
“The relentless work of six long months has paid off,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor following an earlier procedural vote.
Now that the bill has passed, it moves to Biden, who said he would sign it into law on Wednesday, after the House passed the package as four separate bills on Saturday.
The bill “will strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: We stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday night.
The funding includes approximately $60 billion for aid to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, and $8 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific security.
On spending, the legislation is similar to the $95 billion foreign aid bill passed by the Senate in February, which has effectively been shelved in the House in the weeks since.
But this bill also contains several other foreign policy proposals, including a measure to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform or face a national ban on the app. The provision would give ByteDance nine months to sell, although Biden could do so. extends that schedule to one year.
A source within the company said TikTok would file a “legal challenge” if the bill became law, according to an internal memo obtained by NBC News.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again stymie a ban bill that would trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” a TikTok spokesperson said on Thursday. Saturday after approval by the House of Representatives. the invoice.
So far this year, TikTok and ByteDance have collectively spent more than $7 million on lobbying and advertising to prevent Congress from passing legislation to force the sale, according to disclosure reports.
The foreign aid package has also been the subject of deep Republican Party infighting, a major reason the legislation has been stalled on Capitol Hill since Biden first proposed it in October.
House Republicans, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have threatened to unseat House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, in part for approving this foreign aid, calling it “treason.” total” to X. In March, she filed a motion to remove the speaker, but has yet to force a vote.
Those political threats, along with a narrowing Republican majority in the House, led Johnson to effectively delay the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid bill for weeks.
But Johnson decided to end the foreign aid stalemate last week following Iran’s attack on April 13, after which the president faced renewed bipartisan pressure to advance funding.
And despite Greene’s threats, Johnson’s job has some security thanks to the public support of former President Donald Trump.
“Look, we have a majority of one, okay? It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants. “I think he’s a very good person,” Trump said in a radio interview on “The John Fredericks Show” Monday night.
“I think he’s trying really hard.”