The US Senate on Tuesday was preparing to give final approval to a $95bn wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a bipartisan coalition eager to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature.
In a 80-19 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a procedural vote to advance the package in a move hailed by the Senate majority leader as “one of the greatest achievements the Senate has faced in years”.
After months of delays and setbacks, the House last week approved four bills to rush funding to three American allies while approving a conservative proposal that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media platform TikTok. The measures were combined into one large package that the Senate will take up on Tuesday.
The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defenses against China.
In a call on Monday, Biden informed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he would “move quickly” to send desperately needed military aid, including air defense weaponry, to the country following the bill’s passage by the Senate.
In a move to bolster Republican support, the GOP-controlled House added a provision that would see TikTok blocked in the US unless its Chinese-owned parent company divests from the social media platform within a year. Much of the foreign aid section of the bill mirrors what the Senate passed in February, with the addition of a measure mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump.
The vast majority of senators was expected to support the package, overriding objections from hard-line conservatives opposed to sending more money to Ukraine and some progressive Democrats who say they cannot endorse a measure that would send offensive military funding to Israel as its government wages a war on Gaza that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.
Biden, who has been pressuring Congress to approve the foreign aid request for months, has said he would quickly sign it into law.
“The time has come to finish the job to help our friends abroad once and for all,” said Chuck Schumer in a floor speech on Tuesday, issuing a call for the chamber to join him in approving the legislation as “expeditiously as possible”.
“Let us not keep our friends around the world waiting for a moment longer,” the Senate majority leader said.
Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said he plans to offer amendments that would cut funding to aid Israel, citing Americans’ “increasing disgust” for Benjamin Netanyahu’s bombardment of Gaza.
“We cannot continue to fund this horrific war,” said Sanders, who voted against a version of the bill in February.
Rick Scott announced he would not support the aid package because it sends billions of US taxpayer dollars to Ukraine. In an op-ed published Tuesday in the Hill, the Florida Republican senator said he supported TikTok and providing aid to Israel, but could not “look the other way and vote for banning policies” that he said would ultimately hurt Americans and US allies.
Mitch McConnell has made approving Ukraine aid a top priority in his final months leading the Senate Republican conference. In a lengthy floor speech ahead of the procedural vote on Tuesday, McConnell confronted the strain of “America first” isolationism favored by Trump and his loyalists in Congress that is rife and growing within the Republican party.
“Will we persist in the 21st century with an approach that failed in the 20th? Or will we dispense with the myths of isolationism and embrace reality?” McConnell said. “Today, the Senate faces a test. And we must not fail it.”