Senate Considers $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan

The Senate has initiated its review of a comprehensive package that proposes providing $95 billion in foreign assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The legislation, consisting of four distinct bills, gained bipartisan support during its passage through the House over the weekend. President Joe Biden has emphasized the urgency for the Senate to swiftly advance the measures for his approval. The package allocates approximately $26 billion to Israel, which is currently engaged in a conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Additionally, it allocates $61 billion to Ukraine and $8 billion to allies in the Indo-Pacific region. A fourth bill seeks to impose a U.S. ban on TikTok if its Chinese parent company does not divest its ownership, implement sanctions against Russia, China, and Iran, and seize Russian assets to aid Ukraine’s recovery from the conflict’s devastation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning, emphasized the need to “finish the job” and urged his colleagues to do so “as expeditiously as possible.” Schumer had previously hailed the House’s approval of the bills as a “watershed moment for the defense of democracy” and announced that the Senate would shorten its recess to conduct its first vote on advancing the proposals on Tuesday. The bills are expected to receive final approval sometime this week. “To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” Schumer stated in a statement issued on Saturday. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a long-standing advocate for Ukraine aid, addressed the Senate on Tuesday morning, highlighting the United States’ “global responsibility” to assist Ukraine in its resistance against Russia. Over a year has passed since Congress last approved additional assistance for Ukraine in its battle against Russian aggressors. In recent weeks, the conflict has escalated, with Russian strikes increasingly penetrating Ukraine’s weakening air defenses. President Biden engaged in a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday to reaffirm U.S. support for the nation. He indicated that the administration would provide a new round of assistance to Ukraine as soon as the bills are passed by Congress. Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to Biden for “his unwavering support for Ukraine and for his true global leadership.” The Ukrainian leader praised House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for their contributions to the passage of the latest bills. Biden initially requested additional aid for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific last fall. The Senate approved a $95 billion bill in February, but the legislation encountered a stalemate in the House due to opposition from a group of Republican hardliners who opposed sending more resources abroad without addressing domestic concerns such as immigration. Simultaneously, GOP leaders such as Johnson echoed these concerns and advocated for significant changes to immigration policy, although a comprehensive agreement in the Senate to link foreign aid to such changes faced opposition from former President Donald Trump and was rejected by conservatives as insufficient. Following unprecedented attacks by Iran on Israel earlier this month in retaliation for an airstrike on an Iranian consular facility in Syria, and as Russian forces continue to make offensive advances, pressure on lawmakers to approve aid to international allies intensified. Speaker Johnson, who had previously opposed further aid to Ukraine, stated last week that he was “willing” to risk his position over the issue, as fellow Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Paul Gosar threatened to oust him. Johnson gained bipartisan praise for his reversal. “He tried to do what the, you know, say the Freedom Caucus wanted him to do. It wasn’t going to work in the Senate or the White House,” Republican Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, stated on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “At the end of the day, we were running out of time. Ukraine’s getting ready to fall.” Johnson, according to McCaul, “went through a transformation” on the issue.