Senate to Consider $95 Billion War Aid Package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan
The US Senate is set to vote on a $95 billion war aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The package includes $61 billion for Ukraine, which is desperately in need of new firepower as Russian President Vladimir Putin has intensified his attacks. The Biden administration has pledged to send additional air defense weaponry to Ukraine.
The legislation also includes $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza. It also provides $8 billion to counter China in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. To gain more votes, Republicans in the House majority added a bill to the package that could ban the social media app TikTok in the US if its Chinese owners do not sell their stake within a year.
The foreign aid portion of the bill is similar to what the Senate passed in February, with some minor changes and additions. The package has had broad congressional support since President Biden first requested the money last summer. However, congressional leaders have faced strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question US involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should focus on the surge of migration at the US-Mexico border.
The Senate could pass the aid package as soon as Tuesday afternoon if senators can agree on the timing for a vote. If Republicans opposed to the legislation decide to protest and draw out the process, final votes would likely be Wednesday. The legislation was first passed by the Senate in February on a sweeping 70-29 vote, and it could get even more votes this time after the House added in the loan provisions.
Opponents in the Senate, like the House, are likely to include some left-wing senators who oppose aiding Israel because of the country’s war in Gaza. Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch both voted against the package in February. The war between Israel and Hamas broke out following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught against Israel, during which the terror organization killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed over 33,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The revised House package also included several Republican priorities that were acceptable to Democrats to get the bill passed. These include proposals that allow the US to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China, and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and could eventually ban TikTok in the US if the owner does not sell. That bill has wide bipartisan support in the House and Senate.
