Senate’s $95bn for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan faces uphill battle in House

The US Senate has approved a $95bn (£75.2bn) aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of political wrangling.

While Democrats were in favour of passing the bill, Republicans were divided and previously voted it down. The package includes $60bn for Kyiv, $14bn for Israel’s war against Hamas and $10bn for humanitarian aid in conflict zones, including in Gaza.

The bill will now go to the House, where its fate is uncertain.

The package, which also includes more than $4bn in funds for Indo-Pacific allies, passed the Senate despite criticism from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump. Lawmakers voted 70 to 29 to approve the package. Twenty-two Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined most Democrats to vote for the legislation.

“History settles every account,” Mr McConnell, a Kentucky senator, said in a statement following the vote. “And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”

Ukraine’s leader said he was “grateful” to senators. “For us in Ukraine, continued US assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror. It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The vote came after an all-night Senate session during which several Republican opponents made speeches in a bid to slow down the process. “Shouldn’t we try to fix our own country first?” Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said on Monday. Some left-wing lawmakers, including Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also voted against the bill, citing concerns about supporting Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

The aid package is a stripped-down version of a $118bn package that Senate Republicans voted down last week.

Republicans had initially demanded that any foreign aid be tied to more security measures at the southern border. But after Mr Trump came out against the border provisions, Republicans were divided on the package. Some lawmakers suggested border measures could be added back into the current version of the legislation.

Mr Johnson suggested in a statement on Monday night the new bill would not pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives without such provisions. “House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognise that national security begins at our own border,” he said.

The Louisiana congressman said lawmakers “should have gone back to the drawing board” with the legislation to focus on border security.

With Senate passage of the aid bill stripped of immigration measures, Mr Johnson and the House Republican leadership will have to decide whether to bring the package to a vote in that chamber, attempt to amend it and send it back to the Senate, or to ignore it entirely.

That last option could prompt those House Republicans who support Ukraine military assistance to join Democrats in filing a discharge petition. This is a rare parliamentary procedure that would circumvent Mr Johnson and force a vote.

Some on the left may baulk at the military aid for Israel in the package, however, making such a manoeuvre – which requires the support of a majority of the House – more difficult.

After the Senate vote, Mr Johnson said his chamber “will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters”. He could divide the different pieces of aid into separate components, or add conservative US immigration reforms. Mr Johnson will be hard-pressed to convince his narrow House majority, which is sharply divided on aid to Ukraine, to follow his lead, however.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, hailed the passage of the bill on Tuesday. He said the Senate was “telling Putin he will regret the day he questioned America’s resolve”.

President Joe Biden applauded the measure, too, saying it would allow the US “to stand up for Ukraine’s freedom and support its ability to defend itself against Russia’s aggression”.

The US is one of the largest providers of aid to Ukraine. The White House asked Congress months ago to pass a bill that included foreign aid.

This could be Congress’s last shot at passing Ukraine aid for the foreseeable future, and Ukraine has warned it may not be able to successfully defend itself against Russia without Washington’s backing.

(BBC)