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The US Senate has approved a $95 billion bill to provide security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, after garnering overwhelming bipartisan support to strengthen key priorities of Joe Biden’s foreign policy.
The legislation’s final passage in Congress on Tuesday ends a months-long political impasse that cast doubt on America’s ability to project power around the world.
The Capitol’s approval clears the way for Washington to quickly send new weapons to Ukraine as that country fights Russia’s full-scale invasion. U.S. officials said some aid for kyiv would be disbursed within days.
It will also boost U.S. military assistance to Israel after it exchanged drone and missile attacks with Iran over the past 10 days — despite growing tensions between the White House and Israeli leaders over about their conduct of the war in Gaza against Hamas and the heavy attacks. Palestinian civilian casualties.
The bill’s passage represents a big legislative victory for Biden as he heads into a general election battle against Donald Trump in November — and a defeat for foreign policy isolationists, particularly Republican lawmakers close to the former president, who had delayed their support. kyiv for months.
The bill received the support of 79 senators, against 18.
Biden immediately praised its passage in a statement and said he would sign the bill on Wednesday, so aid could start flowing to Ukraine as early as this week. “Congress passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we steadfastly defend democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.”
John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesman, said: “Mr. Putin thinks he can buy time, so we have to try to make up some of that time.” »
The biggest hurdle for the bill was cleared Saturday after Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, decided to put aid to Ukraine to a vote after months of internal divisions and facing to rank-and-file lawmakers, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who threatened to oust him from his role.
Supporters of the bill in both parties and at the White House saw it as a victory for American leadership in the world, but it was still a bittersweet moment because of how long it took to get it done. be adopted by Congress.
“Much of the hesitation and short-sightedness that has delayed this moment is pure fiction,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said Tuesday, blaming Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who recently interviewed Russian President Vladimir. Putin in Moscow, for having “demonized” Ukraine.
“Make no mistake: the delay in supplying Ukraine with the weapons needed for its defense has severely tested the chances of defeating Russian aggression. The hesitations and hesitations have compounded the challenges we face,” McConnell said.
But opponents of aid to Ukraine continued to attack the legislation. JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio close to Trump, said the arguments for aid to Ukraine echoed those that led to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
“They’re the exact same talking points 20 years later, with different names,” Vance said. Some left-wing lawmakers, meanwhile, criticized the bill because it allows Israel to continue receiving offensive weapons from the United States. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, pushed for an amendment to remove these measures from the legislation, but it was not considered.
He joined two Democrats and 15 Republicans opposed to the package. “I voted no tonight on the foreign aid package for one simple reason: American taxpayers should not provide billions more to Netanyahu’s extremist government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people,” Sanders said.
