The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday night (April 23) to pass a $95 billion foreign aid package to provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The bill received widespread support from both Democratic and Republican senators in the Senate and passed with an overwhelming majority of 79 votes to 18.
Earlier on the same day, the Senate voted to end the filibuster. Senators voted 80 to 19 to push the bill to the finish line, and then voted on the final passage of the bill that night.
The bill includes $61 billion in aid to Ukraine. Currently, war-torn Ukraine is in urgent need of new weapons and ammunition. The Ukrainian army is struggling to support itself on the front line, while Russia has gained momentum on the battlefield and has made significant progress in conquering cities and territories.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday that the U.S. would send urgently needed anti-aircraft weapons as soon as the bill is passed.
After months of debate and delay, the U.S. House of Representatives passed four items in four votes on Saturday and then combined them into a foreign aid bill and sent it to the Senate.
Two defense officials told Voice of America (VOA) that the United States plans to immediately provide up to $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine once the supplemental aid funding bill is passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
In addition to aid to Ukraine, the bill will also provide US$26 billion for wartime aid to Israel and humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza, and US$8 billion to counter China in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.
In order to gain more votes, the Republicans who hold the majority in the House of Representatives also added a bill to the package requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, the overseas version of the social media application software Douyin, to cease operations within one year. Sell their shares or risk having them banned.
The TikTok bill was overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives in March this year, but the prospect of that bill in the Senate is unclear. This time, the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok, which otherwise may be banned, was included in the foreign aid bill that must be passed urgently by the House of Representatives. However, the original legislation stipulated that the TikTok sale period was 180 days, but the new bill will give a 270-day period, which may be extended by 90 days during the sale period.
The foreign aid portion of the bill passed on Tuesday is similar to the foreign aid bill passed by the Senate in February, with only minor modifications and additions, including a bill on TikTok and a provision for $9 billion in economic aid to Ukraine as “forgivable loans.” provided in the form.
Leaders of both parties in the Senate spoke before the final vote, saying that passing this series of foreign aid bills was crucial to the United States and the free world.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, spoke on the floor of the chamber on Tuesday night and said, “Finally, finally, finally tonight, after more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns, America has sent a message to the world: We will not turn our backs on you.”
“Tonight we tell our allies that we stand with you. We tell our adversaries to leave us alone. We tell the world. America will do whatever it takes to defend democracy and our way of life. This bill is the first step Congress has taken for years to protect One of the most important measures passed for American security and the future of Western democracy,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, also spoke and praised the Senate for supporting the bill.
“Our enemies have been testing whether the arsenal of democracy can actually last,” McConnell said on the floor. “Tonight the Senate will send a clear message. History will record that even though allies and partners may be skeptical of our resolve, There are concerns about the depth of our influence… Even as Moscow, Beijing and Tehran become increasingly convinced that our influence has reached its end… Even as there are those within us who loudly insist on abdicating leadership responsibilities… But the United States stood its ground.”
