The US Senate has approved $95 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of delays and debate over how involved the US should be in foreign wars.
The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday after the House of Representatives approved it on Saturday. President Biden has said he will sign the bill as soon as it hits his desk on Wednesday and will send aid to Ukraine this week. Mr. Biden said:
Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point.
The legislation also provides $26 billion for military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gazans, as well as $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.
The bill prohibits the transfer of any humanitarian funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the organisation that distributes most food, medicine and basic services to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East. The ban followed allegations that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, and that Hamas had widely infiltrated the agency. An independent audit of the latter claim, commissioned by the United Nations, found no evidence to support it.
Some Republicans opposed the bill, but in the end, 31 Republicans – nine more than when the Senate passed a similar version in February – and a majority of the Senate GOP conference voted in favour of the aid package. The House approved the package on Saturday in four votes, with the Ukraine portion passing 311-112.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted against the foreign aid package in February because it wasn’t combined with the Stop Migration at the Border Act, was one of the Republicans who switched his vote. She said:
If we don’t help Ukraine now, this war will spread, and Americans who are not involved will be involved.
