WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats and Republicans came together Tuesday morning to pass a $95 billion national security package that includes critical aid for three key U.S. allies — Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The vote was by 70 votes to 29 votes. Twenty-two Senate Republicans voted for the package, while two Senate Democrats — Peter Welch of Vermont and Jeff Merkley of Oregon — and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, voted against it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the bill's passage in remarks on the Senate floor after the vote.
“If we want the world to remain a safe place for freedom, democratic principles, and our future prosperity, America must lead the way,” Schumer said. “With this bill, the Senate declares that American leadership will not waver, will not falter, and will not fail.”
Schumer said the Senate's action would make Russian President Vladimir Putin “regret the day he doubted America's resolve. We are sending a clear, bipartisan message to our NATO allies.”
“America’s adversaries want America to decide that strengthening allies and partners is not in our interest and that investing in strategic competition is not worth it,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “They want us to gain hard-earned credibility and exposure.” “. There is fire in it.”
He continued: “But today, the Senate responded by reaffirming a commitment to rebuild and modernize our military, restore our credibility, and give the current Commander in Chief, as well as the next Commander, more tools to secure our interests.”
The Senate vote to pass the foreign aid bill is an important step forward after months of delay centered on whether strict border security measures would be part of the package. Although Republicans demanded that any bill authorizing aid to Ukraine also address the crisis at the border, they ultimately killed the bipartisan package that brought these issues together.
The emergency aid bill now faces an uncertain fate in the GOP-controlled House, where conservatives are pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, to block funds for war-torn Ukraine until America's southern border is safe. Hours before the vote, Johnson made clear that he would not present the Senate security package to the House of Representatives.
“The Senate should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing disaster. Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.” “. Johnson said in a statement.
“Now, with not a single change in border policy received from the Senate, the House will have to continue to act on these important matters,” he added.
In an emotional speech and interview with reporters, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, pushed back against his GOP colleagues who opposed the bill and said Washington needed to focus on protecting America's borders before those of foreign allies.
“This is not about taking care of other people. I certainly care about the people in Ukraine and their freedom or the people in Israel and what they suffered…but this is, first and foremost, an issue about protecting Americans,” Moran said. He told reporters Monday evening.
“My point is that when we focus on the world, we also focus on America,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked senators for their support in a message on Telegram, saying that US aid “helps save human lives from Russian terrorism. This means that life will continue in our cities and war will be won.”
“U.S. assistance brings a just peace in Ukraine closer and restores global stability, leading to increased security and prosperity for all Americans and all of the free world,” Zelensky said.
The package approved by the Senate calls for $95.34 billion in aid, including $60.06 billion to help protect Ukraine from a Russian invasion. $14.1 billion in security aid to Israel; $9.15 billion in humanitarian aid to provide things like food, water, and medical care to affected civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, Ukraine, and other hot spots; And $4.83 billion to support allies in the Indo-Pacific region and deter Chinese government aggression.
Initially, Senate leaders had hoped to move forward with a foreign aid package that included tougher provisions on asylum and border security negotiated by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, and Kyrsten Sinema, R-Ariz.
But GOP leaders abandoned that strategy after former President Donald Trump and top House GOP leaders objected to the bipartisan border deal, saying it would not be enough to stop the flow of illegal crossings at the southern border. Last week, Senate Republicans blocked a combined border and foreign aid package, forcing leadership to return to Plan B: abandon the border deal and try to move forward with a standalone aid package.
But then Senate conservatives objected to moving forward with the aid package without border security provisions attached. Among them was Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who tried to slow the progress of the new bill at every step.
“I think we have to address our problems here first,” Paul told reporters over the weekend while delaying his confirmation. A large portion of the Republican caucus said we have to have border security in this bill, and our leadership has given up, our leadership has given up. The leadership said, basically, that the Ukrainian border is more important than our southern border, and I disagree with that.”
McConnell, another Kentucky senator who has been a longtime defense hawk, was on the other side of that argument. Speaking to a rare Senate session on Sunday, McConnell criticized those in his conference who objected to sending additional aid to Ukraine, saying they had “the darkest and most short-sighted views about our commitments.”
“I know it has become fashionable in some circles to ignore the global interests we have as a world power. To bemoan the responsibilities of global leadership. We regret a commitment that has fostered the longest drought in great power conflict in human history,” McConnell said.
“This is the idle work of idle minds, and it has no place in the United States Senate,” he said.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, one of 22 Republicans who voted yes, told reporters that failure to pass foreign aid would send a “bad message” to allies. Tillis said he has had discussions with House members that if Johnson does not call a House vote on the package, Democratic and GOP supporters could bypass leadership and sign the impeachment petition to pass it.
“The Speaker of Parliament will have to decide where he wants to be in this chapter of history,” Tillis told reporters on Tuesday morning. “If Putin wins, the Republicans will lose. … If things go this way, and bad things happen in Ukraine, I will remind them every day that I am a U.S. senator.”
