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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Senate passes $95 billion package sending aid to Ukraine, Israel and | |
Taiwan after months of delay | |
By Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:16 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The Senate on Tuesday with wide bipartisan support after both sides | |
of Capitol Hill have to send aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. | |
The final vote was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three | |
Democrats against the bill. Forty-eight Democrats and 31 Republicans | |
voted for the bill. | |
The legislation next goes to President to sign it into law, who said he | |
would sign the package Wednesday. Its passage is a significant victory | |
for the US president, congressional Democrats and Senate GOP leader | |
Mitch McConnell, who long pushed to send aid to Ukraine even as the | |
right wing of his party increasingly soured on support for Kyiv. | |
Just ahead of the final passage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer | |
began his brief remarks with “finally, finally, finally.” | |
“Tonight, may Vladimir Putin regret the day he questioned American | |
resolve,” he said. | |
The package ties together four bills that the House voted on separately | |
in a rare Saturday session, providing nearly $61 billion in aid for | |
Ukraine, over $26 billion for the Israel-Hamas conflict – including | |
$15 billion in Israeli military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for | |
Gaza and $2.4 billion for regional US military operations – and more | |
than $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The first three bills are very | |
similar to the package that the Senate passed earlier this year, which | |
House Speaker Mike Johnson . | |
The fourth bill increases sanctions on Russian assets and contains | |
language that could lead . It gives Chinese parent company ByteDance | |
roughly nine months to , or the app will be banned from American app | |
stores. | |
Biden applauded the Senate passage of the legislation in a written | |
statement. | |
“I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as | |
soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and | |
equipment to Ukraine this week,” Biden said. “The need is urgent: | |
for Ukraine, facing unrelenting bombardment from Russia; for Israel, | |
which just faced unprecedented attacks from Iran; for refugees and | |
those impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world, | |
including in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti; and for our partners seeking | |
security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.” | |
The president also thanked Schumer, McConnell and the bipartisan group | |
of lawmakers who voted for the bill. | |
“This critical legislation will make our nation and world more secure | |
as we support our friends who are defending themselves against | |
terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin,” Biden said. | |
The House took up the legislation after Johnson who opposed sending aid | |
to Ukraine and threatened to oust him over his handling of the issue. | |
In the end, the legislation was sent out of the House by a broad | |
bipartisan margin. | |
Aid for Ukraine and Israel has been stalled after House and Senate | |
Republicans demanded action on border security first, leading to months | |
of negotiations in the Senate on a border package tied to foreign aid. | |
However, former President Donald Trump led the opposition to the final | |
deal, and | |
McConnell, who has consistently broken with his party over backing | |
Ukraine, described Tuesday’s vote as “overdue” and “a test, and | |
we must not fail it.” | |
“Here’s what I know to be true: American prosperity and security | |
are the products of decades of American leadership,” McConnell said. | |
“Our global interests come with global responsibilities. Healthy | |
alliances lighten the burden of these responsibilities.” | |
Schumer took a victory lap following passage of the foreign aid | |
legislation. | |
“You can get things done and I hope our Republican colleagues have | |
learned that lesson not to listen to the hard right, but to try and | |
work and get things done,” the New York Democrat said in a news | |
conference. | |
Schumer defended not allowing amendments – including one by Vermont | |
Sen. Bernie Sanders – to be voted on, saying, “We had to get this | |
bill done as quickly as possible.” | |
In the same vein, Schumer defended the addition of legislation | |
targeting TikTok. | |
“Speaker Johnson put it in the bill – in the big supplemental bill, | |
and we had to get the supplemental bill passed as quickly as | |
possible,” he said. | |
He also said he left a message for the Ukrainian president following | |
the vote. | |
“I left a message for President Zelensky tonight – he had called me | |
the other day – and said ‘Okay, we got it done. Now go win the | |
fight,’” Schumer said. | |
When pressed on how long the funding to Ukraine would last and when he | |
believes they will have to come back for more, Schumer said, “It’s | |
a very full package” as he left the room. | |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the Senate’s passage | |
of the foreign aid package. | |
“I am grateful to the United States Senate for approving vital aid to | |
Ukraine today,” he said in a on Tuesday. | |
The legislation underscores the US’ support for Ukraine, Zelensky | |
said, adding that the aid will bolster the country’s defense and | |
military capabilities on the battlefield. | |
“This vote reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and | |
the leader of the free world,” he said. “Ukraine’s long-range | |
capabilities, artillery, and air defense are critical tools for | |
restoring just peace sooner.” | |
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments. | |
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to more precisely describe | |
the aid bill and what it supports in Israel and Gaza during the ongoing | |
conflict. | |
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