Senate inches closer to approval of $95B foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

The Senate on Tuesday cleared a hurdle towards the passage of a package to deliver $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

In clearing a series of test votes, the Senate inched closer to the passage of the legislation, which includes four bills that passed in the House over the weekend with bipartisan support.

The package provides roughly $26 billion for Israel, currently at war with Hamas in Gaza; as well as $61 billion for Ukraine and $8 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific. A fourth bill would force a US ban of TikTok if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell it; impose sanctions on Russia, China and Iran; and seize Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild from the war’s damage.

With the procedural votes’ passing, the Senate is closer to helping provide aid to allied countries — including Ukraine, which cannot win its fight against Russia without the funding, America’s top general in Europe said earlier this month.

“They are now being out shot by the Russian side five to one. So Russians fire five times as many artillery shells at the Ukrainians then the Ukrainians are able to fire back,” US European Command’s Gen. Christopher Cavoli told the House Armed Services Committee . “That will immediately go to 10 to one in a matter of weeks. We’re not talking about months.”

The outcome of the war could hang in the balance, according to Cavoli.

“The severity of this moment cannot be overstated. If we do not continue to support Ukraine, Ukraine could lose,” he said.

The Senate has up to 30 hours to debate the package, meaning a final vote could come up later Tuesday or Wednesday. President Joe Biden urged the Senate to quickly advance the measures to his desk.

In anticipation of the bill passing, the Biden administration has worked up a roughly $1 billion military assistance package for Ukraine with the first shipment arriving within days of approval, a US official told ABC News on Tuesday.

The package will include desperately needed artillery rounds, air defense ammunition and armored vehicles, according to the official. The weapons and equipment will be drawn from existing US stockpiles under presidential drawdown authority (PDA).

Speaking about the package Tuesday morning on the floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said “the time has come to finish the job to help our friends abroad once and for all” and encouraged his colleagues to do so “as expeditiously as possible.”

“Let us not delay this. Let us not prolong this. Let us not keep our friends along the world waiting for a moment longer,” Schumer said.

Schumer had earlier applauded the House passage of the bills as a “watershed moment for the defense of democracy” as he announced the Senate would cut its recess short to hold its first vote Tuesday on advancing the proposals.

“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” Schumer said in a statement on Saturday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has long been a vocal supporter of Ukraine aid, spoke on the floor Tuesday morning about the United States’ “global responsibilities” — including helping Ukraine.

“Today the Senate sits for a test on behalf of the entire nation. It is a test of American resolve. Our readiness, and our willingness to lead. And the stakes of failure are abundantly clear. Failure to help Ukraine stand against Russian aggression now means inviting escalation against our closest treaty allies and trading partners,” McConnell said.

McConnell added that the Senate “faces a test. And we must not fail it.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called on the Senate to vote to strip offensive military aid to Israel from the package amid humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

“As US taxpayers, we want to be complicit in [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s unprecedented and savage military campaign against the Palestinian people? Do we want to continue providing the weapons and the military aid that is causing this massive destruction? Do we want that war in Gaza to be not only Israel’s war, but America’s war?” Sanders asked Tuesday of the unconditional Israel aid.

Sanders said he “strongly supports” other elements of the package, including aid to Ukraine.

Sanders said he found himself in the unusual position of agreeing with Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who are frustrated about the lack of amendment process.

Schmitt said the “Senate is broken,” adding that he wanted to work with senators to “dislodge this concentration of power” so their ideas can be heard. Lee’s request to open up the amendment process failed in one of the procedural votes.

It has been more than a year since Congress approved new aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. The war has intensified in recent weeks, as more Russian strikes break through with Ukraine’s air defenses running low.

President Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday to reiterate US support for the nation. He said the administration will provide a new batch of support for Ukraine as soon as the bills get through Congress, with Zelenskyy saying in his own statement that “I have the assurance of [Biden] that it will be fast and powerful and will strengthen our anti-aircraft, long-range and artillery capabilities.”

Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” to Biden “for his unwavering support for Ukraine and for his true global leadership.”

The Ukrainian leader commended House Speaker Mike Johnson — whose position on Ukraine aid evolved from also requiring changes to border and immigration policy to working with Democrats to pass the latest bills — and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y.

Biden first requested more assistance for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific last fall. The Senate passed a $95 billion bill in February, but the legislation faced a logjam in the House as a coalition of Republican hard-liners grew opposed to sending more resources overseas without addressing domestic issues like immigration.

At the same time, GOP leaders like Johnson echoed those concerns and had pushed for major changes to immigration policy, although a sweeping deal in the Senate to tie foreign aid to such changes was opposed by former President Donald Trump and rejected by conservatives as insufficient.

Then, pressure increased on lawmakers to pass aid to overseas allies after Iran’s unprecedented attacks on Israel earlier this month, in retaliation for a strike on an Iranian consular complex in Syria, and as Russian forces continue to make offensive gains.

Speaker Johnson, once opposed to more aid for Ukraine, said last week he was “willing” to stake his job on the issue as an ouster threat looms from fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar.

Johnson earned bipartisan praise for the reversal.

“He tried to do what the, you know, say the Freedom Caucus wanted him to do. It wasn’t going to work in the Senate or the White House,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “At the end of the day, we were running out of time. Ukraine’s getting ready to fall.”

Johnson, McCaul said, “went through a transformation” on the issue.