The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to give a final vote on the long-stalled $95.3 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, taking a crucial step toward passing the measure and sending it to the president for signature Biden was sent.
The critical test vote reflected broad bipartisan support for the measure, which passed the House of Representatives by lopsided margins on Saturday after an torturous journey on Capitol Hill, where it was nearly derailed by right-wing resistance. The Senate action, by a vote of 80-19, led to a vote on final passage Tuesday evening, which would clear the measure for the president. Mr Biden has urged lawmakers to take quick action so he can sign it into law.
“Today, the Senate is sending a united message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in times of need,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, said on Tuesday. “We say to our allies: ‘We will support you.’ We say to our adversaries, ‘Don’t mess with us.’ We say to the world: ‘We will do everything we can to defend democracy and our way of life.’”
“Many people inside and outside Congress wanted this package to fail,” Mr. Schumer continued. “But today, those in Congress who side with democracy are winning the day. To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel and to citizens around the world who need help: help is on the way.”
The House of Representatives passed the package Saturday in four parts: one measure for each of the three U.S. allies and another aimed at sweetening the deal for conservatives and including a provision that could result in a nationwide ban on TikTok. It sent the legislation to the Senate as one package, requiring only one up-or-down vote.
Faced with fierce opposition from his right flank to helping Ukraine, Speaker Mike Johnson structured the legislation in the House in such a way as to capture various support coalitions without allowing opposition to any element to defeat the entire case. The majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives were against aid to Kiev.
The components of the bill are virtually identical to the bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support in February. It includes $60.8 billion for Ukraine; $26.4 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
In addition to the sweetener package, which also includes a new round of sanctions on Iran, the House added provisions to direct the president to seek reimbursement from the Ukrainian government for $10 billion in economic aid. That was a nod to a call by former President Donald J. Trump to provide further aid to Kiev in the form of a loan. But the bill would allow the president to forgive these loans starting in 2026.
Seventeen far-right Republican senators who opposed continuing to send aid to Ukraine voted against passing the legislation.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, said he opposed the measure, arguing that Congress “has rushed to further fund the waging of a war that has no chance of a positive outcome.”
“Putting more money into Ukraine’s treasury will only prolong the conflict and lead to more loss of life,” Mr. Tuberville said. “No one in the White House, the Pentagon or the State Department can articulate what victory looks like in this fight. They couldn’t do that when we sent the first tranche of aid more than two years ago. We must work with Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to this madness.”
Two liberals, Senators Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, opposed the measure, saying they could not condone sending more offensive weapons to Israel at a time when the government’s campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people . and caused a hunger crisis there.
“We now find ourselves in the absurd situation of Israel using US military aid to block the delivery of US humanitarian aid to the Palestinians,” Mr Sanders said. “If that’s not crazy, I don’t know what is. But it is also a clear violation of US law. Given this reality, we shouldn’t even be having this debate today. It is illegal to continue current military aid to Israel, let alone send another $9 billion without strings attached.”
But the overwhelming majority of senators in both parties supported the legislation, and Senate leaders viewed the bill’s pending passage as a particular triumph, given the resistance to aid to Ukraine that had been building in the House of Representatives.
For months, Mr. Johnson and right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives had refused to consider aid to Ukraine unless Mr. Biden agreed to a series of tough measures to curb immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico. When Senate Democrats approved legislation earlier this year that tied the aid to stricter border enforcement provisions, Mr. Trump denounced it and Republicans immediately rejected it.
The Senate then passed its own $95 billion emergency aid legislation for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan without any immigration measures, increasing political pressure on the House of Representatives to do the same. For weeks, the message to Mr. Johnson from Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, has been the same: Pass the Senate bill.
In wide-ranging remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday before the procedural vote, Mr. McConnell called Congress’ passage of the relief package “a test of American resolve, our readiness and our willingness to lead.” He rebuked the naysayers in his party and criticized those who, he said, would “indulge in the fantasy of pulling up a drawbridge.”
“Make no mistake: delays in providing weapons to Ukraine to defend itself have dented the prospects for defeating Russian aggression,” McConnell said. “Doubt and hesitation have exacerbated the challenges we face. Today’s action is overdue, but our work does not end here. Confidence in American resolve is not rebuilt overnight. Expanding and replenishing the arsenal of democracy does not just happen.”
Ukrainian officials cheered the pending passage of the bill.
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, posted a photo on social media of lawmakers holding American flags in the chamber in Kiev, expressing “gratitude to the United States and to every member of the House of Representatives who supported the Ukrainian aid bill. We look forward to a similar decision from the Senate.”
“The United States is and will remain a strategic partner that stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people in our fight against the Russian aggressor!” Mr. Stefanchuk added.
The photo recalled the scene on the floor of the House of Representatives Saturday when Democrats waved miniature Ukrainian flags as they voted for the relief bill. They were rebuked by Mr Johnson and other Republicans, who called it a breach of decorum and said only American flags should be displayed in the chamber.
The delayed action on Capitol Hill came as European leaders continue their efforts to shore up Ukraine’s dwindling defenses with mostly modest but consistent arms deliveries, as they have done for months while U.S. aid has stalled in Congress.
The last contributions came on Tuesday. Lithuania said it had delivered M577 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain announced that about $619 million worth of missiles, armored vehicles, small arms ammunition, boats and drones would be delivered “quickly” in the near future are shipped. British officials described it as the largest military aid package their country has delivered to Ukraine.
“The cost of not supporting Ukraine now will be far greater than the cost of repelling Putin,” Mr Sunak told reporters in Poland, standing alongside Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general. “Because only if he fails will he and other opponents be deterred.”
Lara Jakes contributed reporting from Rome.