Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer walking out of the Senate Chamber following a series of votes at the Capitol on February 12, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The US Senate approved $95 billion in emergency defense funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Putin “will regret the day he questioned America’s resolve.”The bill now needs to pass the House of Representatives, where it’s likely to face stiff opposition.
The US Senate passed a $95 billion emergency defense aid bill for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan early Tuesday morning.
The 70-29 vote put an end to nearly a week of floor discussion and four months of back-and-forth over President Joe Biden’s October appeal to Congress to further support Ukraine.
Twenty-two Senate Republicans voted for the package, along with almost all Democratic lawmakers, barring Peter Welch of Vermont, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who voted against it.
After the vote passed, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that Putin “will regret the day he questioned America’s resolve.”
However, the bill will now need to go to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to face stiff opposition.
House Speaker Mike Johnson preemptively rejected the bill on Monday evening, saying that it failed to address US-Mexico border security and was therefore a nonstarter.
“In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” he wrote in a statement posted on X.
The legislation includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas, $8 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, per the Associated Press.
It does not include any border security provisions after Schumer stripped the border security language from the bill last week, per Reuters.
In a post on X following the vote, JD Vance, a Republican senator, said the House “won’t pass the current bill,” adding: “We must fix our country before devoting more resources to Ukraine.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hinted in a statement last week that Democrats would try to drive the bill to the floor via a discharge petition.
“House Democrats are prepared to use every available legislative tool to make sure we get comprehensive national security legislation over the finish line,” he said.