Senate passes $95 billion aid bill after delay, Biden poised to sign

President Biden scored a major victory on Tuesday when the Democrat-led Senate heeded his long unanswered foreign aid request by passing the House’s $95 billion foreign-aid package.

Mr. Biden’s push for aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan was once stalled due to heavy opposition from House Republicans, but sprang to life when the House passed it last week. He vowed to sign the legislation on Wednesday. 

“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” Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he said in a statement.

The package easily cruised through the Senate on a 79 to 18 vote on Tuesday night.  

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, noted that the bipartisan vote was an end to the seven-month delay in moving long-awaited aid through Congress.

“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel and to civilians around the world in need of help, help is on the way,” Mr. Schumer said.

Included in the multi-billion dollar bill is $61 billion for Ukraine, $23 billion for Israel and $9 billion for the Pacific region, specifically Taiwan, to combat Chinese aggression.

Also baked into the package were sanctions against Russia, Iran and China and the House’s TikTok bill, which requires the Chinese-owned company ByteDance to divest from the video-sharing platform within a year.

Mr. Biden first proposed the massive aid package for America’s allies in October, but the initial momentum quickly petered out as disagreements over tying border security to Ukraine aid ended up sinking the Senate’s first attempt to pass the package.

The upper chamber then sent a foreign aid bundle to the House without border security measures, which House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to not bring to the floor for a vote.

But the Louisiana Republican changed his mind and revived the stalled effort despite intense scrutiny, and threats from House conservatives to remove him from the speakership.

Nearly a dozen Republicans were swayed by the House’s revamped bill for Ukraine aid, which included a loan for a portion of the funding and paid for another chunk of the bill with seized Russian assets.  

Still, the package was scrutinized by Senate Republicans and Democrats. Conservatives voted against the bill because it did not include border security measures, and were concerned by a lack of an endgame strategy in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We’ll spend the $61 billion and pretty well be in the same position,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican. “I don’t like wasting money. I see no strategy to win the war.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, vehemently opposed sending more money to Israel over concerns that the funding would go to fuel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war machine” and lead to more civilian deaths in Gaza.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, counted the package’s success as a major victory, too. The longtime leader of the Senate GOP had staked a position with which many in his conference were not aligned, but nonetheless came out on top.

“I think we’ve turned the corner on the isolationist movement,” Mr. McConnell said. “I’ve noticed how uncomfortable proponents of that are when you call them isolationist.”