Senate Passes Ukraine, Israel Aid Package After Monthslong Fight

WASHINGTON—The Senate passed a long-delayed $95.3 billion foreign-aid package sending much-needed ammunition and military equipment to beleaguered Ukrainian soldiers and fortifying Israel’s missile defense systems, while also forcing the sale of Chinese-controlled TikTok in the U.S.

The 79-to-18 vote brought to a close months of wrenching debate over Ukraine that sharply split the Republican Party, with rank-and-file members openly rebelling against their leaders. The fight also called into question both how far the U.S. would go to defend the country, now in the third year of trying to repel Russia’s invasion, as well as America’s leadership role in the world.

The measure passed the House on Saturday and now goes to President Biden’s desk. Biden, who has been pushing for a big foreign-aid package since the fall, said he would quickly sign the measure into law Wednesday.

The measure contains money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as humanitarian aid for Gaza—largely matching an earlier Senate bill—plus additions made by the House, such as sanctions on Russia and Iran and the TikTok provision. Leaders in the GOP-controlled House also changed roughly $9.5 billion in economic aid to Ukraine into forgivable loans rather than grants, to make it more politically palatable to Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) credited the White House as well as Republicans who backed Ukraine for advancing the measure, noting that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) put his political future on the line when he moved forward with the package.

“After more than six months of hard work, many twists and turns in the road, America sends a message to the entire world: We will not turn our back on you,” Schumer said in a press conference after the vote. In a statement, Biden thanked lawmakers of both parties, saying they answered “history’s call at this critical inflection point” by sending a message to allies and foes about American power.

The bill had broad support in the Senate, with backing from almost all Democrats and a majority of Republicans. Several Republicans who had opposed an earlier iteration of the package in February, which came after a failed push to attach it to a border-policy overhaul, switched their vote to support Tuesday’s bill.

The proposal has roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, most of which would flow to the U.S. defense industry for additional weapons such as ammunition and rocket launchers. The new aid comes on top of the more than $100 billion spent on Kyiv since Russia invaded in early 2022.

“This sends a strong signal that after a lot of debate and discussion here in the Capitol and around the country, we still want to be America. We still want to be a trustworthy and reliable ally,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.).

The foreign-aid package had divided Republicans in the House, which passed the measure Saturday over loud objections from some GOP lawmakers. A handful of members have pushed for Johnson to step down as speaker, citing the Ukraine vote as well as recent spending deals struck with Democrats and a foreign-surveillance law extension.

A similar but more muted dynamic played out in the Senate. A pro-Ukraine wing led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) emerged victorious after vying with lawmakers who opposed more money for Ukraine, amid mounting federal budget deficits, domestic challenges and questions about Ukraine’s prospects. Thirty-one Republicans voted for the bill, up from 22 in February.

“This has been a historic line of division between Americans—those who see anything that we do overseas as somehow neglecting our responsibilities at home,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), who supported the package. “The truth is, we need to be able to do both.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), who voted against the measure, called the support for Ukraine to defend its borders “an insult to the American people” while the U.S. struggles with an influx of migrants at its own border with Mexico.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called his opposition to the proposal “one of the toughest votes I’ve cast during my years in the Senate,” saying he couldn’t overcome his concern that humanitarian aid would end up in the hands of terrorists, among other worries.

Republican “no” votes tended to come from newer members of the Senate who have aligned themselves with the isolationist foreign policies of former President Donald Trump, such as Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Trump didn’t endorse the proposal but also declined to actively oppose it after House lawmakers embraced his suggestion and turned part of the Ukraine aid package into a loan.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), who switched from voting against the Senate’s aid package in February to supporting the revised version on Tuesday, said that the politics were complicated.

“Our approach this time was to make sure that the politics are set, meaning that President Trump was on board, it’s something that could be passable, it’s something that could be explained,” he said.

Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.), who also switched his vote, said he didn’t want to “punish Israel and Ukraine” over the lack of border provisions. Lankford had led a failed bipartisan effort to find a compromise on immigration, which was shot down by Republicans earlier this year as not tough enough.

In a press conference, McConnell said he thinks the GOP has “turned the corner on the isolationist movement” in the party. Asked why some Senate Republicans were slow to support aid for Kyiv, McConnell cited the “demonization of Ukraine” by conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson.

“He had an enormous audience, which convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake,” McConnell said in a press conference. Carlson declined to comment.

Defense hawks in Congress have supported additional aid as a way to counter Russian aggression without committing U.S. troops to the fight. Skeptics have said they want a more clear strategy for winning the war and have also questioned whether the U.S. can afford to participate in another overseas conflict.

“At the end of the day, most of the money in this package goes to a war where there’s no end in sight, there’s no strategy, and we simply don’t have the munitions to fundamentally change the reality on the ground,” Vance said Tuesday.

The measure also contains $26 billion for Israel, which includes direct aid, money for replenishing U.S. stockpiles and supporting U.S. operations in the region, and humanitarian aid for Gaza and other war-torn regions. The proposal allocates about $8 billion to support Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

In the Democratic caucus, only Sens. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), Peter Welch (D., Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) voted against the aid package, citing concerns about Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza have been living under intense bombardment and privation since Israel began retaliatory attacks against Hamas in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

The U.S. isn’t directly harming civilians, Sanders said, but “we are deeply complicit in what is happening” in Gaza by providing weapons and military equipment to Israel.

The bill also starts the clock on TikTok’s Chinese-controlled owner ByteDance to find a new owner for the video app in the U.S. within a year, or risk a shutdown. But the matter is expected to be decided by the federal courts. A court dispute would likely require judges to weigh the national security objectives of the ban against the First Amendment rights of TikTok and its users.

Write to Katy Stech Ferek at [email protected] and Lindsay Wise at [email protected]