by Rebecca Terrell
A $95.34 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is now awaiting debate in the U.S. House after Senate Democrats passed the measure in the early hours of Fat Tuesday.
Republicans argued throughout the night on the Senate floor that the money should be spent solving domestic problems such as the border crisis. Supporters of the measure countered that our national security would be at risk if the United States abandons Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans for conquest.
The final vote of 70-29 included 22 GOP members voting with nearly all Democrats to pass the bill. Two Democrats joined Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in voting against it: Oregon’s Jeff Merkley and Peter Welch of Vermont.
Upon passage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was triumphant. Speaking from the Senate floor, he said, “Today we witnessed one of the most historic and consequential bills to have ever passed the Senate. It has certainly been years, perhaps decades, since the Senate passed a bill that so greatly impacts, not just our national security, not just the security of our allies, but the security of western Democracy.”
However, pundits predict it has little chance of approval in the Republican-controlled House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) issued a statement late Monday, prior to the Senate vote, criticizing the bill for ignoring the record flow of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own bill on these important matters,” he wrote. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted characteristically stronger wording on X:
The 22 Senate Republicans who voted for the aid package are John Boozman (Ark.), Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), John Cornyn (Tex.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Mike Capo (Idaho), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Jerry Moran (Kans.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), James Risch (Idaho), Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), John Thune (S.D.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), and Todd Young (Ind.)