Congress Passes $95 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
The final bill also included a potential ban of TikTok in the United States.
Over six months ago, President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass an emergency aid package for key U.S. allies abroad. House Republicans countered that they wouldn’t support any additional military or humanitarian assistance to Ukraine without new and stricter policies to strengthen the southern U.S. border. That resulted in months of negotiations - largely on the Senate side. The compromise deal was immediately rejected despite having the most conservative policy changes to the border that would have ever been implemented.
Two months ago, the U.S. Senate passed the broad outlines of the supplemental request providing assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. That measure totaled $95 billion and didn’t include any border provisions. That bill has languished in the House with Speaker Mike Johnson reversing to bring it up for a vote. House Republicans mostly rejected the calls to sign onto a discharge position promoted by the chamber’s Democrats.
New urgency was felt on this matter over a week ago when Iran launched over 300 missiles at Israel. The majority of which were intercepted with no casualties on the ground. The retaliatory strike came after Israeli made its own attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria - which killed several top Iranian generals. Last Thursday, Israel made its own attack targeting Iranian soil. No further escalatory actions have been taken since.
As a result of this conflict, Johnson quickly navigated a new measure combining many of these national security interests through the House chamber. Under the rules package, four separate bills were brought up for votes on the House vote. All that passed were then packaged together as one piece of legislation for the Senate to approve. In the House over the weekend, the Ukraine bill passed 311-112, the Israel bill was approved 366-58, the Taiwan bill was signed off 385-34, and a “catch-all” package of various amendments was accepted 360-58. In the Senate, the final package passed with a 79-18 vote today.
While the topline number of Johnson’s package remained around $95 billion, the specifics of various assistance programs was altered from what the Senate passed earlier in the year. Those changes were made in the hopes of garnering more separate from House Republicans - especially pertaining to the Ukraine portion. In the end though, a majority of House Republicans still voted against those provisions. That basically guarantees this as the only support for Ukraine that will pass through Congress this year.
For months now, Ukrainians on the battlefield with Russia have suffered from devastating supply shortages. That has resulted in Russia making significant territorial gains. It has also led to accusations of a majority of the House Republican Conference being “pro-Putin” at the expense of a non-NATO member. The $60.8 billion for Ukraine is the largest piece of the deal that has just been approved though. That will replenish the stockpiles at a pivotal moment in the war.
The Ukraine measure includes over $9 billion in economic assistance which has been restructured as a loan. That concept was originally proposed by former President Donald Trump. However, the final text allows President Joe Biden to waive the repayment requirements unless Congress takes a vote of disapproval. Moreover, the Biden administration is now required to produce a report within 45 days detailing the current status of the war and the overview of what America supports in the short and longterm.
House Democrats were only willing to help Johnson move this combined proposal to the floor in exchange for a vote on the Ukraine aid and the inclusion of $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. That provision made the Israeli bill more tolerable for members of the Progressive Caucus despite the billions of additional funds for the purchasing of weapons for offensive purposes. The funding also allows the nation to replenish its reserves that were utilized following the recent confrontation with Iran.
The humanitarian assistance doesn’t just extend to the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire in Gaza. The money will also fund relief programs in war-torn areas across the globe - like Haiti, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, Armenia and Myanmar. However, House Republicans continued to be successful in ensuring no new funds were allocated to the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency. The program has been accused by Israeli officials of coordinating with Hamas in the October 7 attacks. All evidence to date though has shown only a small handful of individuals participated in the attack.
The $8.1 billion bill covering the Indo-Pacific provides $4 billion in military assistance to Taiwan and other regional allies. $1.9 billion will be used to replenish U.S. stocks that have been reduced in recent years. Another $3.3 billion will go to submarine infrastructure. An amendment to the measure expresses American support for security assistance to the Philippines as well.
And finally, the “sidecar” deal served as a collection of various amendments that had broad bipartisan support relating to various national security interests. It includes the REPO Act which allows frozen Russian assets to be redistributed to Ukraine to finance their continued war efforts. A further provision will strengthen sanctions as well as increase oversight and reporting against Russia, Iran and China. The deal will also ban data brokers from selling Americans’ personal information to those same counties and North Korea or organizations controlled by their governments.
This bill also includes a new version of the potential TikTok ban. The measure requires the divestiture of the Chinese-owned company to ensure an American data company has control over the privacy data of American citizens. That must occur within 270 days otherwise the app will be banned from the country. However, the new deal gives the President the authority to extend that deadline by an additional 90 days if it’s deemed necessary.