A bipartisan coalition of senators on Monday night pushed a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel to the brink of a vote as Republicans bitterly tore up the bill, with opponents threatening to fight it to the finish.
By a vote of 66 to 33, the measure cleared its final hurdle before a final vote, with 17 Republicans joining nearly all Democrats to help advance it over strong opposition from most Republican senators, Republican leaders in Parliament and the party’s potential presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. That put the bill on track to pass the Senate no later than Wednesday.
But the measure’s fate was uncertain as Republican foes of the legislation vowed to delay a Senate vote as long as possible, and as Speaker Mike Johnson suggested he had no intention of taking it up in the House, where a majority of Republicans have opposed it. continue sending aid to Ukraine.
“House Republicans have been clear from the beginning of the debate that any so-called supplemental national security legislation must recognize that national security begins at our borders,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement, adding: “If we don’t have Any unified border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue working on its own accord on these important issues.”
Mr. Trump and his right-wing allies have been relentlessly pressuring Senate Republicans to drop the legislation, which would have provided $60.1 billion to help Ukraine deal with the Russian invasion, $14.1 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas and nearly $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Palestinians in Gaza. Most Republicans in Congress have repudiated the measure, reflecting a shift away from the party’s traditional hawkish stance and allegiance to projecting American power and democratic principles around the world.
Mr. Trump, in particular, has opposed the legislation since the campaign trail. In recent days, he cheered on GOP senators who killed an earlier version of the bill that included a bipartisan deal on border security, argued on social media that it was “stupid” for the United States to offer foreign aid instead of loans, and encouraged Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who didn’t spend enough money on their own defense.
But the pressure did little to erode a coalition of Republicans that kept the aid bill moving forward.
“If it stays this bad for the next two years, Putin loses,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, said of Ukraine’s war effort. He argued that helping Kiev maintain battlefield pressure against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could weaken his rule — “and that’s worth $60 billion, or $600 billion, to get rid of him.” .
Mr. Tillis also dismissed the idea that Republican voters’ skepticism of the bill was a reason to oppose it.
“When people use the grassroots as a reason to say they should oppose, I say, I’m going home, I’m going to show some respect to my grassroots, I’m going to dispel rumors, I’m going to talk about the facts,” he said. “And then I don’t have a base problem.”
Many of the Republicans who oppose the bill argue that it prioritizes foreign conflicts over the threat posed by a large influx of immigrants into the United States. That’s despite their vote last week to kill a version of the legislation that would have combined aid with tougher border enforcement by tightening asylum laws, increasing detention capacity and speeding up deportations.
“A literal invasion is coming from beyond our borders,” Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said on the floor Monday. “And all they had time to do in the Senate was get the money, get the pallets of cash, load the planes, get the champagne ready and fly to Kiev.”
Other Republican opponents have argued that it would be foolish to send Ukraine the tens of billions of dollars included in the bill, questioning whether Kiev could ever gain the upper hand against Russia.
Mr Putin is “a vicious war criminal, but he will not lose,” said Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, adding that “the continuation of this war is destroying Ukraine.”
And in a memo to colleagues, Senator JD Vance, R-Ohio, suggested the entire bill was designed to jeopardize Mr Trump’s ability to cut off aid to Kiev in the future if he wins the election.
“The supplemental represents an effort by the foreign policy state to prevent President Trump from pursuing his desired policy,” Mr. Vance wrote, adding that Democrats were trying “to provide reasons to impeach him and undermine his administration.” .
Democrats warned Republicans that vetoing the foreign aid bill would only help Russia beat Ukraine on the battlefield and come back to haunt them.
“The whole world will remember what the Senate is doing in the coming days,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York and the majority leader, said on the floor. “If some people think that Putin will just stop in Ukraine, if they think that it is somehow better to talk him out, to placate him, to listen to him, then these modern-day Neville Chamberlains are ignoring the warnings of history: His appetites for authoritarians they have no end”.
Republicans have insisted for months that they would not vote for military aid to Ukraine unless Congress — or President Biden — also took steps to crack down on immigration at the southwest border. But when the border bill’s death refocused the debate around Ukraine, a subset of Republicans pivoted and fell in line behind helping Kiev.
“I know it’s become quite fashionable in some circles to ignore the global interests that we have as a world power, to bemoan the responsibilities of global leadership,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said on the floor Sunday . renouncing the anti-Ukrainian faction of his party. “This is idle work for idle minds and has no place in the United States Senate.”
Republican opponents of the bill have also been pushing for an opportunity to offer proposals to change it, but as of Monday afternoon, Democrats and Republicans had not been able to reach a deal to do so.
“We haven’t been able to get a single pending amendment,” complained Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in a lengthy tirade on the floor Monday, arguing that the process was not “unfair.”
