On Tuesday (February 13th) local time, the US Senate passed a $95.3 billion foreign military aid bill, mainly involving providing military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
The bill includes providing $60 billion to Ukraine, $14.1 billion to Israel, $9.2 billion for humanitarian aid to Gaza, $4.8 billion for US partners in the Indo Pacific region, and the remaining $7.2 billion for other matters.
The Senate, controlled by the Democratic Party, passed the aforementioned bill with 70 votes in favor, 29 votes against, and 1 abstention. Two Democratic senators and independent senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont voted against it, and Sanders has expressed opposition to unconditional aid to Israel.
Due to opposition from Republicans, the Senate had previously vetoed a bill that involved both border security and foreign military aid, worth $118 billion, linking foreign aid and US border immigration issues. However, the part related to border immigration issues still sparked disagreements within both parties.
Although the Senate has passed the new bill, it will be submitted to the Republican controlled House of Representatives for a vote. On the issue of border immigration, Republicans in the House of Representatives are more hawkish than Republicans in the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that the new bill lacks border security provisions, and the Senate remains silent on the most pressing issues facing the United States.
Johnson added that given that the Senate has not made any changes in border policy, the House of Representatives will have to continue to act according to its own will on these important issues.
It has been two years since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia-Ukraine conflict. The United States has provided more than 110 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, but radical Republicans are opposed to continuing to aid Ukraine unless the Democratic Party is willing to make major concessions on border immigration policies.
Although both parties in Congress support aid to Israel, the Democratic Party insists on binding aid to Israel with aid to Ukraine. Last November, the House of Representatives passed a bill that only provided aid to Israel, but it was vetoed by the Senate.