The Senate on Thursday voted to advance consideration of its $95.3 billion bill with assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, gaining increased Republican support that would be required for final passage in the coming days.
The 67-32 vote on the foreign aid bill follows the Senate’s blocking of a larger package on Wednesday that included border security provisions negotiated over several months but which failed to garner the necessary GOP votes to move forward.
“It’s a very good thing that the Senate has just voted to proceed to the national security supplemental. This is a good first step,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in remarks following Thursday’s vote. “This bill is essential for our national security, for the security of our friends in Ukraine, in Israel, for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and for Taiwan. The bill also strengthens our military at a time when they need it most.”
The $95.3 billion supplemental being considered retains the assistance levels from the larger package, to include $60 billion to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel, $2.4 billion to support operations in U.S. Central Command and $4.8 billion to deter Chinese aggression and support Indo-Pacific partners, including Taiwan.
Senate leaders on Sunday evening unveiled their border bill to go along with the national security supplemental, which followed months of negotiations with the aim of garnering GOP support and the White House offering its support for the “toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades” (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).
The measure quickly drew opposition from some Senate Republicans for not going far enough in restricting immigration measures and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared the bill “dead on arrival” if it was sent to the House.
Schumer introduced the backup, slimmed-down $95.3 billion bill with foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific partners but no border items on Wednesday, ahead of the Senate’s 49-50 vote blocking the larger package from moving forward (Defense Daily, Feb. 7).
While the Senate picked up only four GOP votes in favor of the supplemental with border items on Wednesday, 17 Republicans support advancing consideration of the foreign aid bill on Thursday.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the lead Republican negotiator in the Senate on the proposed border items in the larger supplemental, voted against the foreign aid bill on Thursday.
The remaining votes on Thursday against moving forward on the supplemental were all cast by Republicans and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has objected to the bill’s inclusion of unconditional military aid for Israel and concerns over the large number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
Schumer noted the Senate is working now on the process of considering amendments to the bill, which will clear a path for considering final passage.
“For the information of Senators, we are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done,” Schumer said.