The Senate on Sunday pushed a $95 billion emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel past a critical hurdle, with a bipartisan vote that kept it on track for passage within days.
The vote was 67-27 to move forward on the package, which would dedicate $60.1 billion to helping Kyiv in its war against Russian aggression, send $14.1 billion to Israel for its war against Hamas and fund almost $10 billion in humanitarian assistance for civilians in conflict zones, while addressing threats to the Indo-Pacific region. In a rare Sunday session, 18 Republicans joined Democrats to advance the measure, which leaders hope the Senate will approve as early as Tuesday.
“It’s no exaggeration to say the eyes of the world are on the United States Senate,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said on the floor on Sunday, appealing to his colleagues to back the bill. He maintained that U.S. allies “don’t have the luxury of pretending that the world’s most dangerous aggressors are someone else’s problem and neither do we.”
The single major obstacle here is the Republicans in the House who are opposed to any aid to Ukraine because
they’re bankrolled by Putinthey’re deeply concerned about sending money abroad when there are homeless veterans that they can talk about without ever bothering to support.If you think that funding to Israel is a significant controversy in Congress outside of a handful of progressive Democrats, you don’t actually know Congress.