Senate passes controversial foreign aid bill sending billions to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
Twenty-two Senate Republicans vote yes on $95 billion national security supplemental early Tuesday
The Senate passed a $95 billion national security
supplemental package to assist Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific
after a tedious procedural process that came to an end early Tuesday
morning.
The final vote was 70 to 29, with 22
Republicans voting yes. Democratic Sens. Peter Welch and Jeff Merkley,
plus independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, voted no.
The supplemental
package does not include any border security provisions and comes as the
national debt soars above $34 trillion. Calls to offset the spending
with cuts elsewhere went unheeded. Several Republicans spent hours —
since the beginning of the weekend — collectively filibustering the
package on the Senate floor. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, committed to filibustering the bill for four hours on Saturday and continued early Tuesday.
The
package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9
billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for
the Indo-Pacific. Democrats brought the package up for a vote after Republicans had blocked
the $118 billion package that also included numerous border and
immigration...Read more and see video here,