The US Senate is plodding past far-right Republican opposition to helping Ukraine fight Russia, working through the weekend on a USD 95.3 billion military aid package for Kyiv, Israel and other allies that could be President Joe Biden\u2019s last chance for now to deliver substantial American support. Senators conducted a late-night vote Friday, advancing to the next steps as they spin through objections from a core group of Republicans. More closely aligned with Donald Trump, the GOP\u2019s presidential front-runner, the Republican senators aren\u2019t putting a priority on stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told the senators he would be willing to amend the package to win over more support, but the New York Democrat also warned they would stay in session \u201cuntil the job is done.\u201d Even if the foreign aid package gets off the ground in the Senate with possible Sunday voting, the package still faces a deeply uncertain future in the House. In that chamber, the Republican majority is even more hostile to helping the U.S. ally in Europe, as the war enters its second year. Attendance slipped Friday night as senators advanced the bill, 64-19, with 14 Republicans joining Democrats to move it forward.<\/p>\n
Overall, the bill includes USD 14.1 billion in military aid for Israel for the war with Hamas, USD 8 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and USD 9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, among other provisions. It had stalled out for weeks, but is on track toward passage in the days ahead after a separate US border security deal collapsed when Republicans rejected it. Central to the package has always been the military aid for Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has personally visited Congress to plead for help, including in a whirlwind trip last December, as he tries to preserve his country.<\/p>\n
Amid shortages on the battlefield, the package would unleash USD 60 billion for Ukraine, mostly to purchase US-made defense equipment, including munitions and air defense systems that authorities say it desperately needs as Russia batters the country. It includes USD 8 billion for the government in Kyiv and other assistance. Biden, speaking with the German chancellor on Friday at the White House, said it would be \u201cclose to criminal neglect\u201d if the US Congress fails to stand by its European ally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe failure of the United States Congress, if it occurs, not to support Ukraine, is close to criminal neglect,\u201d Biden said. \u201cIt is outrageous.\u201d German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: \u201cWithout the support of United States, and without the support of the European states, Ukraine will have not a chance to defend its own country.\u201d The resistance from the Republicans to helping Ukraine has been an intensifying but also stunning about-face for the party that once defined itself on a muscular foreign policy.<\/p>\n
In the Trump era, the GOP has latched on to a more isolationist approach, echoing his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda with a more ambivalent attitude toward Putin\u2019s aggression. In a key vote Thursday, 17 Republican senators agreed to start debate on the bill \u2013 but 31 voted against it. \u201cOur job first and foremost is to protect this country,\u201d Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a leading opponent, said during a Friday night speech.<\/p>\n
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has been critical of Biden\u2019s handling of Ukraine and other national security issues, is nevertheless pushing past the isolationists in his party to marshal the national security package to passage. McConnell has visited Zelenskyy in Kyiv and hosted the leader at the Capitol, and the Republican leader has tried to impress on his party the importance of investing in allies \u2013 and replenishing the US industrial base that manufactures the weaponry being used to push back Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about rebuilding the arsenal of democracy and demonstrating to our allies and adversaries alike that we\u2019re serious about exercising American strength,\u201d McConnell said. During Friday night\u2019s floor debate, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who served in the military as a Marine, emphasized most of the money goes \u201cto build weapons, to build ammo\u201d in states all across the U.S. with what he said would be thousands of American jobs. \u201cThis is a generational investment in our ability to defend ourselves,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
Senators groused that at least one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, was forcing the time-consuming procedural steps as often happens to register opposition. To draw in political support, the Senate leaders stripped out some economic assistance for Ukraine that many Republican senators objected to, leaving that to allies in the European Union, who overcame their own political opposition last week to approve an aid package.<\/p>\n
Bundling the US package with aid to Israel and Indo-Pacific allies has won over some Republicans, but has also drawn concerns from some Democrats as the humanitarian destruction in Gaza by Israeli forces deepens. Panic hit the Gazan city of Rafah as Israel announced a planned evacuation of what is expected to be its next target in the four-month war that started with attacks by Hamas. An estimated 1.5 million people are sheltering there, more than half of Gaza\u2019s population. \u201cI cannot find words,\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, said during a speech Friday.<\/p>\n
Sanders said much of the US money for Israel would allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to \u201cbuy more of the bombs he has used to flatten Gaza and killed thousands and thousands of children.\u201d \u201cThis is American complicity at its worse and it\u2019s really quite unbelievable,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cDoes the United States Congress really want to provide more military aid to Netanyahu so that he can annihilate thousands and thousands more men, women and children?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and other Democrats announced they had secured a national security memorandum with the Biden administration to ensure the U.S. assistance is used in accordance to international and humanitarian law. The Senate is not expected to take votes Saturday, but senators, who are on the brink of a two-week recess away from Washington, are expected back midday Sunday, ahead of the Super Bowl, to push the package toward final votes. The package would go to the House next, but Speaker Mike Johnson has not indicated if, or when, he would schedule any votes on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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