US Senate passes $95bn bill including aid for Ukraine

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the US foreign policy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

The US Senate has voted to approve a $95bn bill delivering security aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, after it drew overwhelming bipartisan support in a boost to Joe Biden’s top foreign policy priorities.

The final passage of the legislation in Congress on Tuesday ends a political logjam that had lasted for months and cast doubt on America’s ability to project power around the world.

The approval from Capitol Hill will pave the way for Washington quickly to dispatch new weapons to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion: US officials said some aid for Kyiv would be forthcoming within days.

It will also bolster US military assistance for Israel after it exchanged drone attacks and missile strikes with Iran over the past 10 days — and comes despite mounting tensions between the White House and Israeli leaders over their conduct of the war in Gaza against Hamas and the heavy Palestinian civilian casualties.

The passage of the bill represents a big legislative victory for Biden as he heads into a general election battle against Donald Trump in November — and a defeat for foreign policy isolationists, particularly Republican lawmakers close to the former president, who had been holding up support for Kyiv for months.

The bill won support from 79 senators, with 18 voting against.

Biden immediately cheered its passage in a statement and said he would sign the bill on Wednesday, so aid could start reaching Ukraine as early as this week. “Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.”

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said: “Mr Putin thinks he can play for time, so we’ve got to try to make up some of that time.”

The highest hurdle for the bill was cleared on Saturday after Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, decided to bring Ukraine aid up for a vote after months of internal divisions and in the face of rank-and-file lawmakers, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who threatened to oust him from his role.

Supporters of the legislation in both parties and at the White House saw it as a victory for US leadership in the world, but it was still a bittersweet moment because of the time it took for it to pass Congress.

“So much of the hesitation and short-sightedness that has delayed this moment is premised on sheer fiction,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, said on Tuesday, blaming Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who recently interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, for “demonising” Ukraine.

“Make no mistake: delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression. Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face,” McConnell said.

But opponents of Ukraine aid continued to attack the legislation. JD Vance, the Ohio Republican senator close to Trump, said the arguments in favour of Ukraine aid echoed those that led to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“It’s the same exact talking points 20 years later with different names,” Vance said. Some leftwing lawmakers, meanwhile, criticised the bill for allowing Israel to keep receiving offensive weapons from the US. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, pushed for an amendment to strip those measures from the legislation but it was not considered.

He joined two Democrats and 15 Republicans who opposed the package. “I voted no tonight on the foreign aid package for one simple reason: US taxpayers should not be providing billions more to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people,” Sanders said.