Well-known U.S. senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders–along with two other Democrats–opposed the bill to provide billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bill which also included a demand that TikTok be divested within one year’s time. Senators Jeff Merkley and Peter Welch voted with Sanders on this bill. Still, the 95 billion USD bill was approved, with 15 Republicans and three Democrats voting against it.
Republicans who did vote against the package did so primarily because of their long-standing hostility to the Ukraine cause–hence Russian media dubbing Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene “Moscow Marjorie” for her Russophilic action on this matter–while Democrats who opposed did so because of the unconditionality of the Israeli funding.
On Saturday, the House voted separately on four key components of the measure, a strategy devised by Speaker Mike Johnson that aimed to placate Republicans while simultaneously winning praise from progressive Democrats.
It featured a vote on a greater-than $61 billion Ukraine assistance package, a $26 billion-plus Israel aid bill, Taiwan aid, and a bill that coupled an altered version of a previously passed TikTok law with a bill authorizing the U.S. to seize Russian assets to pay for Ukraine aid.
Thirty-seven House Democrats voted against Israeli aid, while 112 Republicans voted against providing Ukrainian assistance. Twenty-one House Republicans voted against both bills.
The plan is largely identical to that of a $95.3 billion assistance package approved by the Senate in February, just after a bipartisan border agreement collapsed due to resistance from former President Donald Trump and other House Republicans.
Most Republican senators, along with three Democrats, voted against the plan.
However, many of those Republicans, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, opted to back the revised plan on Tuesday, bringing an end to a months-long debate in Congress over foreign assistance and border policy that highlighted division within both the Democratic and Republican parties.