The bill has aid spending for Israel , Ukraine and Taiwan…..
It also funds several government departments…..
It will take some maneuvering to pass in the House….
29 Republicans voted FOR the bill that Donald Trump campaigned against with the House RightWingNuts….
Some Democratic Senators voted against the bill due to money allocated for Israel…..
The Senate approved $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid by a 70-29 vote early on Tuesday morning, sending the bill to an uncertain fate in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is giving the legislation a frosty reception.
Despite a last-ditch effort from conservative opponents of the bill, Johnson‘s cold water and former President Donald Trump’s attempts to kill the legislation, Republican support for the deal actually grew overnight, with 22 GOP senators voting in favor of the package — a kind of rejection of those in the party, like Trump, who argued any aid should be structured as a loan.
“With the strong bipartisan support we have here in the Senate, with this vote, I believe that if Speaker Johnson brought this bill to the House floor, it will pass with the same strong bipartisan support,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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After voting and leaving town, senators will now return on Feb. 26, with just days to spare before the first government funding deadline. In the meantime, Johnson will have a major decision to make.
Though he first requested a bipartisan border security component to any foreign aid bill, he ended up working to kill the Senate’s negotiated product last week. On Monday, he said: “in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters.”
Soon after the package cleared the Senate, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” for Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with the other senators who “supported continued assistance to Ukraine.”….
GOP Lawmaker Admits Foreign Aid Bill Would Pass House
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Politico that the foreign aid bill that passed the Senate earlier today would also pass the House.
Said Biggs: “If it were to get to the floor, it would pass — let’s just be frank about that.”
Update…
Fresh off the victory of passing $60 billion for Ukraine through the Senate with 70 votes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) didn’t waste any time pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring it up for a vote in the House.
And he rejected Johnson’s demand that the Senate accept tough border reforms to deal with the surge of migrants at the southern border….
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Schumer stressed the bill got 22 Republican votes in the Senate…
More…
Manu Raju@Twitter
Hakeem Jeffries, who says he plans to use “every” possible tool to force a vote on $95.3 billion Senate aid package, says Dems will begin discussing tonight and tomorrow the “precise” steps they will try to take to force a vote.
Only real option — in the face of Johnson’s opposition — is to get enough Rs to sign a discharge petition and force a floor vote, a complicated and rarely successful maneuver