2024-04-21 06:31:32
The vote on the 95 billion The US dollar foreign aid and arms bill is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Washington time (20:00 Lithuanian time). House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, will need votes from Democrats to pass the legislation.
The legislation came after months of bitter negotiations, pressure from US partners and calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to help his country.
Johnson’s predecessor, Republican Kevin McCarthy, in 2023. In the fall, he lost the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives after a failed vote on budget spending. Since then, the Republican and Democratic parties have continued to squabble over the funding of aid to Ukraine.
The United States is the main arms supporter of Ukraine in defense of the latter against Russian aggression. However, the US Congress has not approved a large support package for its ally for almost a year and a half. The main reason for this is the disagreement between the two parties.
President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have long sought to approve a new arms package. However, Republicans under the influence of US presidential candidate Donald Trump do not want funding for Ukraine.
Funding for Ukraine’s military needs is disputed in the run-up to the US presidential election in November, in which Mr. Biden and D. Trump should face off again.
After long hesitation, the Speaker of the House of Representatives M. Johnson finally supported the 61 billion. US dollar aid package for Ukraine, consisting of economic support and armaments.
“Simply put, I’d rather send ammunition to Ukraine than American guys,” he declared.
The law would also allow the US president to seize and sell Russian assets and transfer the proceeds to Ukraine to finance its reconstruction. Other countries of the Great Seven (G7) would also support such a step.
At that time, 13 billion US dollars were allocated to the US’s historic partner Israel, which is fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The money would mostly be used to strengthen Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
9 billion US dollars would go to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in the world.
8 billion US dollars would be used to counter China by investing in underwater infrastructure and increasing competition with Beijing for projects in developing countries.
Several billion Taiwan would also have to pay US dollars. These funds would be used to purchase weapons.
In addition, provisions of the law would require the social network TikTok to be separated from its Chinese parent ByteDance or it would be banned in the US, where it has 170 million users. its users.
2024-04-21 06:31:32