2024-04-24 05:01:33
The package passed the Republican-controlled upper house of Congress on Saturday after months of delay, with 310 supporters and 112 against. It passed the Democratic-controlled Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 79 to 18.
After passing both houses of Congress, the package will be sent to US President Joe Biden, who has promised to immediately sign it into law.
The unusual four-bill package, worth $95 billion, also includes funds for Israel, security assistance for Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific region, and measures that include sanctions, threats to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the possible transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine . It also includes humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, Sudan and Haiti.
“Finally tonight, after more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns, America is sending a message to the whole world: We will not turn our backs on you,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the Senate vote.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the vote “a very important day in the history of our country and the history of the free world.”
The adopted package contains threats to ban the Tiktok app throughout the US if it does not get rid of its Chinese parent company ByteDance. The package also provides $13 billion for Israel, which is at war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, Sudan and Haiti, and $8 billion in military aid to Taiwan.
A Pentagon press secretary told reporters on Tuesday that new aid to Ukraine could arrive “within days.”
2024-04-24 05:01:33