UPDATED 8:08 A.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Friday edged closer to passing a bill that includes $95.34 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but faces an uncertain path to becoming law due to Republican opposition in both chambers of Congress.
The Senate voted 64-19 to advance the legislation one step along a chain of preliminary votes that could stretch into next week, unless party leaders can reach agreement with rank-and-file lawmakers to fast-track the bill. Lawmakers expect to take the next procedural step in a rare Sunday session.
In Friday’s vote, the bill cleared a simple majority threshold with 14 Republicans supporting the measure.
Many Republicans want to make a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, to allow amendments to the legislation in exchange for quicker action.
But other Republicans, who reject the bill’s $61 billion in Ukraine aid, have vowed to delay consideration for as long as possible by forcing the Senate to comply with a labyrinth of time-consuming parliamentary rules.
Republicans had insisted that Ukraine aid be accompanied by provisions to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, only to reject a bipartisan border agreement once former President Donald Trump, the party’s presidential frontrunner, came out against the deal.
Some of those same lawmakers now hope to offer their own amendments to stem the flow of migrants into the United States, while others want to forgo humanitarian assistance provisions and restrict foreign aid to weapons and materiel.
If the legislation ultimately passes the Senate, it will face an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated he could split the aid into separate bills.
“We’ll see what the Senate does,” Johnson told reporters this week. “I’ve made very clear that you have to address these issues on their own merits.”
Johnson spoke a day after the House rejected a stand-alone aid bill for Israel.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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KYIV (Reuters) – A bipartisan delegation of U.S. Congress members came to Kyiv on Friday to meet with Ukraine’s president as they sought to give assurances they would do their part to get crucial, stalled military aid legislation through the House of Representatives.
The delegation consisted of four members of the House Intelligence Committee: Republicans Mike Turner and French Hill, along with Democrats Jason Crow and Abigail Spanberger.
“The United States is working diligently in the House of Representatives and the Senate to secure the funding that is necessary in 2024,” Turner told journalists at a press conference before the delegation left to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The U.S. has been Ukraine’s largest supplier of military assistance as Kyiv fights off Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion, but that help is now on hold while Congress wrangles over a bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The $95.34 billion bill advanced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday after Republicans blocked previous compromise legislation.
“It’s delayed this year during the course of not only a presidential election year, but also controversies in the House about politics,” Hill said.
The lawmakers also met with officials from the SBU and GUR intelligence agencies, the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv said.
“We stand with Ukraine not just because we understand that defending freedom and democracy around the world is an American value, but we stand with Ukraine because it’s also in America’s interests to do so,” said Crow.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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