WASHINGTON
\nA sweeping US foreign aid package, including $60 billion for Ukraine, passed a key procedural vote Sunday, although opposition from right-wing Republicans may block it from becoming law.
\nThe $95 billion package includes funding for Israel\u2019s fight against Hamas militants and for key strategic ally Taiwan, but the lion\u2019s share would help pro-Western Ukraine restock depleted ammunition supplies, weapons and other crucial needs as it enters a third year of war.
\nThe Senate, which has a very slim Democratic majority, voted 67-27 to break a procedural hold placed on the bill, making it almost certain it will pass a final simple-majority vote around midweek.
\nIt is unusual for the Senate to hold votes on the weekend, with Sunday\u2019s session also coinciding with the all-important NFL championship game.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time the Senate was in session on Super Bowl Sunday, but as I\u2019ve said all week long, we\u2019re going to keep working on this bill until the job is done,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote.
\n\u201cAs we speak, Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has rendered parts of Eastern Europe a war zone the likes of which we have not seen in those regions since the Second World War,\u201d the New York senator said.
\n\u201cThe only right answer to this threat is for the Senate to face it down unflinchingly, by passing this bill as soon as we can.\u201d
\nThe aid had looked dead in the water after Republicans rejected an earlier version on Wednesday that also featured many of the Mexico border security measures they had spent months championing.
\nUnder pressure from ex-president Donald Trump, who is running for office again and wants to exploit Joe Biden\u2019s perceived weakness on immigration, Republicans instead appeared to decide that they would prefer stopping any border reforms until after November\u2019s election.
\nBut Republican senators relented in a dramatic vote Thursday after the Democrats, who have a slim majority in the upper chamber, decoupled the aid from the border issue entirely.
\nThe two parties have been able to agree on little ahead of the elections. However, much of the dysfunction has been blamed directly on Trump, who looks almost certain to be the Republican standard-bearer in November despite losing the presidency to Biden in 2020 and being embroiled in criminal charges.
\nSenate Republicans originally demanded border security as a condition for supporting pro-Western Ukraine as it battles the invasion launched by Putin in February 2022.
\nBut Trump is running for a return to the White House on a platform centered on accusing Biden of failing to resolve the border issue.
\nA hard-fought bipartisan compromise \u2014 combining Ukraine and Israel aid with some of the toughest immigration curbs in decades \u2014 was initially celebrated as a breakthrough on some of the most consequential issues facing the country.
\nHowever, the plan collapsed within days of its weekend release, as Trump warned lawmakers to reject it.
\nEven if the foreign aid advances from the Senate, it would still have to pass through the much more Trump-friendly House of Representatives.
\nRepublican House Speaker Mike Johnson has not revealed whether he would be willing even to put a foreign aid-only bill on the floor for a vote.
\nUkraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the vote was a \u201cvery important first step\u201d in freeing up more aid for his country, and a \u201cbad day\u201d for the Russian president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON A sweeping US foreign aid package, including $60 billion for Ukraine, passed a key procedural vote Sunday, although opposition from right-wing Republicans may block it from becoming law. The $95 billion package includes funding for Israel\u2019s fight against Hamas militants and for key strategic ally Taiwan, but the lion\u2019s share would help pro-Western Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-386770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n