Senate passes long-awaited aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and TikTok bill

The

Senate
on
Tuesday
passed
a
package
to
provide
billions
in
aid
to
Israel,

Ukraine
and
Taiwan,
sending
the

legislation
to
President
Joe
Biden’s
desk
to
become
law
after
a
rocky
six
months
of
political
battles.

The
final
tally
was
79-18,
a
rousing
show
of
bipartisanship
in
an
era
of
deep
political
divisions.

“The
relentless
work
of
six
long
months
has
paid
off,”
Senate
Majority
Leader
Chuck
Schumer,
D-N.Y.,
said
on
the
Senate
floor
following
an
earlier
procedural
vote.

Now
that
the
bill
has
passed,
it
goes
to
Biden,
who
said
he
would
sign
it
into
law
Wednesday,
after
the

House
passed
the
package
as
four
separate
bills
on
Saturday.

The
bill
will “strengthen
our
national
security
and
send
a
message
to
the
world
about
the
power
of
American
leadership:
we
stand
resolutely
for
democracy
and
freedom,
and
against
tyranny
and
oppression,”
Biden
said
in
a
statement
Tuesday
night.

The
funding
includes
roughly
$60
billion
for
Ukraine
aid,
$26
billion
for
Israel
and
$8
billion
for
Taiwan
and
Indo-Pacific
security.

Spending-wise,
the
legislation
is
similar
to
the
$95
billion
foreign
aid
bill
passed
by
the
Senate
in

February,
which
has
been
effectively
shelved
in
the
House
in
the
weeks
since.

But
this
bill
also
contains
several
other
foreign
policy
proposals,
including
a
measure
to
force
Chinese
TikTok
parent
company

ByteDance
to
sell
the
social
media
platform
or
else
face
a
national
ban
of
the
app.
The
provision
would
give
ByteDance
nine
months
to
sell,
though
Biden
could
extend
that
timeline
to
a
year.

A
source
within
the
company
said
TikTok
would
pursue
a “legal
challenge”
if
the
bill
was
signed
into
law,
according
to
an
internal
memo
obtained
by
NBC
News.

“It
is
unfortunate
that
the
House
of
Representatives
is
using
the
cover
of
important
foreign
and
humanitarian
assistance
to
once
again
jam
through
a
ban
bill
that
would
trample
the
free
speech
rights
of
170
million
Americans,”
a
TikTok
spokesperson
said
Saturday
following
the
House’s
passage
of
the
bill.

So
far
this
year,
TikTok
and
ByteDance
have
jointly
spent
over

$7
million
on
lobbying
and
advertisements
to
prevent
Congress
from
passing
the
legislation
to
force
the
sale,
according
to
disclosure
reports.

The
foreign
aid
package
has
also
been
the
subject
of
deep
GOP
infighting,
a
major
reason
that
the
legislation
has
been
deadlocked
on
Capitol
Hill
since
Biden
first
proposed
it
in

October.

House
Republicans
like
Rep.
Marjorie
Taylor
Greene,
R-Ga.,
have
threatened
to
oust
House
Speaker
Mike
Johnson,
R-La.,
in
part
for
passing
this
foreign
aid,
calling
it
a
“total
betrayal”
on
X.
In
March,
she
filed
a
motion
to
vacate
the
speaker
but
has
yet
to
follow
through
on
forcing
a
vote.

Those
political
threats,
along
with
an
increasingly
razor-thin
House
Republican
majority,
led
Johnson
to
effectively
table
the
Senate’s
$95
billion
foreign
aid
bill
for
weeks.

But
Johnson
decided
to
end
the
stalemate
on
the
foreign
aid
last
week
following

Iran’s
attempted
attack
on
April
13,
after
which
the
speaker
faced
renewed
bipartisan
pressure
to
move
on
the
funding.

And
despite
Greene’s
threats,
Johnson’s
job
has
some
insurance
from
former
President
Donald
Trump’s
public
support.

“Look,
we
have
a
majority
of
one,
okay?
It’s
not
like
he
can
go
and
do
whatever
he
wants
to
do.
I
think
he’s
a
very
good
person,”
Trump
said
in
a
radio
interview
on “The
John
Fredericks
Show”
on
Monday
evening. “I
think
he’s
trying
very
hard.”