Aid finally set to flow as Senate clears $95.3 billion emergency bill

WASHINGTON — The Senate cleared a war funding package Tuesday night for President Joe Biden’s certain signature, capping a six-month struggle over Ukraine aid that divided GOP lawmakers, delayed Western weapons deliveries and gave Russia some breathing room in a military offensive against its neighbor.

The 79-18 vote to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan came as a show of solid bipartisan support for a measure that had deeply divided Republicans in both chambers for months. The House passed the $95.3 billion package Saturday in the form of four individual bills that were combined for Senate action.

Unlike an earlier version of the measure the Senate passed in February, the revised package won support from a majority of Senate Republicans. A slim majority of House Republicans, however, still opposed the final package.

The vote marked a victory for the Biden administration, most Democrats, and traditional Republicans who have resisted the GOP’s ascendant populist, isolationist wing.

“Today is a day of celebration because we finally did get the job done,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a staunch advocate for Ukraine who is seeking to steer his party away from isolationism as he prepares to step down from leadership. “It’s not too late. We don’t have to give up on Ukraine. And we are not going to.”

Critics said the push for more funding was a misguided overreaction to foreign threats that sapped U.S. resources and neglected domestic needs.

“Vladimir Putin is not Adolf Hitler,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. “With one hand, we have weakened our own country and with the other we have overextended,” he said, referring to the outsourcing of U.S. industrial production and commitments abroad.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., was quick to declare victory Tuesday even before the final vote on passage. And he punched back at critics like Vance who had held up the aid since at least last fall.

“These isolationists have now secured their ignominious place in history as the ones who’d see America stick its head in the sand as our enemies sought to undermine us,” Schumer said on the floor. “Had they won, they would have presided over a declining America.”

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