(HorizonPost.com) – The Senate on Tuesday approved the $95 billion supplemental foreign aid package, finally getting the long-delayed legislation passed after an overnight session. But the bill’s prospects in the Republican-led House remain in doubt, CBS News reported.
The bill, which includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, sailed through with strong bipartisan support in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a vote of 70 to 29.
The measure replaced the previous bill that included funding for border security that Senate Republicans blocked last week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed for a vote to advance the $95 billion package with the border measures stripped. The pared-down bill cleared its first hurdle on Friday when the Senate voted 64 to 19 to begin debate on the measure.
With the Senate scheduled to leave for recess on Monday, the chamber worked through the weekend to finalize the legislation for a full Senate vote.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, along with a group of conservative Republicans held up Monday’s vote on the bill by giving lengthy speeches in opposition to the measure, dragging the session well past midnight.
Paul delivered a lengthy filibustering speech on Monday suggesting that the ranking Republican and Democrat senators would fly to Kyiv to “crack the champagne” to celebrate the funding while the “disaster” at the US southern border continues to unfold.
In the end, 22 Republicans joined the Democrats in approving the additional funding.
Following Tuesday morning’s vote, Senator Schumer described the supplemental funding bill as “one of the most historic and consequential bills” the Senate had ever passed.
Schumer said that in passing the bill, the Senate declared that “American leadership will not waver, will not falter, will not fail.”
In a statement following the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate understood its responsibilities to US national security and would not “neglect them.”
However, it is uncertain whether the legislation will clear the Republican-led House.
In a statement Monday night, Speaker Mike Johnson cast doubt on the bill’s future in the House, saying that without a “single border policy change,” the House would “have to continue to work its own will on these important matters.”
Copyright 2024, HorizonPost.com
