The United States House of Representatives approved this Saturday a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwanafter the bill remained stalled for months due to the blocking of a group of radical Republican legislators.
Each game was voted independently and the 61 billion for Ukraine They were approved by a bipartisan vote of 311 in favor to 112 against, in a session in which Democrats cheered and waved Ukrainian flags.
The departure of 26.4 billion for Israel It was approved by 366 votes in favor to 58 against and includes funds for anti-missile defense systems as well as for the acquisition of advanced defense weapons systems. 9.2 billion dollars are for humanitarian assistance.
In another vote, funds for the security of the Indo-Pacific (Taiwan, among others) were approved with a bipartisan vote of 385-34 plus one blank vote, that of the Democratic representative of Palestinian origin Rashida Tlaib.
Among other items, there are 8.1 billion dollars to counteract the actions of China in the Indo-Pacific region or $2 billion in foreign military financing for Taiwan and other key allies.
The bill will now have to be approved in the Senatewhere the Democratic Party has a slim majority.
Iran's attack on Israel was key to its approval
Following the approval, President Joe Biden celebrated in a statement that legislators had voted to promote “the national security interests” of the country and to “send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage.”
“At this critical turning point, you came together to answer the call of history, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for for months,” he said.
The bill approved today has remained stalled in the Lower House for months due to the blockage of a group of legislators who oppose financing Ukraine, but Iran's recent attack on Israel has given it new impetus.
However, this Saturday the plan of the president of the House of Representatives, the Republican, was followed. Michael Johnsonto divide the approval of the project into four votes.
In the fourth vote, several Republican demands have come together, including the imposition of sanctions on Iran, Russia and China, and a potential veto of TikTok.
The House approved the “21st Century Peace through Strength Act” with a bipartisan vote of 360 to 58.
Impose sanctions on ports and refineries that receive and process Iranian oil; empower the executive branch to confiscate and transfer Russian assets frozen in the United States to Ukraine; and giving TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance nine months to sell the social media company are some of the concepts it includes.
After approval by the House of Representatives, these items must go through the Senate, where a very similar project was already approved last February, and subsequently the bill will be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
