WASHINGTON, D.C. - After working through the weekend, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel that faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
Most of the 29 senators who opposed the package were Republicans. They included Cincinnati’s JD Vance, who circulated a memo to colleagues that claimed it contained language meant to restrict former President Donald Trump from cutting off Ukraine aid if he wins this year’s presidential election.
“Buried in the bill’s text is an impeachment time bomb for the next Trump presidency if he tries to stop funding the war in Ukraine,” Vance said on social media.
While Vance supports sending aid to Israel, he dislikes that it would send $61 billion to Ukraine to fund a war that he regards as “hopeless” and believes will further decimate the Ukrainian population.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who was among the bill’s 70 backers, released a statement that said he’s pleased it incorporated legislation he wrote called the “Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act,” which would impose new sanctions and anti-money laundering penalties targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from the chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that transport the drugs in from Mexico.”
“Ohio families need action now to address the fentanyl crisis and the House must move quickly to pass this vital legislation to bolster our national security,” said a statement from Brown.
He said it also included money to fund Abrams tanks made by workers in Lima, Ohio at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center that will provide critical assistance to Ukraine, as well as critical parts of nuclear submarines that are made by union workers in Barberton, Ohio, to deter China from further aggression against Taiwan.
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have been critical of the current bill after they encouraged Republicans in the Senate to reject a bipartisan deal announced earlier this month that would have packaged border security legislation with foreign aid.
“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” said a statement Johnson released Monday evening. “It is what the American people demand and deserve. Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
Not all Republicans oppose aid to Ukraine. Dayton’s Mike Turner, who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led a bipartisan congressional trip to Ukraine last week where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, members of the Ukrainian Parliament, and senior intelligence officials to learn about the latest developments in the region.
Turner released a statement that said Russia’s aggression against Ukraine poses a risk to the United States and its allies, and said the United States “stands in full support of Ukraine.
“The United States is working diligently in the House of Representatives and the Senate to secure the funding that is necessary in 2024 for the United States’ support for Ukraine and their defense of Russian aggression,” Turner’s statement continued. “These are largely procedural and non-substantive debates that are occurring in Congress. There’s overwhelming support in the House of Representatives and in the Senate for support for Ukraine.
“We certainly look forward to this legislative process being resolved. And I look forward to when we can return and discuss with Ukraine the manner in which they’re putting those resources to success against the Russian aggressors.”