House Passes $95 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan; Lack of U.S. Border Funding Criticized

The U.S. House has passed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific (primarily Taiwan). However, some Republican congressmen criticized the lack of funding for any U.S. border security measure.

Specifically, the bills provide over $60 billion for the Ukraine war effort, $26 billion in aid for Israel, $23 billion for replenishing U.S. weapons, $9 billion for humanitarian needs, and approximately $8 billion for Taiwan.

The total vote on the Israel aid package was 366 to 58. 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans voted against that measure.

The final vote on the aid package for Indo-Asia was 385 to 34, with Rep. Rashida Talib voting “present.”

The Ukraine funding bill passed by a vote of 311 to 112. The 112 against the measure were all Republican congressmen, and 110 Republicans joined all Democrats to vote for the measure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the passage of the Ukrainian portion of the aid package, saying on X in part,

“The U.S. House of Representatives voted on it today. I thank everyone who supported our package, this is a solution for protecting life. I personally thank Speaker Mike Johnson and all American hearts who believe, as we do in Ukraine, that Russian evil must not be winning. I am hopeful that the bill will be quite quickly passed by the United States Senate and sent to President Biden.”

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) praised the decision to move the package to a vote and recently said he saw himself as a wartime speaker. He posted a video on X after the aid packages cleared the House and said that the House version of the package was better than the Senate’s version, which he described as a blank check.

Johnson’s X post said,

“The House has worked its will.

We gave our members a voice, provided them with a better process, and ultimately sent a much better policy to the Senate.”

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However, a lack of a funding package for security on the U.S. southern border was criticized. One critic was Sen. Rand Paul, who said in a post on X,

“Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime. And just like that they shout “UKRAINE! UKRAINE!”while happily working to secure Ukraine’s borders, not ours.”

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Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said he opposed the aid packages because,

“I oppose today’s “package” in the U.S. House, which abandons all pretense of forcing U.S. border security – & will spend $95BB of foreign aid unpaid for – incl. $9BB+ in aid heavily for Gaza, that’ll assuredly end up in the hands of Hamas, + a fake (cover) vote on HR2 (border).”

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A fourth bill passed would potentially take seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine. It would also ban TikTok in the U.S. if the holdings by a Chinese-based owner are not sold within one year.

The bills now head to the Senate, where all four are expected to pass and be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.