Biden signs $95bn foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

Joe Biden said on Wednesday he signed into law legislation that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 to 18 vote late Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.

“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the legislation.

“It was a difficult path,” he continued. “It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does. We rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done.”

The White House first sent its request for the foreign aid package to Congress in October, and US officials have said the months-long delay hurt Ukraine on the battlefield. Promising to “move fast”, Biden said the US would begin shipping weapons and equipment to Ukraine within a matter of hours.

“The Russians have slowly but successfully taken more ground from the Ukrainians and pushed them back against their first, second, and, in some places, their third line of defense,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman for Biden’s national security council, told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday, citing the Russian takeover of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka in February. “Yes, there absolutely has been damage in the last several months.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who had pleaded for help replenishing his country’s emptying war chest during a December visit to Washington, expressed gratitude to the president and lawmakers for pressing ahead with the security bill despite its long odds.

“I am grateful to the United States Senate for approving vital aid to Ukraine today,” he wrote on X, adding: “Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, artillery, and air defense are critical tools for restoring just peace sooner.”

The aid comes at a precarious moment for Ukraine, as the country’s beleaguered army attempts to fend off Russian advances. Zelenskiy has said Ukraine badly needed air defense systems and “long-range capabilities”.

The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defenses against China.

In an effort to attract Republican support, the security bill includes a provision that could see a nationwide ban on TikTok.

The House also added language mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who has stoked anti-Ukraine sentiment among conservatives.

Biden’s signatures marks the conclusion of the grueling journey on Capitol Hill. At certain points, it wasn’t clear the bill had a path forward amid the opposition of the newly installed House speaker, Mike Johnson, who held a tenuous grip on his party’s vanishingly thin majority. Lobbied from all sides, Johnson initially refused to allow a vote on Ukraine aid unless it was paired with a border clampdown. But then Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, derailed a bipartisan border bill that included significant concessions to hardline conservatives, determined not to hand Biden an election-year victory on an issue that plays to his political advantage.

Lobbied by the White House, European allies and pro-Ukraine Republicans, Johnson finally relented, risking his job to bypass rightwing opposition and pass the foreign aid bill with the help of Democrats.