On February 9, the US Senate came close to passing a draft law that provides aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in the amount of $95.34 billion.
64 senators voted for the decision to consider the bill on its merits (motion to proceed), with 51 required, 19 senators voted against. During the vote, 14 Republicans supported the document.
Lawmakers expect to take the next procedural step in a rare Sunday session. Even if the bill passes the Senate on Sunday, the package still faces an uncertain future in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the USA Oksana Markarova thanked the Senate for this "step forward".
According to her, 70 amendments to this draft law have already been officially registered.
"Closing todayʼs meeting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the next meeting will be today at 12:00 Washington time (19:00 Kyiv time)," Markarova noted.
Aid from the USA
US military aid to Ukraine was exhausted at the end of 2023. Last year in October , Joe Biden submitted a request to Congress for the allocation of $106 billion, of which more than $61 billion is intended for Ukraine, mostly for the purchase of weapons from the United States. The rest of the funds from the package were intended for Israel, aid to the Asia-Pacific region, humanitarian measures in the Gaza Strip, etc.
However, the request was not approved due to political disputes. Then representatives of the Congress and the White House began to work on the text of the bill, which, in particular, will contain the demand of the Republicans to strengthen the security of the US borders. Already on February 7, he did not get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.
The next day, the Upper House of the US Congress passed a decision that enables the restoration of aid to Ukraine — the bill offers $60 billion for the country — and the House of Representatives must vote next.