Senate approves $95 billion foreign aid bill, but prospects are dim in House

WASHINGTON (CN) — It was an early start for the Senate Tuesday morning as lawmakers finally voted to pass a sweeping aid package for Ukraine and Israel after days of debate.

The roughly $95 billion aid bill cleared the upper chamber on a bipartisan 70-29 vote which took place around 6:30 a.m. — rare form for the Senate — and teed the measure up for the House.

Early risers in the Senate, however, may not be enough to convince the lower chamber to take up the proposed legislation, which House Speaker Mike Johnson has been vocal in criticizing.

Writing in a statement Monday night, the Louisiana Republican drew a thread between the Senate’s aid bill and an ill-fated measure which packaged border security provisions with similar foreign spending. That legislation failed last week after Republican lawmakers flipped their support.

“The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel-Immigration legislation due to insufficient border provisions,” said Johnson, “and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions.”

The House speaker has not explicitly said that he would block the proposed aid package — but his opposition to last week’s supplemental legislation was instrumental in its ultimate demise.

Further complicating things was rhetoric from former President Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s presidential election, who said over the weekend that the U.S. should dispense with the policy of giving out foreign aid “without the hope of a payback.”

If made law, the Senate’s proposed bill would allocate roughly $60 billion to Ukraine as it continues to defend its territory from Russia. The measure would also include around $14 billion in aid for Israel, which has signaled this week it will expand its ground operation in Gaza into the enclave’s southern reaches where more than a million refugees are trapped.

Despite garnering support from Republican leadership, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the upper chamber still slogged through a filibuster on the aid package over the weekend, led by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Lawmakers only managed to break the blockade late Monday night.

The bill also had a surprise opponent in the form of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime defense hawk. Graham said Monday that he would vote against the aid package, arguing in a statement that lawmakers should prioritize border security before greenlighting foreign aid.

Graham also took Trump’s position, saying that aid “should be a loan to the countries in question” and that the House version of the proposed bill should reflect that.

“President Trump is right to insist that we think outside the box,” he said.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated the bill’s passage and pushed the House to consider it.

Pointing to consensus in the upper chamber, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said in a statement that the early morning vote “proved to the world that the United States Senate can come together in a bipartisan way to deliver critical security and humanitarian aid.”

“Now, I urge the House to act quickly to be on the right side of the battle in Ukraine and the right side of history,” Durbin said. “Do not bow to the whims of former President Trump — take up this bipartisan measure without delay.”

During a news conference Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed those remarks, imploring Speaker Johnson to “do the right thing” and bring the proposed aid package to the floor.

“With a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate, it’s clear that if Speaker Johnson brings this bill to the House floor, it will pass with that same bipartisan support,” Schumer said.

Follow @BenjaminSWeiss

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit