The overall package is $95 billion and includes funding for Israel's fight against Hamas militants and its strategic ally Taiwan, but the lion's share is the contribution for Ukraine, which needs weapons and ammunition on the eve of the second anniversary of the start of the war with Russia. It is not usual for a Senate vote to take place on the weekend, and the Sunday session coincides with the Super Bowl football games. “I can't remember the last time the Senate met on Super Bowl Sunday, but as I've said all week, we will continue to work on this bill until the work is done,” the leader said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer before the vote. “As we speak, Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has made parts of Eastern Europe a war zone the likes of which have not been seen in those regions since World War II,” the New York senator said. “The only right response to this threat is for the Senate to address it without flinching by passing this bill as soon as possible.”
The process stalled last Wednesday, when Republicans rejected an earlier version of the law that also included many of the security measures for the border with Mexico that they had supported for months. Under pressure from former President Donald Trump, who is riding on the alleged weakness of outgoing President Joe Biden on immigration in the race to return to the White House, Republicans instead appear to want to halt any border reform until after the November elections. Initially, the Republicans in the Senate asked for border security as a condition for supporting pro-Western Ukraine in the fight against the invasion launched by Putin in February 2022, but in recent days it was laboriously decided to separate the two issues. In any case, even if the international aid package manages to pass the Senate, it would still have to pass through the much more Trump-friendly House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet said whether he is willing to put a foreign aid-only bill on the ballot.
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