A $ 13.6 billion military and humanitarian aid emergency package besieged Ukraine and its European allies He easily won the final approval of Congress on Thursday, and took a trip on a government-wide spending bill five months late but laden with political rewards for both parties.
With the invasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin that killed thousands and forced more than 2 million to flee, the Senate approved the $ 1.5 trillion legislation with a bipartisan margin of 68-31. Democrats and Republicans have struggled this election year over rising inflation, energy policy and persistent pandemic restrictions, but have joined in sending aid to Ukraine, whose stubborn resistance to quite brutal has been an inspiration to many voters.
“We have promised the people of Ukraine that they will not do it alone in their fight against Putin,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said just before the vote. “And once we get over that funding in no time, we will keep that promise.”
The House passed the bill easily on Wednesday. President Joe Biden’s signature was secure.
About half of the $ 13.6 billion measure was to arm and equip Ukraine and the Pentagon costs to send U.S. troops to other Eastern European nations splashed by the side war. Much of the rest included humanitarian and economic assistance, strengthening regional allies’ defenses and protecting their energy supplies and cybersecurity needs.
Republicans strongly supported this spending. But they criticized Mr Biden for moving too timidly, as in the unresolved dispute with Poland over how that nation could give MiG fighter jets to Ukraine whose pilots know how to fly.
“The first instinct of this administration is to back down, wait for international and public pressure to overwhelm them, and then act only when the right time has passed,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
White House aides told Congress last month that Biden wanted $ 6.4 billion to counter Russia’s invasion. He ended up formally asking for $ 10 billion, an amount that a few days needed an impatient Congress to increase its final figure to $ 13.6 billion.
The $ 1.5 trillion bill carrying this aid gave Democrats an increase of close to 7% for national initiatives, which accounted for just under half of the package. This resulted in increased spending on schools, housing, child care, renewable energy, biomedical research, law enforcement grants to communities, and food programs.
The measure also specifically targets money to minority communities and historically black schools, renews efforts to prevent domestic violence against women, and requires infrastructure operators to report serious hacking incidents to the authorities. federals.
Republicans demand a nearly 6% increase in defense, including money for 85 advanced F-35 fighter jets, 13 new Navy ships, upgrades for 90 Abrams tanks, a pay rise for troops and improvements to military-based schools. There would be $ 300 million more for Ukraine and $ 300 million for other Eastern European allies in addition to emergency funding of the measure.
The GOP also imposed itself by maintaining decades-old restrictions on the use of federal money to pay for almost all abortions. And they forced Mr Biden to abandon his 2022 budget targets, which were politically implausible from the start, which provided for a 16% increase in the national program and less than 2% growth in defense.
In addition to these political victories, many lawmakers from both parties had an incentive to support the spending package they had not enjoyed since 2010. Democratic leaders restored the old practice of destinations, hometown projects for lawmakers left Congress in 2011 because voters saw it as a bad investment of taxpayers’ money.
The restored practice, the expansive spending bill was tied to thousands of projects at a cost of several billion dollars. A decade or two ago, the numbers were often higher.
Affirming the popularity of the practice, the Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Mike Braun to remove the marks from the package. Braun said the marks spanned 367 pages weighing five pounds and showed that “the swamp is rising again.” The defeat of the amendment by a bipartisan margin of 64-35 spoke for itself.
Government agencies have been operating with the lowest spending levels since last year since the new fiscal year began on October 1 because, as usual, Congress had not passed any bill to update these amounts. .
Months of talks finally resulted in the spending commitment pact this week. With the latest measure of temporary spending expiring Friday night, Mr. Biden’s signing of the $ 1.5 trillion bill would prevent a federal weekend closure, which would never happen because neither party he had no reason to provoke such a battle.
As a precaution, the Senate sent Mr. Biden an independent bill that would temporarily fund the agencies until Tuesday in case it took time to complete the required reprinting and correction of the long global measure.
Many things have happened since October 1, very difficult for Democrats. Mr Biden’s polls have plummeted, high inflation has persisted and petrol prices have risen. Omicron’s fading has left voters impatient to end pandemic restrictions, Mr Biden’s social and environmental bill has crashed and Russia has invaded Ukraine.
With that as the backdrop for the election year, Democrats saw the $ 1.5 trillion package as their chance to claim victories.
Currently in control of both the White House and Congress, Democrats could lose their narrow majorities in the House and Senate in the November midterm elections, meaning this could be the pinnacle of their ability to win political priorities. for years. Before last year, the last time they controlled both branches was in 2010.
Generosity has been made possible, in part, by the relaxed attitudes of both sides toward gigantic federal deficits.
The $ 2.8 trillion deficit last year, fueled by the pandemic, was the second worst in history. It was so high that Mr Biden has suggested that the projected $ 1.8 trillion gap this year would be a success because it would be $ 1 trillion smaller, the largest reduction ever.
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- United States Senate
- Ukraine
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