In a 67-32 vote, the United States Senate advanced a $95 billion foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan on Thursday. That means that the chamber can now being debating and working on the bill.
This comes after Republicans in the body killed a package that combined foreign aid with funding and resources for the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday.
The foreign aid package on its own is close to what Democrats originally proposed last fall. However, at the time, congressional Republicans demanded that any aid package also address immigration. A bipartisan group of lawmakers worked for months on end, often through weekends and holidays, with Biden administration officials to create a piece of legislation that would have represented the most restrictive immigration overhaul in decades. The bill, which President Joe Biden promised to sign should Congress pass it and send it to his desk, was quickly shot down by the GOP.
Biden blamed his predecessor and likely rival for the presidency again in 2024, Donald Trump, for its failure. “He’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And looks like they’re caving,” Biden said Tuesday, before the Senate’s vote to advance the combined measure failed.
Biden said he’ll campaign on the issue, and make sure the American people “know why it failed.” “I’ll be taking this issue to the country,” the president said.
