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US House Passes $95 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package, Sends to Senate
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to members of the media at the Capitol building, April 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law.
The bills provide $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his thanks, saying U.S. lawmakers moved to keep “history on the right track.”
“The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger,” Zelensky said on X.
It was unclear how quickly the new military funding for Ukraine will be depleted, likely causing calls for further action by Congress.
Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: “It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia.”
The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. But significantly, 112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support.
“Mike Johnson is a lame duck… he’s done,” far-right Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters afterward.
She has been a leading opponent of helping Ukraine in its war against Russia and has taken steps that threaten to remove Johnson from office over this issue. Greene stopped short of doing so on Saturday, however.
During the vote, several lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage. Johnson warned lawmakers that was a “violation of decorum.”
Meanwhile, the House’s actions during a rare Saturday session put on display some cracks in what generally is solid support for Israel within Congress. Recent months have seen leftist Democrats express anger with Israel‘s government and its conduct of the war in Gaza.
But Saturday’s vote, in which the Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.
Passage of the long-awaited legislation was closely watched by U.S. defense contractors, who could be in line for huge contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners.
Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes Ukraine funding as it struggles to fight off a two-year Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes a measure that includes a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Some hardline Republicans voicing strong opposition to further Ukraine aid argued the United States can ill afford it given its rising $34 trillion national debt. They have repeatedly raised the threat of ousting Johnson, who became speaker in October after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by party hardliners.
“It’s not the perfect legislation, it’s not the legislation that we would write if Republicans were in charge of both the House, the Senate, and the White House,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “This is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations.”
Representative Bob Good, chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Friday that the bills represent a “slide down into the abyss of greater fiscal crisis and America-last policies that reflect Biden and (Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer and (House Democratic leader Hakeem) Jeffries, and don’t reflect the American people.”
But Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who carries huge influence in the party, on April 12 voiced support for Johnson and in a Thursday social media post said Ukraine’s survival is important for the U.S.
The post US House Passes $95 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package, Sends to Senate first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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At Least 12 Killed in Massive Russian Attack on Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Russia-Ukraine War: About three and a half years after the outbreak of the war, Russia carried out last night (Sunday) the largest air attack since it began. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and dozens more were injured when 367 rockets and missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized US policy, which so far has taken a soft stance towards Russia, and recently hinted that it would stop mediating between the two countries: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such Russian terrorist attack is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in a night attack. According to him, they shot down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage was caused to several areas, including the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In parallel, a prisoner of war exchange deal was concluded. In Russia, reports said that 303 prisoners were transferred from each side. In total, over the last three days 2,000 prisoners, 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 Russians, have been returned to their countries. Zelensky thanked the servicemen of the armed forces, and promised to bring all the prisoners home. “Today, our armed forces, the national guard, the state border service, and the special state transport service are returning home.”
“I am grateful to the team that worked around the clock to successfully execute these exchanges,” he added. “We will certainly bring back each and every one of our people from Russian captivity.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Russian army may reach a severe shortage of manpower and weapons in the next year. The Ukrainian army is also in trouble, and it is offering generous economic grants to new recruits.
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UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a “teaspoon” of aid was getting in following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
The U.N. World Food Program said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity,” it said in a statement.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.
“Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process,” an Israeli military official said.
‘DESPERATION’
With most of Gaza’s 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel’s military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A German government spokesperson said the aid was “far too little, too late and too slow,” adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.
Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centers in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.
The U.N. has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel’s political and military aims.
Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centers and will not distribute aid themselves.
As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
The post UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Swiss authorities said on Sunday they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization that plans to oversee aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave.
The move comes after a Swiss NGO submitted a request for a probe into GHF’s aid plan, which the United Nations has opposed, saying it is not impartial or neutral and forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
The GHF, which has said it hopes to start work in Gaza by the end of May, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week after having stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2.
TRIAL International, a Switzerland-based NGO, on Friday said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate whether the Swiss-registered GHF complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law.
The submissions were made to the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on May 20 and 21.
The FDFA on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that both authorities had received the submissions.
TRIAL International said it asked the Swiss FDFA to explain if the GHF had submitted a declaration, in accordance with Swiss law, to use private security companies to distribute aid, and if it had been approved by Swiss authorities.
The FDFA told Reuters it is investigating whether such a declaration would be required for the foundation.
It said that the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations cannot review whether foundations comply with their statutes until they start their activities.
The GHF told Reuters that though using private security firms represents a change from prior aid delivery frameworks, it would ensure aid is not diverted to Hamas or criminal organizations.
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