Billions of dollars in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan advanced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, heading for a vote on final passage days after the House of Representatives abruptly ended a months-long stalemate and approved the assistance in a rare Saturday session.
The Senate voted by an overwhelming 80 to 19 in favour of advancing the package of four bills passed by the House, far more than the 60 needed to pave the way for a vote on final passage as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
One of the bills provided $61 billion US for Ukraine; a second, $26 billion US for Israel; and a third, $8.12 billion US "to counter communist China" in the Indo-Pacific. A fourth includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.
U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it into law as soon as it passes the Senate.
Critical for holding off Russian advances
Two U.S. officials told Reuters the administration was already preparing a $1-billion US military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the bill.
That would clear the way for shipments of military assistance to Ukraine within days, boosting morale for its troops fighting Russian invaders.
The influx of weapons should improve Kyiv's chances of averting a major Russian breakthrough in the east, analysts said, although it would have been more helpful if the aid had come closer to when Biden requested it last year.
"This is an inflection point in history. Western democracy perhaps faced its greatest threat since the end of the Cold War," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in the Senate after the procedural vote.
The aid package could be the last approved for Ukraine until after elections in November when the White House, House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for grabs.
The White House said Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call on Monday that his administration would provide new security assistance "to meet Ukraine's urgent battlefield and air defence needs" as soon as he signs the supplemental spending bills into law.
The legislation's progress has been closely watched by industry, with U.S. defence firms up for major contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners. Backers of the foreign assistance stress that approving the Ukraine bill would create many American jobs.
Experts expect the supplemental spending to boost the order backlog of RTX Corp along with other major companies that receive government contracts, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.
Congressional aides said the funding for Ukraine includes $8 billion US in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which lets Biden send equipment to Ukraine from U.S. stocks.
