Today’s Senate vote: The $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan passed the House of Representatives today for Senate consideration

The Senate on Tuesday began considering a package to provide $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The legislation, which includes four bills, passed the House this weekend with bipartisan support. President Joe Biden urged the Senate to quickly move the measures to his desk.

The package provides roughly $26 billion for Israel, which is currently at war with Hamas in Gaza; as well as $61 billion for Ukraine and $8 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific. A fourth bill would enforce a U.S. ban on TikTok if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell it; impose sanctions on Russia, China and Iran; and seize Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild from war damage.

EXPLAINED | Congress appears poised to approve a possible TikTok ban in the US. How would it work?

Speaking about the package Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said “the time has come to get the job done” and encouraged his colleagues to do so “as quickly as possible.”

Schumer had previously hailed the House’s passage as a “turning point for the defense of democracy” as he announced the Senate would shorten its recess to vote on advancing the proposals for the first time Tuesday. Final approval of the bills is expected sometime this week.

“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to the allies in Israel and to the citizens around the world who need help, rest assured that America will deliver again,” Schumer said in a statement on Saturday.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has long been an outspoken supporter of aid to Ukraine, spoke on the floor Tuesday morning about the United States’ “global responsibility” to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

It’s been more than a year since Congress approved new aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. The war has intensified in recent weeks as more Russian attacks break through and Ukraine’s air defenses run low.

President Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday to reiterate US support for the nation. He said the government will provide Ukraine with a new round of support once the bills pass Congress, with Zelenskyy saying in his own statement: “I have the assurance that (Biden) that it will be fast and powerful and will strengthen our anti-aircraft, long-range and artillery capabilities.

Zelensky said he was “grateful” to Biden “for his continued support for Ukraine and for his true global leadership.”

The Ukrainian leader praised House Speaker Mike Johnson – whose position on aid to Ukraine evolved from demanding changes in border and immigration policies to working with Democrats to pass the latest bills – and Hakeem Jeffries , House Minority Leader, DN.Y.

Biden first asked for more aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific last fall. The Senate passed a $95 billion bill in February, but the legislation hit an impasse in the House of Representatives as a coalition of Republican hardliners increasingly resisted sending more resources abroad without addressing domestic issues like tackle immigration.

At the same time, Republican leaders like Johnson echoed those concerns and had pushed for major changes in immigration policy, although former President Donald Trump opposed a sweeping deal in the Senate to tie foreign aid to such changes and was rejected by conservatives as insufficient.

Pressure then increased on lawmakers to provide aid to overseas allies following Iran’s unprecedented attacks on Israel earlier this month, in retaliation for an attack on an Iranian consular complex in Syria, and as Russian forces continue to make offensive gains.

Speaker Johnson, who once opposed more aid to Ukraine, said last week he was “willing” to risk his job as a threat of impeachment looms from fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar .

Johnson earned bipartisan praise for the reversal.

“He tried to do what the Freedom Caucus expected of him. It wouldn’t work in the Senate or the White House,” said Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. ‘At the end of the day we were running out of time. Ukraine is preparing to fall.”

Johnson, McCaul said, “was undergoing a transformation” in this area.