The legislation would grant Ukraine billions to fund aid and defence efforts
The US has committed to helping Ukraine with the passage of a new bill by the House, reported the Associated Press.
The bill would grant Ukraine over US$1 billion to fund security and reconstruction aid, as well as US$8 billion in loans for Ukraine’s defence efforts. The legislation was passed in a 226-195 vote; 207 Democrats, 18 Republicans, and 1 independent were for the bill while 194 Republicans and 1 Democrat were against.
According to AP News, this marked the House’s second significant foreign break with US president Donald Trump in a single week after the House greenlit a war powers resolution stopping US military action against Iran.
Supporters spurred the Ukraine bill’s progress through a discharge petition that garnered 218 signatures, enabling the House majority to effectively bypass leadership, according to AP News.
“It’s probably not going to get 60 votes in the Senate, but it’s going to hopefully force the Senate to address the issue. It’s going to send a great message to the soldiers of Ukraine,” said representative Brian Fitzpatrick, who was among the petition’s signatories and voted in the bill’s favor, in a statement published by AP News.
Nonetheless, the bill faced significant pushback from the Republican party; House majority leader Steve Scalise claimed that the legislation weakened ongoing negotiations between Congress members and the White House on Ukraine aid. House financial services committee chair French Hill said the bill would elicit less Ukraine security assistance funding that that agreed to by Congress in line with the year’s defence policy; he cautioned that NATO members could limit defence spending due to another section.
“This bill, in my opinion, is an unserious bill that was crafted basically a year-and-a-half ago,” representative Brian Mast said in a statement published by AP News.
A bill that went before Senate pitched the imposition of sweeping tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries buying oil, gas, uranium, and other exports from Russia. However, the legislation has not progressed.
Representative Gregory Meeks sponsored the Ukraine bill passed by the House. To date, the US has greenlit about US$195 billion to assist Ukraine, per the latest quarterly inspector general report for Operation Atlantic Resolve.
On Wednesday June 3, four Republicans joined Democrats in passing the resolution that seeks to end the US’ three-month-long war with Iran. According to AP News, the move represented pushback against Trump’s war strategy.
