WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – A major foreign aid package is about to get a vote in the Senate. The legislation passed in the House over the weekend and would send aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC’s Meet the Press that he’s grateful the aid is moving forward.
“It is so important,” Zelenskyy said. “We will have a chance for victory if Ukraine really gets the weapons system, which we need so much.”
That will depend on whether the Senate passes the Ukraine aid.
Senators are poised to vote on the bill this week, along with two others to send billions in aid to Israel and Taiwan.
Sen Mark Warner (D-Va.) told CBS Face the Nation it’s critical for the Senate to act quickly.
“It should have happened six months ago. The next best time is right now this week,” Warner said.
The package also includes a provision that could ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell it to a U.S. company within one year.
“The idea that we would give the Communist party this much of a propaganda tool as well as the ability to scrape 170 million Americans’ personal data, it is a national security risk,” Warner said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushed the package through the House despite opposition from the more conservative Republican members of his party.
“We would rather send bullets to the conflict overseas than our own boys, our troops. And I think this is an important moment, an important opportunity to make that decision,” Johnson said.
Some of those Republicans are now threatening to remove Speaker Johnson over that vote.
“You do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson said.
President Joe Biden says he’ll sign the bills as soon as they get to his desk.
