U.S. Allies Relieved After Senate Passes Long-Delayed Aid Bill

On April 20, Republican Rep. Mike McCaul took to the House floor on Capitol Hill and delivered an ultimatum to his fractured party laced with U.S. history in World War II. “I often think about the blood and treasure that could have been saved from my father’s generation had we stopped Hitler earlier,” he said. “You have to ask yourself this question: Am I Chamberlain or Churchill?” he said, referring to the British prime ministers who appeased and then fought Nazi Germany.

McCaul’s speech capped off six months of fierce political battles and tortuous negotiations over a massive national security funding bill that revealed deep fissures in Republican foreign policy, unnerved U.S. allies, and pushed Ukraine closer to an irreversible turning point in its two-year war against Russia.

It was a debate that McCaul and other Republicans and Democrats alike framed as an inflection point for the United States’ commitment to backing its allies and confronting its adversaries abroad, including Russia, China, and Iran.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson fought through grueling political battles with the various factions of his party to bring the national security funding bills up for a vote while trying to retain his tenuous hold on power in a razor-thin majority.

After fighting through the maw of House politics, the Senate swiftly passed the bill on Tuesday night, approving $95 billion in new national security funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region to counter China. The Senate vote was 79 for and 18 against. The House passed each tranche of legislation separately, while the Senate bundled the measures into one vote.

For Ukrainians, the bill’s passage comes in the nick of time. Ukrainians and Washington’s allies in Europe have watched with increasing dismay as the political battles over the funding bill dragged on in the Republican-controlled House, where lawmakers like McCaul butted heads with the far-right and isolationist wing of the party that questioned whether Washington should support Ukraine at all or even abandon its allies in Europe. As the debate played out on Capitol Hill, Ukraine ran short on ammunition and Russia began gaining a fighting edge on the battlefield.

“It’s been challenging for the Ukrainians,” said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. “They’re firing one shell for every five that the Russians are firing, and so the sooner we can get them aid the better.” Shaheen said the U.S. military had prepositioned munitions and equipment in Europe in advance of the vote to speed up the delivery of sorely needed supplies to Ukraine’s embattled military.

The bill’s $60.5 billion in aid for Ukraine includes about $14 billion to help the country buy advanced weapons systems, nearly $13.5 billion to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles after sending excess munitions to Kyiv, $20.5 billion to fund the U.S. military’s operations and exercises in Europe, and $9.5 billion in economic loans to Ukraine—though those loans could be forgiven under U.S. law starting in 2026.

The bill also includes $17 billion in new military support for Israel; around $9 billion in U.S. humanitarian aid for conflict zones worldwide, including Gaza; $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region including military assistance to Taiwan; and a raft of other measures to confront Washington’s geopolitical adversaries, including a provision that could ban the popular Chinese social media app TikTok from the United States.

The victory lap in Washington may be short-lived, however, as the six-month saga cast doubt on the United States’ commitments to its allies and partnerships in the long term, according to interviews with eight national security officials from the United States, Europe, and East Asia. “There is a quote attributed to Churchill that America always does the right thing after exhausting all other options,” said one senior Eastern European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak with candor. “Well, it seems like the politics of ‘exhausting all other options’ is starting to win out. This won’t be the last tough vote, and there’s doubt over how much longer we can rely on America after future elections.”

“We have faith in our American allies and support them to the hilt, but it’s becoming harder to keep our faith each year,” they added.

Republican infighting has continued after the House vote, pointing to a larger battle over the future of the party’s foreign-policy platform as it is pulled in different directions by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s MAGA wing, isolationists, and those with more traditional Republican foreign-policy views.

“I serve with some real scumbags,” said Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who supported the funding bills, calling out Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Bob Good, the chair of the House Freedom Caucus—both of whom opposed the separated funding bills for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific.

“The six-month delay tells us that this is not the Republican Party of our fathers,” said Bradley Bowman, a defense expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank and former senior Republican congressional aide. “The fact that you had a majority of [House] Republicans opposing the Ukraine legislation is quite noteworthy, and it’s clear to me there’s an internecine battle going on within the Republican Party.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, made clear that he still harbored lingering anger toward the factions of his party that delayed the House vote.

“So much of the hesitation and shortsightedness that has delayed this moment is premised on sheer fiction. And I take no pleasure in rebutting misguided fantasies,” he said. “Make no mistake: Delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression. Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face.”

A similar internecine battle has played out in the Democratic Party over aid to Israel. Progressive Democrats incensed by Israel’s handling of its war against Hamas and the devastating humanitarian toll it has had on civilians in Gaza have pressured U.S. President Joe Biden to get tougher with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government and even withhold further military aid to Israel. In the end, Israel aid passed the House by a vote of 366 to 58, with 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans opposing the measure.

“I refuse to be a party to an ongoing genocide that Netanyahu, his far-right government, and the United States are inflicting on the Palestinian people,” progressive Democratic Rep. Cori Bush said after the vote, repeating a controversial genocide claim that the Israeli government and Biden administration have rejected.

The bill also includes a provision that could ban TikTok in the United States—a controversial measure championed by U.S. China hawks who warn that the app, controlled by Chinese parent company ByteDance, is a conduit for spreading propaganda and spying on Americans. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” calls out the short-form video platform and requires ByteDance to either divest from TikTok or be restricted from U.S. users.

The path to a ban will be anything but straightforward, however. TikTok has already vowed to fight the legislation—which Biden said he will sign if it reaches his desk—in the courts, making it all but certain to drag on beyond November’s presidential election. Still, lawmakers on both sides have made clear that ByteDance’s continued ownership of TikTok in the United States is untenable. “Communist China is using TikTok as a tool to spread dangerous propaganda that undermines American national security,” said Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a key Trump ally. “We cannot allow the [Chinese Communist Party] to continue to harness this digital weapon.”