Politics

Senate Passes Foreign Aid Package, Bill That Could Ban TikTok

US_Capitol_dome | circa January 2006 | By Diliff (Uploaded by Diliff) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted to pass House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid supplemental on Tuesday that provides billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as language that could trigger a ban on the social media app TikTok.

The Senate voted 79 to 18 to advance the legislation, sending the package to President Joe Biden’s desk. The supplemental approved of sending $60.8 billion to Ukraine, $15 billion to Israel — with an additional $9 billion in humanitarian aid — and $8 billion to Taiwan, among other provisions.

The legislation also includes measures to put pressure on China and Iran, as well as a provision to force TikTok’s CCP-linked parent company ByteDance to sell the app in roughly nine months to continue operating in the U.S. The House passed similar legislation to crack down on TikTok on March 13, but it stalled in the Senate.

“This is an extremely important day in the history of our country and of the free world. They’re all watching, waiting to see what we would do,” Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said ahead of the vote. “Tonight the Senate will send a clear message. History will record that even as allies and partners may have worried about the depth of our resolve — even as Moscow, Beijing and Tehran grew more convinced that our influence had run its course — and even as loud voices here at home insisted on abandoning responsibilities of leadership, America stepped up, and the Senate held firm.”

Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont, as well as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, opposed the legislation along with Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Rick Scott of Florida and J.D. Vance of Ohio.

GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama did not vote. All other Democratic senators supported the supplemental.

Lee had been calling on 41 Republican senators to block the package.

The GOP-held House passed the legislation with a series of votes on Saturday. Johnson has faced backlash from conservative members over providing aid to Ukraine while not including border security provisions, with a majority of the GOP caucus opposing such funding.

Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona have been pushing a motion to vacate effort over the legislation.

The Senate passed a similar package in early February that would’ve given $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while also including border security provisions that critics slammed for not being strict enough.

Biden has signaled that he will sign the legislation.