Despite some backlash from conservative lawmakers, the $95 billion package that will provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with bipartisan support.
Here’s a breakdown of the $95 billion foreign aid package.
Ukraine
The aid bill for the war-torn U.S. ally is roughly $61 billion with Ukraine receiving the bulk of the funding. The amount allocated for the purchase of weapons to help Ukraine continue its fight against invading Russian forces is nearly $14 billion. Ukraine would also receive more than $9 billion of economic assistance through forgivable loans.
More than one-third of the roughly $61 billion in the Ukraine aid bill includes $23.2 billion dedicated to replenishing weapons and ammunition systems for the U.S. military.
Fierce pushback from some House Republicans has meant that the Biden administration has not sent an aid package to Kyiv since December, and over the last four months, Russia has capitalized on dwindling Ukrainian ammunition as the war enters its second year.
Israel
Roughly $26 billion will go to support for Israel and provide humanitarian relief for people in besieged Gaza.
About $4 billion of the total would be dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defense systems and another roughly $9 billion would go toward humanitarian assistance in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The war was sparked by a raid on October 7, 2023, into southern Israel carried out by Hamas and other militant groups that left roughly 1,200 people dead and about 250 hostages taken into Gaza. Israel says roughly 130 hostages remain in the war-torn territory and 30 have died.
In the nearly seven months of war, the Palestinian death toll has topped 34,000, with more than 76,000 wounded, according to the Associated Press (AP) citing the Gaza Health Ministry. While the Hamas-run health ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their count, they say at least two-thirds have been children and women.
The staggering number of Palestinian deaths has sparked international scrutiny that has led to protests across the globe. Critics have accused the Israeli government of war crimes and called on U.S. lawmakers to withhold aid.
Taiwan
About $8 billion will go towards helping U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region and neutralizing China. More than $3 billion is for submarine infrastructure and development. Around $2 billion is allocated to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan and other allies in the region.
Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty
Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday night to the White House for comment.
The aid package passed the House with bipartisan support after months of far-right opposition over renewed American support for foreign allies. A cluster of hard-right Republicans argued that Congress should instead focus on increased security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In total, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans voted in favor of the Ukraine aid bill, while 112 Republicans voted against it. As the measure passed on Saturday, numerous Democrats cheered on the House floor and waved Ukrainian flags, which sparked conservative fury.
Aid to Israel and Taiwan also won approval in the House by wide margins, as did legislation that could ban the popular platform TikTok in the U.S.
The foreign aid package heads to the Senate and the upper chamber is expected to approve the legislation this week. President Joe Biden has said he will sign the legislation as soon as he gets it.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden responded on Saturday night to the House advancing the aid package, writing: “Today, members of both parties in the House of Representatives voted to advance our national security interests by passing urgently needed legislation delivering critical support to Israel and Ukraine, and aid for those impacted by conflict and disasters around the world. I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk.”
The House’s passage of the aid package ignited swift criticism from Russian officials, who warned of global ramifications.
The decision “will make the United States of America richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians, the fault of the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in remarks reported by Russia’s state news agencies.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on the messaging app Telegram: “The allocation of military assistance by the United States to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will aggravate the global crisis.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.