The $95 billion foreign aid package that the House passed Saturday is anticipated to be approved by the Senate on Tuesday, bringing the legislation closer to its final legislative action.
Both sides of Capitol Hill have battled to deliver help to Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine for months.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) delivered a speech on the Senate floor explaining why he opposes spending $95 billion on foreign aid while not addressing the southern border of the United States.
“First of all, it provides something I have strongly supported, which is $26 billion to the state of Israel to defeat Hamas, to defend itself against its enemies. This is something we actually tried to pass on its own, and could have passed on its own, months ago. It was blocked. It was held hostage for Ukraine funding. But it’s something we should have done months ago,” said Rubio.
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“If I want to help Israel, if I want to help Taiwan, if I want to help Ukraine, if I want to ban TikTok, I have to vote for spending billions of dollars to give to charity groups so they can fly people around the country here and put them up in hotel rooms, or so they can help resettlement in another country?” blasted Rubio.
“I have senior citizens, I have veterans, and they call my office and they call our offices and they say ‘I have nowhere to live, housing is too expensive’…. And the most we can often do is help get them on a waiting list for section eight housing. This is a problem that exists in America right now,” said Rubio.
“[To vote for Israel aid], I have to drop my demand that the president enforce our immigration laws? I have to vote for billions of dollars to be spent on all kinds of programs around the world, including for people that are illegally entering this country? This is moral extortion,” blasted Rubio.
Rubio opposed a near-identical proposal in February 2024, warning, “This invasion of the United States is going to get worse, not better.”
On Saturday, as the bill passed the US House, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted both its passage and Speaker Johnson.
“Mike Johnson’s House of Representatives so proud to work for Ukraine. Not the American people!!! It’s despicable!” said Greene on X.
“Zelensky thanks Speaker Mike Johnson (D-Ukraine) for sending $61 BILLION of your hard-earned tax dollars to fuel a foreign war. Johnson once again passed a bill with the help of Democrats while the majority of the Republican majority voted against it. Not only is Mike Johnson a traitor to our conference, he’s a traitor to our country,” Greene continued on X.
Greene, known for her opposition to Ukraine aid, has been leading a rebellion against Speaker Johnson. Last month, she filed a resolution to oust him, known as a motion to vacate, citing his cooperation with Democrats on government spending and foreign aid.
Two more House Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar have formally backed her resolution, further threatening Johnson’s position.
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the United States has given Ukraine more than $100 billion in aid—President Joe Biden’s September 2023 continuing resolution provided around $4.5 billion in funding.
Following Biden’s announcement in December 2022 that a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to the war-torn country, the US also promised to supply 31 M1 Abrams main combat tanks to Ukraine.
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