The Senate overwhelmingly approved a US$95.3 billion foreign aid funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on April 23, 2024, following months of political infighting that stalled the bill in the House of Representatives. About $61 billion of this aid package will be spent on Ukraine, while $26 billion will go to Israel. Another $8 billion is designated for Taiwan.

President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law within days.

The Senate voted for the aid package with a 79-18 vote late on Tuesday evening, while the House approved the bill on April 20 with a rare bipartisan coalition that voted 311-112 in favor of aid to Ukraine.

“Today’s outcome yet confirms another thing we’ve stressed from the beginning of this Congress. In divided government, the only way to ever get things done is bipartisanship,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said on April 23, before thanking House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, for moving the legislation along.

The new legislation means that U.S. military supplies could be moved to Ukraine in a matter of days.

In early April 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid out the stakes for the U.S. support saying, “If the Congress doesn’t help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war.” Russia had increased its bombing of Ukraine in recent months, and the battle lines between Russia and Ukraine have moved little in the past year.

Pressure increased on lawmakers to pass the aid package after Iran’s drone missile attack on Israel on April 14, 2024.

The U.S. has been the largest single donor backing Ukraine since Russian troops invaded the country in February 2022. Since then, the U.S. has sent Ukraine approximately $113 billion in a combination of cash, military supplies and machinery, as well as food and other humanitarian supplies.

As a scholar of Eastern Europe, I think there are a few important reasons why the U.S. has a lot at stake in supporting Ukraine.

Since February 2024, Johnson had delayed initiating a vote on the Ukraine foreign aid bill in the House of Representatives for a few reasons. One major factor was fighting between Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the House.

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