Republicans introduce bill to block US President Biden from providing aid to Ukraine

According to RT, a group of Republican senators have introduced a separate bill to prevent the White House from implementing a $61 billion proposal for Ukraine while approving $14 billion in military aid to Israel.

These senators claimed that US President Joe Biden tried to take advantage of Republican support for Tel Aviv to override skepticism about the military aid program for Ukraine through a binding supplemental budget.

Also according to RT , the bill was introduced to the US Senate by Kansas Senators Roger Marshall, JD Vance of Ohio, Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas under the name 'Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act 2023', including $10.6 billion in direct military aid to Israel, along with another $3.5 billion in aid to Tel Aviv. In addition, the bill also includes $200 million to increase security for US embassies and representative offices in Israel.

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell for a self-propelled gun deployed near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, October 18. (Photo: AFP)

President Joe Biden had previously asked the US Congress to approve a $14 billion military aid package for Israel but insisted it be passed as part of a $106 billion overall national security funding bill, which includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine and $13.6 billion for border security in the US.

“My colleagues and I firmly believe that any aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine,” said Senator Mike Lee.

“It is absurd that the administration would use the aid package for Israel to siphon billions of taxpayer dollars into another blank check for Ukraine,” said Senator Marshall.

Republican senators Marshall, Vance and Lee all voted against the final aid package to Ukraine, while Cruz voted in favor.

Democrats have a one-seat majority in the Senate, but need to win over nine Republicans to pass Biden’s budget bill. Meanwhile, South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds told Politico that the budget package is “basically dead” and unlikely to pass.

Biden’s budget bill has even slimmer chances of passing in the US House of Representatives, where a Republican majority succeeded in removing $6 billion in aid to Kiev from a government spending bill earlier this month. After the bill passed, a group of hardline conservative Republicans voted to impeach House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for secretly negotiating with the White House to approve additional aid to Ukraine.

Replacing McCarthy, House Speaker Mike Johnson, an ally of former President Donald Trump, voted against two aid packages to Ukraine last year and questioned whether Kiev was “fully prepared and transparent about the use of the vast resources of the American taxpayer.”

On the issue of Israel, however, Johnson pledged to do whatever he could to provide the support and resources necessary for Tel Aviv to eliminate Hamas. In his first act as Speaker of the House, Johnson introduced a resolution condemning the Palestinian militant group and declaring that the House “stands with Israel.”

Tra Khanh (Source: russian.rt.com)

Source