Senate Republicans blocked a $111 billion foreign-aid package for Ukraine’s and Israel’s respective wars after failing to reach a deal with Democrats on border security.
The upper chamber on Wednesday voted 49–51, failing to pass the 60-vote threshold that would have advanced the combined aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to the floor. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and the White House both called for a vote on the package. At the end of the floor proceeding, Schumer voted no in order to bring up the spending bill again at a later date.
“Tonight is a sad night in the history of the Senate and in our country. Republicans just blocked a very much needed proposal to send funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza and funding for the Indo-Pacific,” Schumer said following the procedural vote. “If Republicans in the Senate do not get serious very soon about a national-security package, Vladimir Putin is going to walk right through Ukraine and right through Europe.”
The Senate GOP conference has been pushing the Democratic caucus to agree on needed changes to immigration policies at the southern border, where record numbers of illegal immigrants are entering the U.S. from Mexico. Both parties have been negotiating to come to a deal on the border crisis, but the talks have recently reached a stalemate. This prompted Republicans to vote the way they did Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m advocating and I hope all of our members vote no on the motion to proceed to the shell [bill] to make the point, hopefully for the final time, that we insist on meaningful changes to the border,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the day before the vote.
Senate Democrats released the final text of the aid package, which provides roughly $61 billion to Ukraine, minutes before the vote took place. In a public statement, Senator Roger Marshall (R., Kan.) said he and his GOP colleagues want to prioritize securing the border before helping the U.S.’s allies overseas.
Despite needing only a simple majority of 51 votes to formally pass, the package requires a minimum of 60 votes to advance to the Senate floor. Since Democrats control the Senate by 51-49, they need unanimous support from their party and at least nine Republicans to end the procedural vote before the measure can be considered for approval.
Hours before the vote, President Joe Biden said he was willing to make “significant compromises” on border policy if Congress approved additional aid for Ukraine and Israel. He added that Republicans, who are “willing to literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process,” won’t seriously negotiate with the other side of the aisle on the aid package.
“Make no mistake: Today’s vote’s going to be long remembered, and history is going to judge harshly those who turned their backs on freedom’s cause,” Biden said at the White House. “We can’t let Putin win.”