On Wednesday, December 6, Senate Republicans blocked a procedural vote on a USD 111 billion aid package introduced by Senate Democrats, which would have provided military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. Republicans argued that it did not allot enough money to the US-Mexico border.
The bill would have allotted over USD 15 billion to Ukraine for “military training, intelligence sharing,” and “increased presence in the European Command area of responsibility.” It would also have provided Israel with USD 10.6 billion, with USD 4 billion for “Israeli missile defense system capabilities” and USD 1.2 billion to “accelerate development of the Iron Beam missile defense system.”
The bill also would have provided USD 2 billion for “foreign military financing to support critical regional partners” in the Indo-Pacific. The bill would have supported “our allies in the Indo-Pacific in the face of growing threats and aggression from the Chinese government,” said Senator Patty Murray, who released the funding package.
The rest of the funding allocated in the legislation would have provided for various other US foreign policy objectives. These include, but are not limited to funding to “increase U.S. weapons and munitions production capacity, invest in the U.S. submarine industrial base, and enhance U.S. and allied stockpiles,” for “border security” and “combatting fentanyl” at the US-Mexico border, and several billion for “economic assistance to Ukraine and countries impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Although the bill was blocked due to disagreements on border spending, the failure of this bill and the failure of an earlier USD 105 billion spending package for both Ukraine and Israel reflects a dwindling enthusiasm among the US public for funding for the proxy conflict in Ukraine.
