Senate To Vote On USD$95b Foreign Aid Package Shortly

The Senate is shortly due to hold two roll call votes on the House-passed USD$95 billion foreign aid package. Passage is all but assured, possibly by this afternoon or Wednesday evening, at the latest.

• Punchbowl News reports: “Of course, the Senate being the Senate, it’s unclear when exactly the bill will pass. But with each senator limited to just one hour of remarks after today’s procedural votes, it’s likely that those who oppose the measure won’t be able to drag this out much later than tonight.”
• Politico notes that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), “will almost certainly have to come up with an amendment deal to move the legislation more quickly. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for example, wants to put conditions on Israel aid and restore funding to UNRWA. And Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) [looking to kill the legislation] wants a vote on requiring Ukraine to pay back aid to the United States."
• President Biden spoke yesterday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to assure the Ukrainian leader that the White House, “will quickly provide significant new security assistance packages to meet Ukraine’s urgent battlefield and air defense needs as soon as the Senate passes the national security supplemental and he signs it into law.”
• Politico reports that the Biden administration, “is preparing to send a larger-than-normal military aid package to Ukraine that will include armored vehicles, in addition to artillery and air defenses. Defense officials want it to be ready to go once Biden signs off [on the supplemental].”