2024-04-23 12:46:24 ET
April 23 (UPI) -- The Senate is preparing to advance a series of packages for votes Tuesday, including a $95 billion foreign aid package and a TikTok ban.
The bills include $60 billion in aid for Ukraine , a measure to provide $26 billion for Israel and Gaza humanitarian aid, an $8 billion deal for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
"The finish line is now in sight," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y., said. He called the bills "a watershed moment for the defense of democracy."
"Let us not delay this. Let us not prolong this. Let us not keep our friends along the world waiting for a moment longer," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday that the United States must consider its "global responsibilities."
"Today the Senate sits for a test on behalf of the entire nation. It is a test of American resolve. Our readiness, and our willingness to lead. And the stakes of failure are abundantly clear," he said. "Failure to help Ukraine stand against Russian aggression now means inviting escalation against our closet treaty allies and trading partners."
The four bills were passed with bipartisan votes with House Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., defying his far-right flank by holding individual votes on each bill. While the move allowed the bills to pass, it left Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to intensify her calls for him to be removed from his post.
Johnson faced his opposition over the bill supporting Ukraine, where he saw 112 members of the GOP vote against him, leaving Democrats and the smaller group of Republicans to get the measure passed.
Schumer is facing his own challenges from Senate Republicans. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been trying to rally enough Republicans together to successfully filibuster the package of bills and prevent them from moving forward.
"The $95 billion bill doesn't have to pass," Lee . "It takes only 41 senators to stop it. There are 49 Republicans in the Senate -- more than enough."
Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., called for amendments to remove offensive aid for what he called the "extremist" government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .
"As U.S. taxpayers do we want to be complicit in Netanyahu's unprecedented and savage military campaign against the Palestinian people?" he said.
The Senate in February approved the aid package but it returns to the chamber alongside a measure to ban TikTok if its Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell the company.
Sen. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash., who chairs the Commerce Committee said she supports the legislation that gives TikTok a year to sell the company, which was updated from a previous House version of the bill that offered only a six month timeline.