Foreign Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel… and TikTok Ban Passes House, Frustrating MAGA Republicans
After months of delays, the House of Representatives passed a foreign aid package that would send funding to Ukraine and Israel — and encompassed a ban on TikTok — in a Saturday vote, despite the vocal opposition from some far-right members of Congress to the former.
All 210 Democrats present for the vote sided in favor of the Ukraine aid bill to help the beleaguered nation currently at war with Russia, while 112 Republicans voted against it. The vote comes after intense pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who faces threats of being removed from his post by a contingent of MAGA Republicans.
“This is the third betrayal by Mike Johnson,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) said to CNN on the steps outside Congress shortly after the vote, calling it a “foreign war package that does nothing to help America.”
The widespread support by Democrats to provide aid to Ukraine has fanned the flames against Johnson by Republicans, who have a slim majority in the chamber. During the chamber vote, several Democrat lawmakers waved Ukrainian flags, angering some Republicans.
“All Democrats waiving Ukrainian flags on your House floor when the bill passed sending another 60B of your treasure to fund the war machine,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “100% deficit money. Borrowed on the backs of your children. Wake up America.”
Saturday’s aid package would disburse nearly $61 billion to Ukraine, $26.4 billion to Israel, and $8.1 billion to the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan.
Part of the aid package included a ban on TikTok in the United States unless the social media app is divested from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. By tying the TikTok ban to a foreign aid bill, the House can force movement by the Senate to vote on the issue, which has stalled since the House first passed a ban last March.
The Israel aid bill, which also includes humanitarian aid to civilians in conflict zones that include the Gaza Strip, also passed the house vote Saturday with 58 votes against it: 21 Republicans and 37 Democrats. Several Jewish members of Congress, including Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) and Becca Balint (D-Vermont) were among those to vote against the aid to Israel. Many of the Republicans who voted against Israel aid, such as Greene, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) opposed the aid package unilaterally.
“The United States taxpayers should not be funding lethal, unconditional military aid to a government that has created a catastrophic humanitarian disaster in Gaza,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California), one of the dissenting votes, said in a statement.