Quick Senate OK ahead for House-passed $40B aid for Ukraine

WASHINGTON » Final congressional approval of a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill seems certain within days as top Senate Republicans said Wednesday they expect strong GOP backing for the House-passed measure, signaling a bipartisan, heightened U.S. commitment to helping thwart the bloody Russian invasion.

“I think there’ll be substantial support,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told The Associated Press about the legislation, which cleared the House late Tuesday by an emphatic 368-57 margin. “We’re going to try to process it as soon as possible.”

No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota predicted “a big vote over here” for the bill, which he and others suggested might come Thursday but could spill into next week. Thune said some Republicans would vote against it and procedural tactics by opponents to slow it were possible, but added, “I think because there’s so much forward momentum behind doing this and doing it in a timely way that it I don’t think we’ll have anybody who will hold it up.”

It’s taken just two weeks for lawmakers to receive President Joe Biden’s smaller, $33 billion package, enlarge it and move it to the brink of passage — lightning speed for Congress. That reflects a bipartisan consensus that Ukraine’s outnumbered forces need additional Western help as soon as possible, with added political pressure fueled by neardaily tales of atrocities against civilians inflicted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s armies.

“Act quickly we must,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. “I will make sure this is a priority for the Senate. We have a moral obligation to stand with our friends in Ukraine.”

The new legislation would bring American support for the effort to nearly $54 billion, including the $13.6 billion Congress enacted in March. That’s about $6 billion more than the U.S. spent on all its foreign and military aid in 2019, according to a January report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which studies issues for lawmakers.