Biden praises Congress for foreign aid bill and says he will sign it immediately

Joe Biden praised congressional leaders and lawmakers for what he called an effort “to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point” after the US Senate voted resoundingly in a bipartisan majority on Tuesday to approve $95bn in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Related: US military aid: what’s in the $95bn bill and why has it taken so long for Congress to pass?

The Senate passed the bill in a sweeping 79 to 18 vote, after similarly lopsided approval in the House last weekend. The president, who had pushed Congress for months to deliver the foreign aid measure, said he would sign it into law on Wednesday and immediately begin the process of sending badly needed weapons to Ukraine as early as this week.

“Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression,” he said.

“Today the Senate sends a unified message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in its hour of need,” said the Democratic senator Chuck Schumer in a floor speech on Tuesday afternoon.

“Make no mistake, America will deliver on its promise to act like a leader on the world stage, to hold the line against autocratic thugs like Vladimir Putin,” he continued. “We are showing Putin that betting against America is always, always a grave mistake.”

The vote capped a grueling journey on Capitol Hill, plagued by delays and setbacks, until last week, when the House approved four bills to rush funding to three American allies while approving a conservative proposal that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media platform TikTok. The measures were combined into one large package that the Senate approved on Tuesday.

The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defenses against China.

“After more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns on the road, America sends a message to the entire world: we will not turn our back on you,” said Schumer said in a floor speech marking the bill’s passage. “Tonight we tell our allies: we stand with you. We tell our adversaries: don’t mess with us. We tell the world: the United States will do everything to safeguard democracy and our way of life.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, expressed his gratitude to the president and congressional leaders for not abandoning the aid package, even when its passage appeared unlikely, and to the American people for continuing to support of his country.

“This vote reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and the leader of the free world,” Zelenskiy said on X.

In a call on Monday, Biden informed Zelenskiy that that he would “move quickly” to send desperately needed military aid, including air defense weaponry, to the country after the bill’s passage by the Senate.

Reacting to the funding for Taiwan, China said it urged the US to fulfil its commitment to not support “Taiwan independence” with concrete actions, and stop arming it in any way, a spokesperson for its Taiwan Affairs Office said.

Taiwan’s military said on Sunday it intended to discuss with the US how to use the money.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, also reacted to his country’s portion of the funding, saying it sent a “strong message” to Israel’s enemies.

In a move to bolster Republican support, the GOP-controlled House added a provision that would see TikTok blocked in the US unless its Chinese-owned parent company divests from the social media platform within a year. Much of the foreign aid section of the bill mirrors what the Senate passed in February, with the addition of a measure mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who was initially opposed to aiding Ukraine.

Although the foreign aid package largely resembles the measure passed by the Senate in February, several Republican senators who voted against it then reversed course and on Tuesday gave their approval.

Among them was Lindsey Graham, a longtime defense hawk who previously opposed the Senate’s foreign aid package because it was not paired with border legislation but on Tuesday voted to advance it. After a visit to Ukraine earlier this year, Graham endorsed Trump’s loan plan and has since pointed to Iran’s aerial attack on Israel as a reason to send aid to the country.

“Israel needs the US Senate now. No excuses,” Graham wrote on X before voting to advance the bill.

The Senate’s passage of the aid package caps a tortuous odyssey on Capitol Hill that began last year with a request for the White House for a fresh round of funding for Ukraine and for Israel, reeling from the 7 October cross-border attack by Hamas.

Despite broad congressional support, the effort almost immediately stalled as a faction of Republicans, increasingly skeptical of US involvement in foreign entanglements, resisted sending more aid to Ukraine. Conservatives began insisting that any funding to foreign countries be paired with legislation aimed at stemming the rise of people arriving at the US-Mexico border.

When a bipartisan border and national security bill negotiated in the Senate collapsed, Schumer proceeded to move forward with a vote on the foreign aid bill up for a vote. It passed overwhelmingly in a 70-29 vote in February, but had no clear path forward in the Republican-controlled House, where the new speaker, Mike Johnson, dithered as Ukraine suffered battlefield losses.

Personal entreaties from Biden, congressional leaders and European heads of state, participation in high-level intelligence briefings as House speaker, and prayer eventually persuaded Johnson to act. The decision may come at a political cost: his job.

“History judges us for what we do,” Johnson said at an emotional press conference last week, after a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers passed the aid package by lopsided margins.

In remarks on Tuesday, Schumer praised Johnson, who he said “rose to the occasion”, as well as Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader with whom the Democrat said he had worked “hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to get this bill done”.

“A lot of people inside and outside the Congress wanted this package to fail,” Schumer said. “But today those in Congress who stand on the side of democracy are winning the day.”

McConnell has made funding Ukraine’s war effort a legacy-building quest, after announcing his decision to step down as the long-serving Senate Republican leader. In a lengthy floor speech on Tuesday, he confronted the strain of “America first” isolationism favored by Trump and his loyalists in Congress that is rife and growing within the Republican party.

McConnell, in later remarks, challenged the “loud voices here at home” and in his party who would prefer to see the US shrink from its responsibilities on the world stage.

“Today’s action is overdue, but our work does not end here,” the Republican leader said. “Trust in American resolve is not rebuilt overnight. Expanding and restocking the arsenal of democracy doesn’t just happen by magic.”