The US Senate on Wednesday blocked consideration of a bill for a support package of more than 110 billion dollars (102 billion euros) for Ukraine and Israel, Reuters news agency reports. All Republicans and independent Senator Bernie Sanders voted against President Joe Biden’s proposal. It required a total of 60 votes, but the proposal received no more than 49 votes, exclusively from Democrats.
Before the vote, Biden had said that the aid package is decisive for the course of the war between Russia and Ukraine. “We cannot let Putin win,” he warned. Biden calls it “astounding” that the US has reached a point “where Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the biggest gift he can hope for.”
In exchange for the aid package, Republicans want a stricter approach to immigration from Mexico to the United States. Biden had previously indicated that he was willing to make compromises on this. Bernie Sanders, who usually votes with the Democrats, voted against because he does not want support for Israel because of “the current inhuman military strategy” that the country is pursuing in the war against Hamas.
It is according to The New York Times now highly unlikely that the president will have his aid package approved this year.
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Republicans block billions in American aid to Ukraine and Israel
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