On Wednesday, President Biden signed a military and foreign aid package after it was quickly passed through the Senate and House of Representatives this past weekend. The bill gives $61 billion in weapons and loans to Ukraine, as well as $26 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Israel and Gaza, respectively. The rest of the funds are being used to invest in the development of military equipment, replenish weapons donated to Taiwan and other allies in the region, and restock the United States’ own supply.
The package is a combination of four bills which includes the highly debated “TikTok ban,” among other domestic security initiatives. This piece of legislation gives ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, up to a year to sell the platform before facing bans from U.S. app stores and web-hosting services. This bill was attached to the other high priority aid initiatives in order to hasten its progress through Congress.
The legislation against ByteDance is one of the many reasons that the aid package is currently being protested by constituents and lawmakers alike. After passing through the House, Speaker Mike Johnson drew criticism from some of his fellow Republicans for working with House democrats in order to get the aid through. Notable figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene are calling on Johnson to resign his speakership, however he remains firm in his course of action and is supported by a majority of moderate republicans.
Johnson has also received negative attention from pro-Palestinian protestors who attended his speech at Columbia University. The speaker met with a number of Jewish students before giving a talk about “…anti-semetic students who gnash their teeth and demand to wipe the State of Israel off the map and attack our innocent Jewish students.” Johnson’s threats to call in the National Guard as well as widespread arrests of students were not enough to dissuade protesters, who have staged an on-campus encampment in response to the aid package.
The United States has committed to providing funds to both sides of the conflict with $4 billion going towards replenishing Israel’s missile systems and $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza. After signing the bill, President Biden reaffirmed the United States’ support for the state of Israel, saying, “My commitment to Israel is ironclad.” He balanced this with a commitment to serving Palestinians in which he commented,“Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay.” The pentagon is assuring that the first $1 billion to Ukraine will be sent out immediately, with the rest of the funds being allocated in the coming weeks.
