Hill leaders strike deal on nearly $40B in Ukraine aid
Congressional Democratic leaders have reached a bipartisan accord to send $39.7 billion to Ukraine to bolster its months-long battle to stave off a brutal Russian assault.
And that deal is now expected to move swiftly to President Joe Biden's desk, after Democrats agreed to drop another one of their top priorities — billions of dollars in pandemic aid that has stalled on the Hill. The Ukraine aid could come to the House floor for a vote as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.
Biden informed congressional leaders that he wanted Ukraine and Covid aid to move separately because of Republican threats of voting down a package of those two rolled together, according to another person familiar with the request who also spoke on condition of anonymity. That person said Biden still wants to pass a Covid aid package as a separate bill that would originate in the House.
Democrats’ decision to decouple the pandemic aid is a painful one for some in the party who have worried about how else they can force Republicans to support a Covid aid plan that's languished for months in Congress. But other Democrats have been publicly and privately warning their leadership not to delay the U.S. aid to Ukraine as the brutal Russian assault intensifies.
Senate Democrats had hoped to combine the Covid and Ukraine bills, but chamber Republicans signaled they would not provide the votes to clear an all-but-guaranteed filibuster of that two-part proposal. Going forward with just Ukraine aid complicates the future of the $10 billion coronavirus legislation, which Senate Republicans blocked over Biden's plans to lift pandemic-era border restrictions.
"It doesn't help. Putting those two together would have been a powerful piece of legislation," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). He said that the impasse over Biden's plans to lift migration constraints is still stymieing a bipartisan solution on a coronavirus aid bill.
Biden is still hopeful that a bill providing billions for treatment, tests and vaccines can clear Congress in the coming weeks, as the president and his administration warn that new variants and a wave could tax the country's national resources.
The Ukraine package totals several billion dollars more than the White House’s initial request. Top Democrats and Republicans agreed to an extra $6.8 billion beyond what Biden requested, equally split between military and humanitarian aid. The deal was first reported by Punchbowl News.
