US Senate approves $45 billion in aid to Ukraine

The Washington Capitol, this Thursday. Nathan Howard (Bloomberg)

The US Senate approved this Thursday a monumental spending package of 1.7 trillion dollars (1.6 trillion euros), which includes, among other items, the sending of 45,000 million to Ukraine to contribute to its defense against aggression Russia, a 10% increase in military spending to 858,000 million, provisions to facilitate American retirement, aid for the lobster industry and the recovery of areas devastated by natural disasters, a few billion billion to fight climate change in poor countries and, above all, the necessary financing so that the Government can continue to function until September 2023. The regulation also includes the prohibition of the use of TikTok on the electronic devices of federal employees, for security reasons ,and the reform of the 135-year-old electoral law whose ambiguities contributed, after a twisted interpretation by Donald Trump and his followers, to the attack on the Capitol.

The vote was comfortable: 68 votes in favor and 29 against (with three absences).

The first consequence of its approval, for which 60 seats were required, by virtue of the archaic filibustering rule that requires qualified majorities for major issues, is that with it the closure of the Government is avoided, which could have come as soon as The 24th of December.

The norm goes to the race to its examination in the House of Representatives before the signature of the president Joe Biden.

There was a rush to avoid financial strangulation and because the current parliamentary configuration on Capitol Hill has its days numbered after the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, but also because the city awaits the arrival of a winter storm that already hits with low temperatures at historical levels vast areas of the central and northern United States.

Its imminence has provoked the alert of the authorities, Biden included, who are recommending that Christmas trips be brought forward as much as possible.

The congressmen, who had until Friday to, as usual, defoliate the daisy of voting and negotiations, seem to have taken good note of these warnings.

The rush could also have contributed to the lightning visit on Wednesday of President Volodimir Zelensky, who traveled abroad for the first time since the start of Russian aggression in February.

In Washington, he met Biden at the White House, who promised him some $2 billion in aid, including a battery of Patriot missiles long coveted by Zelensky.

Later, he spoke in a special joint session tonight to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to encourage them to approve the $45 billion included in the spending package: “Economic aid to Ukraine is not charity;

it is an investment in global security,” he told them.

Following the vote, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, dismissed problems with the bill moving forward in the House of Representatives, where a growing number of Republicans have expressed discomfort at the unprecedented amount of money the United States is spending to Ukraine.

“I know that there are members of the Conservative party, those who are more to the right, who have suddenly started behaving in a strange way.

Republicans used to be anti-Soviet, anti-Moscow, ”he told reporters.

“And suddenly they have become supporters of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.

I just hope it's not another residue from the Trump era.

He had a very poisonous relationship with Putin."

The last obstacle that had to be overcome on Thursday was in terms of immigration, specifically, on Title 42, a 1929 measure dusted off by Trump during the pandemic almost three years ago to be able to expel migrants on the border with Mexico for health reasons.

The worst of the coronavirus is over, but the Republicans do not want to bring it down in a context of crisis at the border.

It was scheduled to expire this Wednesday but the Supreme Court gave it an extra life by postponing its end.

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