President Joe Biden signed into law a hard-won bill Wednesday that provides billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia. It was a rare bipartisan victory for the president, who is seeking re-election, and ended months of wrangling with congressional Republicans.
“It provides vital support to America’s partners so they can defend against threats to their sovereignty,” Biden said.
Biden also signed a separate bill related to legislation that bans TikTok in the United States if its owner, Chinese technology company ByteDance, does not divest from the popular short-video app within the next nine months at a year.
The social media platform is particularly popular with young, left-leaning Americans, a group crucial to Biden’s victory in November.
Biden, a Democrat who is expected to face Republican former President Donald Trump in the November election, has urged lawmakers for six months to approve more funding for Ukraine, which has been battling a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Trump had opposed aid to Ukraine, and some Republicans in Congress had refused to support it.
That ended when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives abruptly reversed course and approved four bills that included funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other U.S. partners in the Indo-Pacific region on Saturday last.
Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson had intense discussions over Ukraine in February and the president both pleaded with Republicans to support the package and chastised them for not having it do. Johnson, who faces calls from some right-wing Republicans to impeach him over his reversal on aid, spoke with Trump in Florida earlier this month; the former president said Johnson was doing “really good work.” The US Senate followed the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening, passing a comprehensive bill that provides $61 billion in aid to the country, which has suffered setbacks in the war that its supporters blame on the delay in obtaining additional funding from the United States.
“Congress 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,” Biden said in a press release after the Senate vote on Tuesday.
