After senior Democrats were forced to unexpectedly reject their intention to incorporate new funding to combat COVID-19, the House adopted a large spending package on Wednesday night that will deliver $13.6 billion in US aid to ravaged Ukraine and its European allies.
Both parties may claim election-year successes for their agendas thanks to the passage of Ukraine aid and the $1.5 trillion government-wide legislation that accompanied it. Democrats gained important domestic measures, Republicans secured defense increases, and both parties got their names on money to combat Russia’s ruthless invasion of its western neighbor. Senate approval was expected by the end of the week, or maybe a little longer.
Nancy Pelosi Announced US Spending Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had to forgo the bill’s $15.6 billion for fighting the pandemic just hours before, a choice she described as “heartbreaking” and a loss for President Joe Biden and party leaders. The money was supposed to go toward stockpiling vaccinations, treatments, and testing in the United States and fighting the illness throughout the world, but a Democratic backlash over Republican-demanded state assistance cuts to meet the expenses of the new projects prompted Nancy Pelosi to cancel it.
In two separate votes, the House passed the whole package. The measure’s security measures were approved by a vote of 361-69, but the remainder was passed by a vote of 260-171, with the majority of Republicans voting no. Joe Biden has asked for $10 billion in funding for the program. Nancy Pelosi says she had a 45-minute conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.
Joe Biden suggested increases of 16 percent for domestic programs and only 2 percent for defense programs for this year last spring. Because of the Democrats’ slender legislative majority, neither was feasible.
Since then, Russia’s annihilation of Ukraine has made it untenable for Democrats to oppose increased defense spending. Furthermore, the ongoing pandemic, rising inflationary costs for families, and the failure of Biden’s massive social and environmental plan made it more difficult to halt Democrats’ domestic gains.
