WASHINGTON DC: The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed with bipartisan support a four-part, $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, putting the legislation on track for enactment following a long, difficult path through Congress.

The legislation includes $61 billion for Kyiv’s ongoing war against Moscow’s invasion, as well as $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, structured the bills so that they can be combined into one after each bill is approved, to prevent opposition to any one piece from derailing the entire deal.

“Today, members of both parties in the House voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage. At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law, and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” he noted.

The Democratic-majority Senate is to take up the legislation early next week and then send it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that the Senate would “finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.”

“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” he added.

The bill imposing new limits on the social media platform TikTok was the first of the four measures to pass Saturday, with a vote of 360-58.

That measure requires Bytedance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States.

It would also allow the president to level new sanctions against Russia and Iran.

The second bill, which passed with a bipartisan majority of 385-34 votes, provided billions in aid to the Indo-Pacific region.

The $8 billion bill is intended to counter China through investing in submarine infrastructure and helping Taiwan through military financing.

The third bill to pass was a significant aid package — $61 billion — for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. The bill passed with a vote of 311-112.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Congress for the passage of the aid bill.

“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X.

(VOA)