“Common sense, decency, and democracy won tonight”
Washington, D.C. – Tonight, the Senate passed the $95B foreign aid package. The bill, which already passed the House, now heads to President Biden’s desk. The package includes $60.8 billion for Ukraine; $26.4 billion for Israel and Gaza, which includes about $4 billion to replenish Israel’s missile defense systems and $9.2 billion for humanitarian assistance in Gaza; and $8 billion for Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific allies. This bill also compels the forced divestiture of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, from the app within one year, or risk being outlawed in the United States. Senator John Fetterman voted in favor of the bill.
Senator Fetterman released the follow statement in response to the bill’s passage:
“We should have gotten this done months ago. We did our job in the Senate and passed a foreign aid bill in the middle of February. But House Republicans got in our way. Thankfully, common sense, decency, and democracy won, and we are finally able to send this to President Biden’s desk.
“Our allies around the world are not asking for American boots on the ground, they’re asking for the tools to defend themselves from anti-democratic attacks. Standing firmly with our allies and for democracy should never be controversial.
“In addition to the much-needed foreign aid, the bill we passed tonight will also compel ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the app. But I want to be very clear: this is not a ‘TikTok ban.’ I have no interest in banning TikTok. This bill will simply make TikTok safer by separating it from the Chinese Communist Party so that the data of 170 million Americans—many of whom are children—is protected.”
