Senate plots Ukraine aid push after averting government shutdown

The Senate will vote on additional Ukraine funding within “the coming weeks” after Congress averted a government shutdown by abandoning a bipartisan spending package that included $6 billion in aid.

The Senate voted 88-9 on Saturday evening to pass the House’s 45-day CR, which includes disaster relief but no Ukraine funding. It was then sent to President Joe Biden‘s desk for signature. Senators had initially rallied behind a leadership-backed deal until it became clear the House was going to move on their clean CR, at which point Senate Republicans balked.

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Despite Ukraine not being included in the short-term government funding bills, the country’s staunchest defenders in the Senate vowed together to push a supplemental funding package through the chamber in the near future late Saturday.

“We welcome today’s agreement to avoid a harmful and unnecessary shutdown of the federal government,” the group, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said in a statement.

“Nevertheless, this agreement leaves a number of urgent priorities outstanding,” they continued. “In the coming weeks, we expect the Senate will work to ensure the U.S. government continues to provide critical and sustained security and economic support for Ukraine.”

Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, respectively, and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who lead the relevant Appropriations subcommittee that handles Ukraine funding, also signed on to the statement.

Graham and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), two staunch proponents of continued Ukraine support, separately told reporters on Saturday that funding could be passed through a supplemental spending package, as was initially planned after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reached a deal in May to avert a debt default.

That deal included defense spending numbers that Senate Republicans and Democrats have derided as woefully inadequate.

An exact timeline on when senators would bring a supplemental bill to the floor is unclear, though aides have mused it could be within the next week.

As the Senate was racing to pass the House’s CR before the midnight deadline, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) held up the vote for hours while demanding a commitment that the chamber would vote on a Ukraine supplemental in the near future. He eventually got that pledge.

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Schumer added a House-passed bill that would give $300 million to Ukraine on the Senate’s calendar on Saturday evening, with one idea being that senators can amend the bill to add additional funding and send it back to the lower chamber. Another idea would be to use the bipartisan Senate CR that was abandoned earlier Saturday as a vehicle for the next tranche of Ukraine aid.

Regardless of how they pass the aid, the legislation will face an uncertain future in with fraying support from House Republicans for U.S. involvement in the conflict.