These Republican Senators Just Voted To Advance $95 BILLION Foreign Aid Bill WITHOUT Border Funding

Yesterday, the Senate voted to advance a foreign aid bill that gives billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan.

The $95 billion bill does not include any funding for border security — which has been a major point of contention between Republicans and Dems in both the House and Senate for weeks now.

The final vote was 67-32 in favor of advancing the foreign aid package.

12 GOP Senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (surprise, surprise), sided with Democrats to pass the vote.

Here’s the full list:

🚨Breaking: The US Senate just voted 67-32 in favor of advancing a $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan without border security provisions:

Republicans who joined Democrats in voting in favor:

Murkowski (AK)
McConnell (KY)
Cassidy (LA)
Wicker (MS)…

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 8, 2024

BREAKING: The Senate just voted 67-32 in favor of advancing a $95B foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan without the border provisions:

Republicans who voted in favor: Murkowski, McConnell, Cassidy, Wicker, Young, Collins, Capito, Kennedy, Thune, Sullivan,…

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2024

Surprisingly, Sen. James coLankford — one of the biggest Republican backers behind the disastrous bipartisan border bill that the Senate killed on Wednesday — voted ‘no.’

The Senate will now hear arguments for and against adding border security provisions to the bill before holding another vote on whether to send it to the House, where it will still need to pass.

Fox News has more details:

A foreign aid funding bill to provide tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and Israel, without a previously-included border and immigration package, passed the first procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday amid Republican disarray.

The $95 billion package advanced in a 67 to 32 cloture vote, also known as a motion to limit debate on a bill and move to a final vote. It requires a three-fifths majority. Now, senators will enter into debate to add border amendments.

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Pete Ricketts, Tommy Tuberville, Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Katie Britt, John Barrasso, Josh Hawley, Rand Paul, Roger Marshall and Jim Risch were among the dissenting votes. Sen. James Lankford, who negotiated the border provisions that failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday, also voted no.

Seventeen Republicans, including Sens. Chuck Grassley, Minority Whip John Thune, Roger Wicker, John Kennedy, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and Mike Rounds voted to advance the bill.

The package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The Senate will proceed to hear debate on potential border amendments and reconvene for a final vote to potentially propel the package to full passage.

Senate aides told Fox News Digital the process could take several days, as Republicans continue to negotiate which amendments will be up for consideration. The final decision about which amendments make it to the floor will be left up to Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“Now that we are on the bill, we hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues on amendments,” Schumer said after the vote. “For the information of senators. We are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done.”

Graham, a strong supporter of continued aid to Ukraine, told reporters before the vote: “I’m not going to vote for cloture until I know how this movie ends.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“I want to know what the Democratic leadership will agree to,” he said. “Our border is a bigger national security threat to us in the short term than Ukraine. We have not even begun to do what we could do to secure the border.”

Democrats brought the package up for a vote after Republicans had blocked the $118 billion package that also included a slew of border and immigration provisions on Wednesday. Republicans had previously said they would not approve funding for Ukraine unless the overwhelmed southern border was secured first.

The border-foreign aid package was unveiled on Sunday night and hit a buzzsaw of conservative opposition from Republicans who said the package would normalize historic levels of illegal immigration and continue catch-and-release. Conservatives joined with some liberal Democrats in shutting down the bill, so Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer prepared a vote without the border package as a backup plan.

CNN also reported:

The Senate on Thursday voted to advance a $95.3 billion foreign aid package that provides assistance for Israel and Ukraine after Republicans blocked a broader bill that included border security measures earlier this week – but a debate over amendments continues to slow down passing the legislation out of the chamber.

The major foreign aid package now moves one step closer to a final vote, which could still be days away. All senators need to agree to a timing agreement to swiftly pass legislation out of the chamber, and opposition to foreign aid from key senators is likely to slow down the process. Since Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long opposed foreign aid, said he will not agree to speed up this process, it will be a laborious path for the Senate to finally pass the bill.

“I think we should stay here as long as it takes,” Paul told CNN’s Manu Raju. “If that takes a week or a month, I’ll force them to stay here to discuss why they think the border of Ukraine is more important than the US border.”

Thursday’s vote advanced the bill on a tally of 67 to 32. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “a good first step,” saying that “failure to pass this bill would only embolden autocrats like Putin … who want nothing more than America’s decline.”

ADVERTISEMENT

If the bill is eventually passed by the Senate, it would next go to the House, where it’s unclear when or whether Speaker Mike Johnson would hold a vote on it. Many House Republicans are opposed to further aid to Ukraine.