The bill passed 366-55 as voting continued. The measure is expected to cleared by the US Senate once taken up by congressional lawmakers for a vote.
US House lawmakers passed the legislation, dubbed the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, on Tuesday, moving forward on US President Joe Biden’s original request for a $33 billion aid package.
The request included $20.4 billion in military aid, $8.5 billion in economic aid, and $3 billion in humanitarian assistance. The US House added $3.4 billion in defense aid and $3.4 billion in humanitarian assistance on top of Biden’s initial request.
US House lawmakers passed the legislation, dubbed the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, on Tuesday, moving forward on US President Joe Biden’s original request for a $33 billion aid package.
The request included $20.4 billion in military aid, $8.5 billion in economic aid, and $3 billion in humanitarian assistance. The US House added $3.4 billion in defense aid and $3.4 billion in humanitarian assistance on top of Biden’s initial request.
According to US media reports, $3 billion of this type of assistance was included in the Ukraine aid supplemental, which was signed into law in mid-March. In a succession of presidential drawdown authority packages, the Biden administration has used that money to offer military aid to Ukraine.
On May 6, the latest $150 million package was approved. The package also reportedly includes $6 billion in funds for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which is another way the Biden administration is assisting Ukraine militarily.
This strategy reportedly does not draw directly from US stocks because USAI money permits the administration to acquire weapons from contractors and then give them to Ukraine.
Congress provided $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine just this year, meaning that if the latest package is passed, lawmakers will have approved a total of more than $50 billion in aid.
Last week, Biden announced the provision of additional military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, the head of state recalled that the funds allocated by the Congress for the provision of such assistance were practically exhausted.
In this regard, he called on lawmakers to "immediately" approve an earlier request by his administration for a new $33 billion to help Kiev.
Along with this, the proposal for funding to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic in the US, which the Democrats wanted to include in the overall package, will now be considered separately.