The Senate is working through the weekend on a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with assistance for Ukraine and Israel, but it may still be days until a final vote as GOP Sen. Rand Paul continues to slow the process.
The chamber cleared a critical 60-vote threshold to advance the bill Thursday, took another procedural vote Friday night and held a floor debate on the legislation Saturday.
But without an agreement from all 100 senators to speed up the process and swiftly pass the legislation, the Senate is scheduled to continue to work Sunday afternoon with a final vote sometime in the week.
“I think we should stay here as long as it takes,” Paul told CNN’s Manu Raju on Thursday. “If it 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.”
Lawmakers are moving forward with the foreign aid bill after Republicans blocked a broader bill that would have combined foreign aid with a bipartisan border deal. Republicans had initially demanded that border security be part of the bill, but went on to reject the bipartisan deal amid forceful attacks on the measure by former President Donald Trump and top House Republicans.
For his part, the former president also wrote Saturday on Truth Social that the US should stop providing foreign aid unless it is structured as a loan, illustrating the political pressure on Republicans to kill the legislation.
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.
Ahead of a final vote on the foreign aid package, additional procedural votes are expected, including one…
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