After a long struggle to overcome resistance mostly from House Republicans, on Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed into law the foreign aid package that will allocate billions of taxpayer money for the defense of Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and could force China to divest from TikTok.
The bill that the Senate passed and Biden signed (HR 815) actually worked its way through the House as four separate bills, as covered by The Dallas Express. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, chose this route to overcome protests from the right wing of his own party, which had serious reservations about sending billions more to aid Ukraine. Yet he still had to rely on the vote of virtually all the Democrats as most Republican members voted against the bill looking to send supplemental funding to Ukraine.
Now that the bill of supplemental appropriations has been made law, below is a breakdown of not just the $61 billion for Ukraine that was the subject of much wrangling and back-and-forth recriminations but what the other $30-some-billion in expenditures is going to pay for.
Ukraine
The package designates almost $28 billion for Ukraine’s general defense. Of that, approximately $13.8 billion will go to the Department of Defense for the contracting of new weapons.
“This legislation provides a much-needed injection of funding that will safeguard America’s future by replenishing U.S. stocks and increasing production capacity here at home,” said Eric Fanning, providing the defense contractors’ take on the bill as the president and CEO of Aerospace Industries Association, per Defense One.
“We look forward to seeing this bipartisan support for the American industrial base continue throughout the fiscal year 2025 appropriations process,” he added.
It also establishes a nearly $7.9 billion Economic Support Fund to support Ukraine’s general budget.
Israel
The bill provides $4 billion “for the procurement of the Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems to counter short-range rocket threats” and another $1.2 for the Iron Beam that also counters short-range rockets. It also provides a $3.5 billion financing program for the procurement of advanced weapons systems.
It also includes a funding ban against UNRWA, the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees, after the Israeli government accused a dozen of its workers of involvement in the October 7 attack by Gaza-based militants that killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis.
“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this division and prior Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs may be made available for a contribution, grant, or other payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, notwithstanding any other provision of law.”
Indo-Pacific (Taiwan)
For Taiwan and “foreign countries that have provided support to Taiwan at the request of the United States,” the bill designates $2 billion to fund defense equipment operation, maintenance, and procurement.
TikTok
In a section called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” the package keys in on TikTok and its China-based owner ByteDance Ltd. as entities controlled by foreign adversaries.
These provisions have a 270-day tolling period from the enactment of the law before they go into effect, as DX reported. ByteDance must divest from TikTok within that time, or the app will lose access to the U.S. market. ByteDance has said it will challenge the act in court.
