TikTok ban one step closer to reality as Senate sends $95 BILLION Ukraine, Israel aid package to President Biden’s desk to sign

The Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill late Tuesday and is now sending the legislation to the president’s desk.

The package, passed in 1979 and 1879, commits $60 billion to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel and Gaza, and about $4 billion to the Indo-Pacific — and a measure that could allow TikTok to grow in the U.S. is prohibited.

“Getting this done is one of the Senate’s greatest achievements in years, perhaps decades,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said hours before the bill’s expected final passage.

But fans of TikTok are watching with acute concern as to how the legislation could lead to their favorite video-sharing platform being banned.

A fourth piece of legislation includes several measures, such as requiring TikTok to divest from Chinese parent company ByteDance, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets and a military aid loan program to Ukraine.

The House of Representatives has already passed a bill to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, but the new comprehensive legislation would give TikTok a year instead of six months to separate from China.

TikTok has suggested that the legislation amounts to a “total ban in the United States,” suggesting that ByteDance is not interested in selling.

“It’s unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to push through yet another prohibition bill that would trample the freedom of speech of 170 million Americans, destroy seven million businesses, and shut down a platform that contributes annually $24 billion will go into the US economy,” a TikTok spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Saturday.

Tying the measure to foreign aid forced the Senate to vote on it after Schumer struggled to put the measure on the floor.

The so-called ‘sidecar bill’ also includes a provision related to the REPO law, which means that it would seize Russian assets that have so far only been frozen and repurpose them for Ukraine, and a provision related to would have on the Lend-Lease Act, which would require Ukraine to return U.S. military assets not destroyed in the war.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., meanwhile, raised concerns about a provision in the package that would force China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban.

“The censors who abound in Congress will likely vote to ban TikTok or force a change in ownership,” he wrote in an op-ed for Reason this week. “It would violate the First Amendment rights of more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves.”

The bill passed the House in four separate votes on Saturday before being packaged together for the Senate. Speaker Mike Johnson risked his career to get Ukraine support to the Senate – three Republicans have now signed a motion to impeach him over the Ukrainian aid.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who is trying to steer the Republican Party away from its isolationist trend, celebrated the bill’s passage and blamed anti-Ukrainian sentiment on Tucker Carlson “who, in my opinion, ended up where he had all along must be. interviewing Vladimir Putin,” he said.

McConnell said Carlson’s “huge audience” convinced “a lot of regular Republicans” that helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia is not important.

The Ukrainian bill includes $23 billion to replenish U.S. supplies depleted by the fight in Russia.

About $11 billion would go to U.S. military operations in the region and $14 billion would go toward the purchase of advanced weapons systems.

Another $26 million would go toward oversight and accountability for equipment given to Ukraine.

Two separate economic aid funds worth $7.85 billion and $1.58 billion would also be offered to Ukraine under a loan structure.

“Make no mistake: the delay in supplying weapons to Ukraine to defend itself has dented the prospects for defeating Russian aggression. Doubt and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face,” McConnell said ahead of the vote.

“I will not mince words when members of my own party take the responsibilities of America’s leadership lightly.”

The Israeli security law will provide $4 billion to supplement Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system and billions more for weapons systems, artillery and ammunition, as well as another $2.4 billion for U.S. operations in the region.

Nine billion dollars of that bill will go to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Senator Bernie Sanders sounded off after his amendment to cut offensive aid to Israel was removed from the bill.

“Hamas started this war, that’s true. But it stopped being about defending Israel a long time ago,” he said in the Senate.

“I am deeply disappointed, but not surprised, that my amendment to end offensive military assistance to Netanyahu’s war machine – which has killed and injured more than 100,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children – will not be taken into consideration.’

About 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas after 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Johnson noted that much of the bill will not go directly to any country but will replenish U.S. supplies that have been depleted for Ukraine and Israel.

The US was deeply involved last week in defending Israel against Iran’s 300 missile attacks.

Intelligence officials have alerted members of Congress to Ukraine’s urgent need for U.S. aid. CIA Director Bill Burns warned last week that Ukraine “could be losing on the battlefield by the end of 2024.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, urged voters before the bill was introduced: “We don’t need to pass this bill. Tell your senators to say “No!” #KillTheBill.”

Lee has introduced an amendment to require the Ukrainian “loan” provisions to be repaid (they are forgiven in the House version).

The foreign aid package has exposed a rift within the Republican Party that is almost as wide as that between the two parties. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., attacked Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio over the weekend over his anti-Ukrainian aid stance.

Vance had written in an op-ed in the New York Times that Ukraine could not win the battle against Russia even with American help.

“Ukraine’s challenge is not with the Republican Party; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can deploy. And more equipment is needed than the United States can supply,” Vance wrote.

“That’s nonsense,” Graham responded on Fox News on Sunday.

“Go…I just got back, I was there two weeks ago. They changed their conscription laws. They have all the manpower they need. They need the guns,” he continued. “It’s one thing to talk about Ukraine here; it’s another thing to go.”

Paul also criticized Democrats who waved “corrupt” Ukrainian flags on the floor of the House of Representatives as they voted on the package.

“Ukrainian flags are flying in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime. And just like that they shout ‘UKRAINE! UKRAINE! “while we happily work to secure Ukraine’s borders, not our own.”