In second break with Trump in a week, House passes bill to aid Ukraine

The House passed legislation Thursday that would aid Ukraine and sanction key segments of the Russian economy, overriding objections from Republican leaders who warned the bill would undermine negotiations designed to achieve a comparable but stronger result. The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with Donald Trump’s approach to the war and represents the House’s second major foreign policy break with Trump this week. The day before, the House, for the first time, approved a war powers resolution aimed at halting US military action against Iran. The legislation, by the Democratic representative Gregory Meeks, seeks to cement US assistance for Ukraine by providing more than $1bn in security and reconstruction aid. It would make another $8bn available for Ukraine’s defense through loans. Supporters were able to force action on the Ukraine bill by gathering 218 signatures on a discharge petition, a legislative tool that allows a majority of the House to effectively bypass leadership. Once rarely successful, House members have used the petition tool this Congress to pass bills on releasing the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein and to extend healthcare subsidies to many people who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, though the latter measure faltered in the Senate. Meeks said the question before the House was simple. would it help Ukraine negotiate from a position of strength or help Russia outlast American resolve? “We all want this war to end,” Meeks said. “The question is how. Will we abandon Ukraine and force it into a terrible deal? That is what Vladimir Putin is counting on. Or will this body live up to the commitments we’ve made since the start of this war?” The vast majority of Republicans opposed the measure. The representative Brian Mast, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, said he believed the bill was “a cudgel to fight against President Trump”. “This bill, in my opinion, is an unserious bill that was crafted basically a year-and-a-half ago,” Mast said. The representative Don Bacon broke with most of his Republican colleagues in voicing support for the bill. “Are we going to stand with good or are we going to stand with evil? That’s what this is about tonight,” he said. Supporters are hopeful that the House’s passage of the Ukraine bill would put pressure on the Senate to do the same. But they also know the Senate likely won’t go along unless Trump endorses the bill. “It’s probably not going to get 60 votes in the Senate, but it’s going to hopefully force the Senate to address the issue,” said the representative Brian Fitzpatrick, who signed the discharge petition and voted to advance the bill. “It’s going to send a great message to the soldiers of Ukraine.” He said the vote would also send a message to Putin that “we do have a pulse here, that we do care about Ukraine and that we are going to utilize our authority to help them”. As the war has dragged on, it’s gotten more difficult for supporters of Ukraine in Congress to provide additional financial support to help Ukraine defend itself. The US has approved some $195bn for the Ukraine response, according to the latest quarterly inspector general report for Operation Atlantic Resolve, with roughly a quarter of that going to replenish weapons stockpiles for the US military. The last major legislation designed to bolster the Ukraine response occurred in April 2024, though modest amounts have since been included in annual appropriations bills.