Pressure from hard-liners, including former President Donald J. Trump, has not swayed a coalition of Republican senators that has broken with the party to back the bill.
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Legislation the Senate is considering would direct $60.1 billion toward helping Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion.
A bipartisan coalition of senators was on track Monday to push a $95 billion foreign aid package to the brink of passage, as Republicans fractured bitterly over the bill.
Over the past week, 18 Republicans have rallied around the legislation, helping to advance it through the Senate despite the full-throated opposition of the bulk of G.O.P. senators, Republican leaders in the House and the party’s likely presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump and his right-wing allies have been pressuring Senate Republicans relentlessly to abandon the legislation, which would direct $60.1 billion toward helping Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion, $14.1 billion toward Israel’s war against Hamas and almost $10 billion toward humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Palestinians in Gaza.
Mr. Trump in particular has been railing against the legislation from the campaign trail. In recent days, he has cheered G.O.P. senators for killing an earlier version of the bill that included a bipartisan deal on border security, argued on social media that it was “stupid” for the United States to offer foreign aid instead of loans, and encouraged Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members that did not spend enough money on their own defense.
But the pressure appeared to have backfired, at least partially, in the Senate, where by Monday, more than a third of Republicans had cast multiple votes to keep the aid bill moving forward — and their coalition appeared to be holding firm.
“It overall accomplishes the goals that we wish to accomplish, if you want to keep Russians from killing Americans, push back on the C.C.P., and support our ally Israel,” Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said of the bill on the floor during a rare weekend session on Sunday evening, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. He accused his Republican colleagues of “dishonesty” in the way they were characterizing the legislation. “We in the Senate owe it to the American people to vote the honest truth and get something done.”
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Source: nytimes.com
