The US House of Representatives will vote on Saturday on a major aid plan for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as on a possible ban on the social network TikTok.
• Read also: United States: a vote Saturday in the House of Representatives on aid to Ukraine
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An update on this envelope of 95 billion dollars divided into four texts, and the curious amendments that parliamentarians are trying to attach to it.
Ukraine
Nearly $61 billion, the majority of the planned funds, are earmarked for the war in Ukraine. This money has been requested for months by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who assures that without this sum, “Ukraine will lose” the conflict with Russia.
The United States is Kyiv’s main military backer, but Congress has not passed a large package for its ally since December 2022, mainly due to partisan wrangling.
This aid was distributed during 2023, but the taps are now dry.
The text presented Wednesday provides nearly 14 billion dollars to train, equip and pay the Ukrainian army.
Around $10 billion in economic assistance dedicated to the energy and infrastructure sectors will be sent in the form of a loan.
The idea was suggested by Donald Trump, who believes that the United States should “stop giving money without expecting to be reimbursed”. This debt may, however, be erased.
A large part of the envelope will also be used to replenish the stocks of the American army and will return to arms factories in the United States.
The aid plan also authorizes President Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets, so that they can be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine – an idea that is also gaining ground with other G7 countries.
Israel
The plan debated in Congress provides for $13 billion in military assistance to Israel, a historic ally of the United States, at war with Hamas.
These funds will be used in particular to strengthen the Israeli anti-missile shield, the “Iron Dome”.
More than $9 billion is also planned to “respond to the urgent need for humanitarian aid in Gaza and other vulnerable populations around the world,” according to a summary of the text.
The project, however, prohibits any direct funding from the United States to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Israel accuses some of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas.
Taiwan, TikTok
As Joe Biden had demanded, this text devotes more than 8 billion dollars to stand up to China on the military level by investing in submarines, and on the economic level by competing with major Chinese projects in developing countries. development.
Several billion dollars are allocated to Taiwan, an island of 23 million inhabitants that China considers one of its provinces.
The bill also provides for the ban on TikTok in the United States if the social network does not cut ties with its parent company ByteDance, and more broadly with China.
TikTok has been in the crosshairs of American authorities for several months, with many officials believing that the short and entertaining video platform allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate its 170 users in the United States.
Wacky amendments
This gigantic envelope, the result of compromise between Democrats and Republicans, was strongly criticized by the most conservative elected officials, supporters of a certain isolationism. In protest, they tabled a series of far-fetched amendments… which have no chance of being adopted.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, known to be one of Donald Trump’s closest elected officials, presented an amendment that would force any elected representative of Congress who supports the aid plan for Kyiv to enlist in the Ukrainian army.
“If you want to finance endless wars abroad, you have to go and fight,” argued the parliamentarian in a publication on X.
In response, Democrat Jared Moskowitz presented an amendment that would rename his Trumpist colleague’s office “Neville Chamberlain” — in reference to the British Prime Minister, one of the protagonists of the Munich Accords in 1938.
