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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed a hard-fought bill into law on Wednesday that provides billions of dollars of new U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia, notching a rare bipartisan victory for the president as he seeks reelection and ending months of wrangling with Republicans in Congress.
"It gives vital support to America 's partners so they can defend themselves from threats to their sovereignty," Biden said, adding that the flow of weapons to Ukraine would start in the next few hours.
The bill includes $61 billion in aid to Ukraine and $26 billion for Israel, as well as $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Gaza and $8 billion to counter China's military might.
Biden, a Democrat who is expected to face Republican former President Donald Trump in the November election, has pressed lawmakers for six months to approve more funding for Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Trump objected to the Ukraine aid, and some Republicans in Congress refused to back it, questioning whether Ukraine could ever prevail.
"They're a fighting force with the will and the skill to win," Biden said of Ukraine's military, as he blamed "MAGA Republicans" loyal to Trump for blocking aid, referring to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.
TikTok bill
Biden also signed a separate bill tied to the aid legislation that bans TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year.
The social media platform is particularly popular with left-leaning young Americans, a group crucial to Biden's victory in November.
Driven by widespread worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could access Americans' data or surveil them with the app, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday.
"For years we've allowed the Chinese Communist party to control one of the most popular apps in America that was dangerously shortsighted," said Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. "A new law is going to require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move for America."
For years we've allowed the Chinese Communist party to control one of the most popular apps in America that was dangerously shortsighted.
–Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla
Asked about the Senate's vote, the Chinese foreign ministry referred on Wednesday to comments the ministry made in March when the House of Representatives passed a similar bill.
At the time, the ministry criticized the legislation, arguing "though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the U.S.'s national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok."
TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are also expected to again take legal action. A judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free speech grounds.
Censorship is not who we are as a people. We should not downplay or deny this trade-off.
–Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass
The American Civil Liberties Union said banning or requiring divestiture of TikTok would "set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms. ...If the United States now bans a foreign-owned platform, that will invite copycat measures by other countries."
TikTok, which says it has not shared and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, did not immediately comment but has told employees it would quickly go to court to try to block the legislation.
"This is the beginning, not the end of this long process," TikTok told staff on Saturday in an email seen by Reuters.
Once the bill is signed into law, ByteDance will have 270 days to divest TikTok's U.S. operations with a possible three-month extension if there are signs a deal is progressing.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said it would be hard, if not impossible, for ByteDance to divest by early 2025, adding that a sale would be one of the most complicated and expensive transactions in history, requiring months if not years of due diligence.
"We should be very clear about the likely outcome of this law. It's really just a TikTok ban," he said. "Censorship is not who we are as a people. We should not downplay or deny this trade-off."
Aid bill
Congress's stalemate on the Ukraine aid bill ended when the Republican-controlled House abruptly changed course and approved four bills that included funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other U.S. partners in the Indo-Pacific on Saturday.
Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson held intense talks about Ukraine in February and the president has both pleaded with Republicans to back the package and scolded them for not doing so. Johnson, who faces calls by some right-leaning Republicans to oust him for his turnaround on aid, met with Trump in Florida earlier this month; the former president said Johnson was "doing a really good job."
The Senate followed the House on Tuesday evening, passing a sweeping bill that provides $61 billion in aid to the country, which has suffered setbacks in the war that supporters blame on the delay in getting the additional U.S. funding.
"Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: We stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression," Biden said in a statement after the Senate vote on Tuesday.
Heather Conley, an expert on European affairs, said the victory for U.S. allies and for Biden was tempered by effects that the delay has had for Kiev on the battlefield.
"This is a strong message of American leadership at a time of enormous instability, but the delay created cracks in that credibility," said Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. "As we start rolling into the election, that credibility will continue to be under close scrutiny."
