WASHINGTON, DC – After months of debate and bipartisan negotiation and a weekend session that saw votes on Super Bowl Sunday, the U.S. Senate voted 70-29 this morning to pass a bipartisan national security supplemental appropriations bill. 

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, voted for the comprehensive package, which includes critical support for U.S. partners Ukraine and Israel, humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and support for operations to keep international shipping safe in the Red Sea.  The Senate-passed bill also provides key support for U.S. allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific and funding for the submarine industrial base to help maintain critical undersea warfighting advantages.  Reed also helped support new resources to counter fentanyl through inclusion of key provisions of the bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act.  He also says Rhode Island nonprofits may benefit from the inclusion of $400 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to help eligible organizations make security enhancements.

Today, Senator Reed stated:

“This bipartisan package is a needed investment in keeping America safe and strong, advancing our prosperity, and protecting our interests and the American people.

“As Ukrainians fight for their survival, it is squarely in America’s best interest to help them and demonstrate that American leadership is a force for peace, freedom, and global stability.  We can’t afford to sit back and allow Putin’s predation to go unchecked, or it will only destabilize Europe and invite further aggression and attacks against U.S. interests around the globe.

“If Ukraine falls, America can’t avoid the consequences.  Failure to pass this investment now would make America less safe and impose significant future costs in the form of additional defense expenditures. 

“Responsible leaders from both parties came together to assemble this package and get it through the Senate with 70 votes.  Now it’s time for the House to follow suit.”

President Biden requested national security supplemental funding last fall.  But Republicans insisted that the package needed to include border security policy changes.  Democrats agreed to pass the border security language Republicans demanded, but then those same Republicans torpedoed the strongest border security proposal in years at the behest of President Trump, who did not want to see the border strengthened on President Biden’s watch.  

“Americans should make no mistake, President Trump and his acolytes killed our best chance at improving the situation at the border and helping communities cope with newly arriving migrants.”