The Senate is on track to pass its defense supplemental spending bill this week following a weekend of successful procedural votes.
The bill’s passage will be the culmination of a monthslong effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to get the $95 billion legislation, which will provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, over the finish line.
Absent a time agreement to fast-track the package, which leadership lacks due to conservative opposition, the bill could be ready for a floor vote by Wednesday. Conservative senators who oppose Ukraine assistance have vowed to delay consideration of the bill by denying unanimous consent and, thus, forcing the Senate to comply with time-consuming parliamentary rules.
The chamber will first need to vote on amendments, which are being negotiated by leadership and will likely be brought up on Monday or Tuesday.
Senators are facing a partial cancellation of their two-week recess as leadership works to pass the bill, which has been in the works for months and faces a difficult path forward in the House.
The chamber has been advancing the legislation over a marathon of votes, the most recent one taking place on Sunday afternoon to move forward on amendments. The upper chamber voted 64-19 on a motion to proceed with the legislation on Friday, one day after the bill cleared an important test vote to invoke cloture.
Schumer called Sunday’s vote “the next significant step towards passing the national security supplemental” and heralded the 67-27 vote count as “a strong signal that this bill has the support it needs to get through this chamber.”
“Our friends abroad are watching how we vote in the upcoming days,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world are on the United States Senate,” McConnell said in his Sunday floor remarks. “Our allies and partners are hoping that the indispensable nation, the leader of the free world, has the resolve to continue. And our adversaries are hoping for something quite different.”
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The fate of the legislation in the Senate was unclear for part of last week as Republicans revolted against the bipartisan border security deal once thought of as necessary for the bill’s passage.
Leadership was whipping votes on 11 amendments to the borderless legislation as of Friday evening, which could have been voted on as soon as Sunday. The chamber instead simply voted on Sunday to proceed with the legislative vehicle itself.
