Rand Paul slams $95.3 billion foreign aid bill, predicts House won't take it up

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., slammed the $95.3 billion foreign aid package, which he says is unlikely to even pass the House after the Senate passed it Tuesday following an all-night session.

"I for one think that the American people are opposed to this bill. I think they're opposed to the concept of Ukraine first and America last," Rand Paul said on the Senate floor Monday evening hours before the bill passed 70-29.

All of the "Nay" votes came from Republicans with the exception of Democrats Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

"I predict that the House of Representatives is not going to take up this bill. I predict that the vast majority of the Republicans in the House of Representatives are more conservative than the Republicans in this body," Paul also said. "The Speaker of the House spoke out today and said he's not taking this bill up."

The current bill, which includes $60 billion to Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel, less than $5 billion to Indo-Pacific allies and more than $9 billion for humanitarian aid, still needs to pass the House before the president could sign it into law.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., released a statement Monday evening criticizing the Senate for the foreign aid bill. 

"House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border," Johnson said. "The House acted ten months ago to help enact transformative policy change by passing the Secure Our Border Act, and since then, including today, the Senate has failed to meet the moment." 

He also said the Senate "did the right thing" when it rejected another foreign aid-border deal last week, but the body "should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing." 

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