Lee Jong-eun

On April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives ended months of legislative gridlock and passed four individual legislative bills. These bills respectively provided foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and required TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform to a non-Chinese company. Shortly afterward, the U.S. Senate passed the omnibus legislation combining the four House-passed bills. On April 24, Biden signed the $95.3 billion foreign aid bills into law, declaring, “It’s a good day for world peace.”

The passage of the foreign aid bills appeared uncertain for months, entangled by domestic U.S. politics. Congressional Republicans demanded, in particular, that the aid for Ukraine’s war be tied to the legislation strengthening regulations of the U.S.-Mexico border and the asylum process. Eventually, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson relied on the support from Congressional Democrats to pass a series of stalled foreign aid bills, overcoming the opposition from some members of his party.

The passage of the foreign aid package is a relief for the governments of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which have lobbied for the aid as critical to their geopolitical security. The political dynamics leading up to the passage of the legislation, however, provide three takeaways that merit prudent considerations for U.S. allies.

First, Johnson justified sending military aid to Ukraine by using the analogy that “sending bullets” to Ukraine is better than “sending American boys” instead. Such calculations signal........

© The Korea Times