United States President Joe Biden signed into law on Wednesday a $95 billion war aid measure that includes assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and that also has a provision that would force social media site TikTok to be sold or be banned in the US.
Biden underscored that the bill also includes a surge of humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza suffering as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
The legislation will send $17 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza and other war-torn regions (the final decision on allocation will be up to the White House, with analysts expecting roughly $2 billion would go to Gaza). Another $8 billion will go to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. US officials said about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the bulk following in the coming weeks.
The war in Gaza erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas and free 253 hostages abducted during the attack. The fighting has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza as aid workers struggle to deliver supplies.
Biden said Israel must ensure the humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the bill reaches Gaza “without delay.”
The announcement that the war aid measure was signed marks an end to a long, painful battle with Republicans in Congress over urgently needed assistance for Ukraine.
“We rose to the moment, we came together, and we got it done,” Biden said at a White House event to announce the signing. “Now we need to move fast, and we are.”
Tucked into the measure is a provision that gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell it or face a nationwide prohibition in the United States. The president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days, bringing the timeline to sell to one year, if he certifies that there’s a path to divestiture and “significant progress” toward executing it.
The administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have called the social media site a growing national security concern.
TikTok said it will wage a legal challenge against what it called an “unconstitutional” effort by Congress.
“We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” the company said in a statement. “The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep US data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed a vote on the supplemental aid package for months as members of his party’s far right wing, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, threatened to move to oust him if he allowed a vote to send more assistance to Ukraine. Those threats persist.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested his fellow Republicans’ holding up the funding could have a lasting impact on Ukraine’s hopes of winning the war.
“Make no mistake: Delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression,” McConnell said Tuesday. “Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face.”