{"id":1896,"date":"2026-06-05T00:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/1896\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:30:07","slug":"house-passes-bill-to-aid-ukraine-and-impose-new-sanctions-on-russia-nanaimonewsnow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/1896\/","title":{"rendered":"House passes bill to aid Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia | NanaimoNewsNOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once rarely successful, House members have used the petition tool this Congress to pass bills on releasing<\/a> the government\u2019s files on Jeffrey Epstein and to extend health care subsidies<\/a> to many of those who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, though the latter measure faltered in the Senate.<\/p>\n

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Meeks said the question before the House was simple. Would it help Ukraine negotiate from a position of strength or help Russia outlast American resolve?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want this war to end,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cThe question is how. Will we abandon Ukraine and force it into a terrible deal? That is what Vladimir Putin is counting on. Or will this body live up to the commitments we\u2019ve made since the start of this war?\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Republicans opposed the measure. Rep. French Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he is a steadfast supporter of Ukraine. However, the Arkansas Republican said the House was confronted with a flawed, outdated measure that actually cuts funding for the Ukraine security assistance initiative compared to what Congress had agreed to as part of this year\u2019s defense policy. Another section could lead to a decrease in NATO spending, he warned.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Mast, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he believed the bill was \u201ca cudgel to fight against President Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill, in my opinion, is an unserious bill that was crafted basically a year-and-a-half ago,\u201d Mast, R-Fla., said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., broke with most of his Republican colleagues in voicing support for the bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to stand with good or are we going to stand with evil? That\u2019s what this is about tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers want to send a message<\/p>\n

Supporters are hopeful that the House\u2019s passage of the Ukraine bill would put pressure on the Senate to do the same. But they also know the Senate likely won\u2019t go along unless Trump endorses the bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably not going to get 60 votes in the Senate, but it\u2019s going to hopefully force the Senate to address the issue,\u201d said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who signed the discharge petition and voted to advance the bill. \u201cIt\u2019s going to send a great message to the soldiers of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the vote would also send a message to Putin that \u201cwe do have a pulse here, that we do care about Ukraine and that we are going to utilize our authority to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the war has dragged on, it\u2019s gotten more difficult for supporters of Ukraine in Congress to provide additional financial support to help Ukraine defend itself. <\/p>\n

The U.S. has approved some $195 billion for the Ukraine response, according to the latest quarterly inspector general report for Operation Atlantic Resolve, with roughly a quarter of that going to replenish weapons stockpiles for the U.S. military. The last major legislation designed to bolster the Ukraine response occurred<\/a> in April 2024, though modest amounts have since been included in annual appropriations bills.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders are trying to stop the bill<\/p>\n

Republican leaders urged their members to oppose the legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said there are good-faith negotiations between members of Congress and the White House to boost Ukraine. He described the negotiations as complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are going to yield positive results, but you set that back if you pass legislation that doesn\u2019t go as far as the negotiations are going,\u201d Scalise said.<\/p>\n

The war that followed Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a> of its neighbor is more than four years old, with no end in sight. In recent days, both sides have sought an edge by launching long-range missile strikes.<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences<\/a> and after the war in Iran grabbed Washington\u2019s attention. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Putin refused.<\/p>\n

Action in the Senate on Ukraine has revolved around a bill that would impose sweeping tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russia\u2019s oil, gas, uranium and other exports, which are crucial to financing Russia\u2019s military. But the bill has languished.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Kevin Freking, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once rarely successful, House members have used the petition tool this Congress to pass bills on releasing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[247,361,354,362,353,355,356,82,358,359,360,357],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}