President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law a federal spending budget bill totaling $1.7 trillion, including $45 billion for Ukraine.
The Democrat, who is on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, tweeted a photo showing him signing the text, which is to fund the functioning of the government – law enforcement, diplomacy, armed forces and economic policy — until September 2023.
The bill also includes $3.3 billion in aid for Israel’s security, an amount that former President Barack Obama decided in 2016 to allocate to Israel each year for ten years. An additional $500 million was also included in the 2023 budget, which will be used to resupply Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Congress agreed to provide these additional funds after the May 2021 Gaza War. Another $72.5 million was authorized in the last budget for U.S.-Israeli counter-drone cooperation and defensive tunnels, as well as $6 million for a new U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation grant program.
Although U.S. law prohibits direct funding to the Palestinian Authority, the Biden administration has restored funding for humanitarian projects for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, which had been cut under the Trump administration. In the spending bill, Congress agreed to allocate $225 million for these projects, in addition to $75 million for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, and $42 million for Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation.
The text, which received the support of some Republicans, was easily approved and thus offered Biden legislative success as his second year in the White House is about to end, and he must reflect on the possibility of running, or not, for the presidency of 2024. -i24 News