US President Joe Biden speaks after signing the foreign aid bill at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 24, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law measures to provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as force Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell the social media platform.
Biden’s official approval ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to a deadlock on the foreign aid.
“The path to my desk was a difficult path. It should have been easier and it should’ve gotten there sooner,” Biden said Wednesday after signing the bill. “But in the end we did what America always does, we rose to the moment.”
Biden had signaled his intention to sign the bill into law after the House passed the proposal on Saturday. The Senate gave its own greenlight late Tuesday night in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 79-18 vote, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The law earmarks roughly $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. It also requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months — or a year, if Biden invokes a 90-day extension — or else face a nationwide ban in the U.S.
TikTok has vowed to challenge the measure in court.