EVERETT — President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion dollar foreign aid package into law Wednesday — with vocal support from Snohomish County legislators.
But the inclusion of a potential ban on TikTok in the package drew opposition from U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett.
“My ‘no’ vote on the TikTok bill reflects my concerns about the U.S. government deciding what information Americans may or may not see or hear,” Larsen wrote in a statement last month.
Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell, both Washington Democrats, expressed support for the package on the Senate floor, highlighting humanitarian aid for Gaza and military aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“I have been warning for months about the about the need to meet this level of global uncertainty and chaos with a robust national security supplemental,” Murray said Tuesday.
The lion’s share of the spending, $61 billion of the $95 billion package, heads to Ukraine for training, equipment and weapons amid the ongoing war with Russia.
“In my regular conversations with Ukrainian constituents, I have consistently heard the urgent need for aid to Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s war of aggression and I will continue to stand up for Ukraine,” Larsen said in a statement this week.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, of Medina, and other lawmakers said passing the bill sent a message to other powers around the world.
“Our allies continue to face rising threats & our inaction only emboldens Putin & other authoritarians around the globe,” DelBene, a Democrat, said in a statement. DelBene’s district includes east Snohomish County, from Arlington to Bothell.
Military aid is set to head to Israel, along with humanitarian aid to Gaza. The United States is set to send $26 billion to the region in total.
“That was a red line for me,” Murray said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “I pushed hard at every stage of this to make sure we provide humanitarian aid.”
All Washington lawmakers supported the funding for Israel and Gaza, except for Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle.
“I support the essential funding in the bill to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and other people in need worldwide,” Larsen wrote in a statement. “The bill also makes important investments to protect Israeli civilians from missile and drone attacks by funding Israel’s missile defense systems.”
The TikTok legislation would ban the social media behemoth if its Chinese owners, ByteDance, don’t sell it within a year.
Larsen was one of two of Washington’s House lawmakers to vote against the TikTok ban when it passed the House in March. He was also one of 50 total Democrats to oppose it.
All other Washington lawmakers supported the bill.
“I want the United States to work with our most sophisticated technology countries, like-minded democracies,” Cantwell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Cantwell said technology should be used as a tool to help solve challenges and drive innovation, yet foreign adversaries are using it for social and political control.
The last piece of funding in the package allocated $8 billion for countries in the Indo-Pacific region, like Taiwan, to aid in countering against aggression from China.
“This legislation invests in strengthening the U.S. commitment to Indo-Pacific security and ensures allies and partners in the region know their security is tied to U.S. security,” Larsen said in a statement this week. “I will also continue to support a robust economic and diplomatic agenda that demonstrates U.S. commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.”
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.
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