Congress on Track to Pass Ukraine Aid Bill

The House and Senate were on track Wednesday to quickly resolve their differences and send the White House a bill to sanction Russia and aid Ukraine to show U.S. opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s military incursion into Crimea.

Both houses of Congress are expected to vote on their versions of the bill on Thursday, but it remained unclear whether a final bill could be sent to President Barack Obama before the end of the week.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he hoped the House would adopt the Senate version of the bill, but that even if they were forced to negotiate a final measure, the process would not be lengthy.

“Vladimir Putin is on the move,” McCain said.

Democrats backed down Tuesday and stripped International Monetary Fund reform language from the bill, which had stalled its progress.

Democrats wanted the Ukraine legislation to include provisions to enhance the IMF’s lending capacity, but Republicans were opposed since it may open up the U.S. to foreign bailouts.

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the March 27th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.