‘A Good Day for America’: Biden Signs $95 Billion Foreign Aid Bill

The president said aid would flow quickly.
Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg

Happy Wednesday! President Joe Biden signed into law the
bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, saying it would
make America and the world safer and continue U.S. global
leadership. "When our allies are stronger, we are stronger," he
said. Here’s what you should know.

‘A Good Day for America’: Biden Signs $95 Billion Foreign Aid
Bill

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a $95.3 billion
foreign aid package after the Senate approved it on an
overwhelmingly bipartisan basis Tuesday night, ending a months-long
legislative saga and enabling fresh funding for Ukraine, Israel and
Taiwan.

The Senate vote, 79-18, cemented a win for the president and
congressional leaders in both parties who argued it was vitally
important for both national security and global stability that the
country demonstrate its continued commitment to key regional allies
and democratic values. The new law provides $60.8 billion for
Ukraine; $26.4 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid in Gaza and
other conflict zones; and $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific
region.

"It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe and
it’s a good day for world peace, for real," Biden said after
signing the bill into law, adding that the United States is
stronger when its allies are stronger. In a statement after the
Senate vote, he said: "This critical legislation will make our
nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are
defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like
[Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

Biden said Wednesday that military shipments to Ukraine would
start within hours, and the Pentagon announced a roughly $1 billion
package of munitions, weapons, and equipment, including air defense
interceptors, artillery rounds, armored vehicles and anti-tank
weapons.

The Pentagon said this would be the 56th tranche of equipment to
be provided to Ukraine from Defense Department inventories since
August 2021 and that this latest round of military assistance
brings the total since Russia first invaded in February 2022 to
more than $44.2 billion.

Biden noted that the aid package had a taken difficult path to
get to his desk. "It should have been easier and it should have
gotten there sooner," he said, "but in the end, we did what America
always does: We rose to the moment, we came together and we got it
done."

The legislation, which Biden initially called for in October,
endured a tortuous six-month trek to passage, primarily because of
Republican opposition to further funding for Ukraine in its fight
to beat back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. More
House Republicans voted against the aid to Kyiv than for it. House
Speaker Mike Johnson, who had delayed a vote on the foreign aid
package, ultimately relied on Democrats to help pass the funding in
separate bills that were then stitched together for Senate
approval.

Johnson also added some other Republican sweeteners, including
allowing seized Russian assets to be used for Ukraine and
structuring some economic assistance to Kyiv as a loan, albeit one
that can be forgiven by the president. Johnson and other supporters
of the bill pointed out that much of the funding will be spent
domestically, including $23.2 billion for replenishing U.S. weapons
stockpiles.

Nine Republican senators who opposed a similar package passed by
the Senate in February switched their votes to support the
legislation on Tuesday. Fifteen conservatives
opposed it, as did liberal Sens. Jeff Merkley,
Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders, who opposed funding Israel’s
government and the war in Gaza.

The clock is Tik-ing: The new law also includes a measure
requiring TikTok to be sold within about nine months or face a
nationwide ban. The president could extend the deadline by 90
days.

The funding fight may be revisited: "It’s likely Ukraine
will require another supplemental by the end of the year,"
Politico’s Calder McHugh
noted, "as it does not look like the war will be
over anytime soon."

Number of the Day: 3.6 Million

The Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of
blockbuster anti-obesity drug Wegovy for use in fighting
cardiovascular disease means that some 3.6 million people could be
eligible for Medicare coverage of the drug, according to a
new report by KFF, a healthcare research
group.

Medicare is prohibited by law from covering drugs specifically
for obesity but the new FDA decision could open up access to Wegovy
for about 1 in 4 people on Medicare diagnosed as being obese or
overweight. The analysis notes that the actual number of eligible
Medicare beneficiaries could be even higher than 3.6 million,
though nearly 2 million beneficiaries may have already been
eligible for the drug as a diabetes treatment.

Some Medicare beneficiaries could still face significant monthly
out-of-pocket costs of $325 to $430 for the drug until they hit the
new $2,000 cap on annual out-of-pocket outlays. And, of course,
Medicare itself is likely to face billions of dollars in increased
costs, depending on how plans cover the drug and how many people
use it.

"For example, if plans receive a 50% rebate on the list price of
$1,300 per month (or $15,600 per year), that could mean annual net
costs per person around $7,800," the KFF report says. "If 10% of
the target population (an estimated 360,000 people) uses Wegovy for
a full year, that would amount to additional net Medicare Part D
spending of $2.8 billion for one year for this one drug alone."

Medicare could put the anti-obesity drug on its list for price
negotiations as early as next year, KFF notes, meaning that a lower
negotiated price could be available starting in 2027.

A programming note: We’ll be back in your
inbox next week. Send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com.

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