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The US Senate has approved a $95bn bill to deliver security aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region with overwhelming bipartisan support, in a boost to Joe Biden’s top foreign policy priorities.

The final passage of the legislation in Congress on Tuesday ended a political logjam that had lasted for months and paved the way for Washington to quickly dispatch new weapons to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion. US officials said some aid for Kyiv would be forthcoming within days.

The bill will also bolster US military assistance for Israel — which has exchanged drone attacks and missile strikes with Iran over the past 10 days — and comes despite mounting tensions between the White House and Israeli leaders over the country’s war in Gaza against Hamas and the heavy Palestinian civilian casualties.

The approval represents a legislative victory for Biden as he faces an election match-up against Donald Trump in November and a defeat for foreign policy isolationists, particularly Republican lawmakers close to the former president, who had been holding up support for Kyiv for months.

The bill won support from 79 senators, with 18 voting against.

Biden immediately cheered the bill’s passage, saying he would sign it on Wednesday. Aid could start reaching Ukraine as early as this week. “Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.”

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said: “Mr Putin thinks he can play for time, so we’ve got to try to make up some of that time.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked the US Senate shortly after the vote, which he said “reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world”.

Zelenskyy emphasised the importance of long-range capabilities, artillery and air defence systems. Dwindling stocks of anti-air missiles have in recent weeks allowed Russian forces to launch wide-ranging missile attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructures.

The highest hurdle for the bill was cleared on Saturday after Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, decided to bring Ukraine aid up for a vote despite months of internal divisions and opposition from some rank-and-file lawmakers such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who threatened to oust him from his role.

Supporters of the legislation from both parties and in the White House saw its passage as a bittersweet victory because of the time it took for it to pass Congress.

“So much of the hesitation and short-sightedness that has delayed this moment is premised on sheer fiction,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, said on Tuesday, blaming Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who recently interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, for “demonising” Ukraine.

“Make no mistake: delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression. Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face,” McConnell said.

Opponents of Ukraine aid continued to attack the legislation. JD Vance, the Ohio Republican senator close to Trump, likened the arguments in favour of the aid to those that led to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. “It’s the same exact talking points 20 years later with different names,” Vance said.

Some leftwing lawmakers, meanwhile, criticised the bill for allowing Israel to keep receiving offensive weapons from the US. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, pushed for an amendment to strip those measures from the legislation, but it was not considered.

Sanders joined two Democrats and 15 Republicans who opposed the package.

“I voted no tonight on the foreign aid package for one simple reason: US taxpayers should not be providing billions more to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people,” he said.

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Four Americans representing four different perspectives on the U.S. economy.

Courtesy of Arch City Defenders, Winton Machine Company, Bhavesh Patel and the Just One Project

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Courtesy of Arch City Defenders, Winton Machine Company, Bhavesh Patel and the Just One Project

Four Americans representing four different perspectives on the U.S. economy.

Courtesy of Arch City Defenders, Winton Machine Company, Bhavesh Patel and the Just One Project

All Things Considered has been speaking with four “American Indicators” since 2021. They’re four people in different parts of the country reflecting different parts of the economy. Now that it’s an election year, they spoke with NPR again — this time, to talk about how the economy is shaping their own politics.

1. Travel

Bhavesh Patel is a franchise hotel owner, like Comfort Inn in the Northeast United States.

When he first spoke with NPR in 2021, the country was beginning to emerge from the pandemic recession. At the time, he owned seven hotels in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois. In the years since, he has had to downsize.

“We sold off three properties, so we’re down to four now.”

Patel says his line of hotels has continued to struggle in the wake of the pandemic, and that right now, high end hotels are doing much better as the wealth gap has continued to grow in the U.S. He’s frustrated by the increase in regulation for his business, and considers himself a moderate Republican. For now, he isn’t sure who he’ll be voting for.

2. Cost of living

Lee Camp is a housing attorney in St. Louis. In his city, he says, rents keep increasing and the availability of housing is decreasing. After witnessing a wave of clients facing eviction during the pandemic, Camp says that economic pressures have gotten worse across the board.

“I love my career. I love that I get to serve people and work alongside so many inspiring and amazing individuals. But the loan payments are back, and that has certainly changed our financial picture in our household.”

When Brooke Neubauer, founder of the Just One Project, the largest distributor of groceries to at-risk individuals in Nevada, looks at the economy today, she says there are plenty of jobs, but says that “what I’m hearing from my clients is that the wages have not caught up with the cost of living.”

Neubauer says that her program’s spending has gone up tremendously as the price of food has gone up as well. And for her, a candidate that values social services is a priority.

3. Manufacturing

In Georgia, Lisa Winton, co-founder of Winton Machine Company, sees herself as a pocketbook voter – not just for herself, but for the 40 people her company employs.

Winton says last year, the economy looked good — her company had their best year by 20%, a banner year. As a result, she says her company had looked into opening a second factory, but her lease on her current space nearly doubled, and they had to put those plans on hold.

And while her business might be doing better with the help of some Trump-era tax policies, Winton expressed that the Republican party’s shift to the right on some social issues is causing her concern.

This episode was produced by Michael Levitt and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Mallory Yu and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The US Federal Trade Commission has voted to ban non-compete agreements, taking aim at contracts that limit employees’ freedom to quit for a new job at a different employer.

The regulator’s commissioners voted 3-2 on Tuesday to implement the far-reaching measure first proposed in January 2023 in a bid to avoid wage suppression and protect innovation. But the move sparked immediate legal pushback.

Non-compete agreements have become pervasive across industries, amid limited oversight and a decline in unionisation, experts say. The FTC said approximately 30mn workers are subject to such contracts, which prohibit employees from working for a competitor or setting up a competing business for a period of time or within a geographical area after they leave a job.

“Non-compete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism, including from the more than 8,500 new start-ups that would be created a year once non-competes are banned,” said Lina Khan, FTC chair. Non-competes constituted “unfair methods of competition”, she added.

The FTC estimated the new rule will raise an average worker’s earnings by $524 a year. The agency received more than 26,000 public comments on the matter, a sign of its importance to workers and their employers.

But the measure also inflamed industry groups that have claimed it is too drastic and will increase costs while putting trade secrets in jeopardy.

The US Chamber of Commerce announced it would sue the regulator, arguing the agency lacked constitutional and statutory authority to enact the rule, calling it a “blatant power grab” that “sets a dangerous precedent for government micromanagement of business”.

The FTC declined to comment on the chamber’s move.

Andrew Ferguson, one of two Republican FTC commissioners who voted against the rule, agreed with the argument that the agency lacked congressional authority to adopt the rule.

The expected lawsuit will compound the legal sparring between corporate America and regulators appointed by President Joe Biden who have ushered in tougher stances on rulemaking and enforcement.

Khan is among a new generation of progressive officials who have adopted more stringent antitrust policies in an effort to fight what they argue has been unchecked anti-competitive conduct. 

The impending litigation is also set to add uncertainty for businesses, some lawyers said.

“The question is: what are companies supposed to do now?” said Russell Beck, an attorney who sat on a working group tackling the noncompete issue during the Obama administration.

He said the best course of action for companies was to wait and see how the issue plays out in court. “I think there will be a slew of challenges until a judge issues a nationwide injunction prohibiting the operation of the rule.”

But Rachel Dempsey, an attorney at Towards Justice, a non-profit law firm representing employees, said in a statement that non-compete agreements “keep workers trapped at jobs with low wages and poor working conditions”.

The rule was “a historic step towards protecting workers from employer abuse and empowering them to stand up for their basic rights in the workplace”, she added.