(Saint Croix) US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law a federal services budget bill totaling $1.7 trillion, including $45 for Ukraine.
The Democrat, who is on vacation in the US Virgin Islands, tweeted a photo showing him signing the text, which is to fund the functioning of the US federal state – law enforcement, diplomacy, armed forces or economic policy – until September 2023.
“(The law) will invest in medical research, security, health care for veterans”, aid after natural disasters or programs against violence against women, he commented.
It also brings “crucial help to Ukraine”, added Joe Biden.
The text had received support from some Republicans, securing an easy passage and offering Joe Biden legislative success as his second year in the White House draws to a close – and he must reflect on the possibility of running, or not, for the presidency of 2024.
The law provides $45 billion in economic and military support to Ukraine, in order to fight against the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Washington in December to ask for more aid.
It also includes an amendment to a law dating from the 19the century aimed at mentioning that the American vice-president cannot intervene directly in the certification of electoral results.
Donald Trump had used the ambiguities of the old text to suggest that Mike Pence, his vice-president, could have stopped Joe Biden’s coming to power after a victory that the incumbent Republican did not want to recognize – one of the elements that led to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.