$96 Billion Ukraine-Israel Assistance Bill Clears Major Senate Hurdle

The Senate voted for cloture on a $95 billion military assistance bill supporting Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and continued US military operations in the Red Sea. The 67-32 vote sets up a final vote by Wednesday, sending the bill to the House. This vote cleared the 60-vote filibuster threshold on the strength of 17 Republican votes.

This bill includes $60 million for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, among other expenses. It was originally attached to the disastrous "border security" bill that cratered on Monday.

Next week's vote will require another cloture vote, which is almost a given. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to open the bill to amendment. That will give some senators the opportunity to object to parts of the bill and rant about the absence of any border security measures.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has signaled the bill would face a tough road in the House, where many Republicans have drawn a hard line on no more Ukraine funding. He said this week he prefers to deal with the national security priorities “independently and separately,” meaning Israel and Ukraine aid would not be bundled together.

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Treasury Dept. Admits to Using Political Search Terms to Surveil Citizens' Bank Transactions

On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury confirmed, in a letter to Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), that the Treasury has been using political watchwords in searches during surveillance of the financial transactions of American citizens. Senator Scott is the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

The Biden administration has confirmed that terms like "MAGA," "Trump" and "Kamala" were included in the push by federal investigators for banks to surveil private financial transactions following the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol, a letter obtained by Fox News Digital reveals.

The letter, sent Friday from the Treasury Department to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, notes that "Exchange events" convened by its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, "began shortly after January 6 under the prior Administration," and "included terms such as ‘antifa,’ ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump,’ ‘Biden,’ ‘Kamala,’ ‘Schumer,’ and ‘Pelosi.’"

The letter, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary Corey Tellez, comes in response to a letter sent by Scott to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding answers from the Department and FinCEN after revelations of the surveillance using "politically charged search terms" to flag customer profiles to federal law enforcement surfaced.

In his letter, Scott wrote that the surveillance "represents a flagrant violation of Americans’ privacy and the improper targeting of U.S. citizens for exercising their constitutional rights without due process."

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