President Joe Biden urged Republicans to pass his supplemental funding request, which includes tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine, while his administration announced the latest military aid package from the funding previously allocated for Kyiv.
This aid package, valued at up to $175 million, includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, AIM-9M, and AIM-7 missiles for air defense, among other weapons.
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Prior to this legislation, a defense official told the Washington Examiner that there was roughly $4.8 billion remaining in available funding, while White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned Congress this week that the government would “run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine” by the end of the year unless Congress acts.
“This cannot wait,” Biden said Wednesday. “Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. It’s as simple as that. Frankly, I think it’s stunning that we’ve gotten to this point in the first place.”
The president submitted a nearly $106 billion supplemental funding request to Congress in late October, which included $61.4 billion in new aid for Ukraine, in addition to money for Israel, operations related to the southern border, and security assistance for Taiwan.
Ending U.S. support for Ukraine would be “the greatest gift” Republicans could give to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president said, adding that if Russia were able to conquer Ukraine, the Russian leader “won’t stop there.” If that were to happen, Biden warned, Putin would push into a NATO country and the U.S. would be dragged into the war, at which point American troops would enter the battlefield.
Republicans largely have been the divided party as it relates to aiding Ukraine, though the vocal minority that is against it has grown as the war has dragged on.
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“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks,” Young wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money — and nearly out of time. This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now.”
The U.S. has provided more than $44 billion to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
