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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is requesting more than $13 billion in emergency funding for military equipment and support for Ukraine and $12 billion for disaster relief efforts as part of a package that also includes money for the border security and will likely set up a clash with conservatives in Congress.
Biden’s request will pit him against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans, who have said they will not approve aid to Ukraine for the next fiscal year beyond what was negotiated during the debt ceiling crisis in June – which kept the country from defaulting – and want any new government spending to be accompanied by matching budget cuts.
Higher levels of military assistance for Ukraine have become an increasingly fraught topic for the Biden administration with Americans’ views on military assistance souring as the counteroffensive against Russia slogs on and conservatives in Congress pledging to enforce the agreed upon cap on government spending. Biden’s administration is seeking to attach its request for more than $40 billion in supplemental funding to a potential short-term agreement to keep the government running.
Previously aid to Ukraine had sailed through Congress. This time, Biden could be in for an uphill fight.
“I don’t see House conservatives getting behind a request like this,” Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds said after hearing a description of Biden’s request. “There’s going to be some domestic things that members are going to want to see occur before we even go back down this rabbit hole again.”
The administration said in a call with reporters that the money for Ukraine that Biden is asking for is only projected cover the first three months of the next fiscal year, and it could go back to Congress with additional requests if it determines it’s not enough.
Biden has pledged to provide aid to Ukraine for as long as it takes to win the war, and in the Senate, the military assistance continues to have strong bipartisan support.
The president’s request will run into stern opposition in the GOP-run House with Republicans who are adamantly against approving government spending that isn’t paired with budget cuts and conservatives who want a more detailed accounting of how Ukraine is spending the money the U.S. has already sent.
Others conservatives are against sending additional aid to Ukraine altogether and are pushing Biden to direct more resources to countering a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Biden last month sent $345 million in weapons to Taiwan.
The U.S. has approved $113 billion in aid to Ukraine since the start of the war. The last time Congress authorized funding for Ukraine was in December, but the $48 billion allocation was before Republicans took control of the House.
The right-flank of the House Republican Caucus has been increasingly critical of continued financial support for Ukraine.
McCarthy in June said that he had no plans to support additional funding for Ukraine after Congress reached a debt-ceiling deal that capped federal spending including on national security for the coming fiscal year.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Ukraine or anything else,” McCarthy said then. “The idea that someone wants to go do a supplemental after we just came to an agreement is trying to blow the agreement.”
A spokesman for McCarthy told USA TODAY on Thursday that the House would not “rubber-stamp any blank-check funding requests” and would review the administration’s proposal.
GOP Rep. Chip Roy, who has been leading a charge to withhold funding from the Department of Homeland Security over Biden’s border policies, said in a social media post the request “should be a non-starter” for House Republicans.
Senators left open the possibility when they voted in favor of the debt agreement that they could revisit funding for Ukraine as the anticipated counteroffensive against Russia ramped up. It is an area of disagreement within the GOP that is part of a larger rift over the U.S. foreign policy.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Thursday statement that disaster relief, support for Ukraine and combatting fentanyl has broad bipartisan backing.
Schumer said the request “should send a clear signal to Vladimir Putin, the Chinese government, and others of America’s resolve when it comes to defending democracy around the world.”
“We hope to join with our Republican colleagues this fall to avert an unnecessary government shutdown and fund this critical emergency supplemental request,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would carefully review the request “to make sure it is necessary and appropriate to keep America safe, secure our borders, support our allies, and help communities rebuild after disasters.”
Americans growing war weary
Public opinion may be at a turning point in the Ukraine war. A CNN poll released last week showed that a slim majority of Americans, 55%, now oppose providing additional assistance. And even among Americans who do support the war, there is widespread concern about when it will end.
A majority of Republicans, 71%, oppose new funding for Ukraine. So do 55% of independents. A strong majority of Democrats, 62%, backed an additional allocation in the the survey.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby argued Wednesday that greater U.S. national security obligations are at play, including commitments to the NATO military alliance, and the implications of losing the fight with Russian President Vladimir Putin are much bigger than Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“If we just sit back, and we let Putin win, we let him take Ukraine, where does it stop next? And for people that might be concerned that the costs financially are getting too high? We would ask them to consider what the costs – not just in treasure but in blood, perhaps even American blood – could be if it Putin subjugates Ukraine and then sets his sights on our NATO allies,” Kirby said.
Congress is in recess until mid-September. When lawmakers return to Washington, they will have until the end of the month to pass legislation that funds the government, in order to avoid a shutdown. The supplemental request will add a new dimension to what was already expected to be a vicious spending fight.
“This supplemental request by the White House isn’t going to make things easier, it’s only going to make matters more difficult,” Donalds, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told USA TODAY.
The conservative Heritage Foundation came out swinging against a proposal to pair supplemental aid to Ukraine with FEMA disaster relief before lawmakers left town.
“This is an attempt to hold American citizens hostage by using the cover of hurricane relief as leverage to jam through tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars for Ukraine with little meaningful oversight,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement at the time.
Biden’s supplemental request also includes $800 million to address the fentanyl crisis, with funding aimed at reducing the supply of illicit drugs and expanding access to addiction care, and $2.2 billion for shelter and services for migrants released from DHS custody and related operational support.
The administration is also seeking $7.3 billion for economic, humanitarian and security assistance to Ukraine and other countries that have been impacted by the war.
Contributing: Joey Garrison
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