Republicans Are Trying to Block $6 Billion in U.S. Aid to Ukraine
Without an extension, presidential drawdown authority is set to expire
In April, the U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the Pentagon to provide $61 billion in fresh military aid to Ukraine—ending a six-month blockade of U.S. aid by pro-Russia Republicans in the U.S. House of Representative.
But now billions of dollars in aid are about to expire. The next few days will be critical as lawmakers weigh changes to a short-term funding patch that could, in theory, extend the aid.
The issue is U.S. president Joe Biden’s so-called “drawdown authority.” That authority allows the president to donate surplus U.S. weaponry to allied countries and then replace the donated weapons with newly-built ones. Congress sets monetary caps on the drawdown authority—and also assigns expiration dates.
The April aid package included $7.8 billion in drawdown authority. And Biden so far has used just $1.8 billion of it—sending to Ukraine, among other things, surplus M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, M-113 armored personnel carriers, artillery ammunition and anti-tank missiles.
The problem for the remaining $6 billion in drawdown authority is that it expires at the end of the fiscal year—on Sept. 30. Biden has pleaded with lawmakers to extend the authority by a year. And lawmakers have been negotiating a plan to include that extension in a continuing resolution, a short-term funding bill that keeps the federal government open while Congress works out a long-delayed full budget for 2025.
But the Republican speaker of the house, Rep. Mike Johnson—the architect of the earlier blockade of aid to Ukraine—just released his text for a “clean” continuing resolution funding the government through December, and it doesn’t include an extension of the drawdown authority.
In other words, $6 billion Biden would use to speed weapons to Ukraine is about to disappear.
There’s just one chance for lawmakers to save the money. The House of Representatives reportedly expects to pass the clean continuing resolution. But then it would land in the U.S. Senate, where senators could amend it before sending the modified text back to the House for a final vote.
If senators don’t add an extension of Biden’s drawdown authority, they in essence will allow Johnson and his pro-Russia allies in the Republican Party to restore their blockade of aid to Ukraine.
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