Ukraine funding request sets up battle when Congress returns

The White House’s latest request for additional funding for Ukraine is likely to add fuel to the already contentious spending debate when Congress returns in September. 

The White House on Thursday asked Congress for $13.1 billion in supplemental funding for the Department of Defense in response to the war in Ukraine. That includes funding for equipment, military and intelligence support.

The White House additionally requested $8.5 billion in funding for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, which includes $7.3 billion in “economic, humanitarian, and security assistance” for Ukraine and other impacted countries.

The White House is seeking the dollars to be greenlit as part of a potential short-term funding bill, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), that many lawmakers expect Congress needs to pass by the end of September to prevent a government shutdown.

“I think there’s a very good chance that we’ll see a CR, but I know there’s a lot of work to get a CR done,” Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, recently told The Hill, noting there are “a lot of members who don’t want CRs that are tired of them.”

The Ukraine funding is likely to add a complication. 

Some conservatives have expressed opposition to any short-term bill that keeps funding at fiscal 2023 levels, and some have also opposed sending additional money to Ukraine. In a narrowly divided House, their opposition could be enough to sink any partisan spending bill.

The request could also widen the rift between the House and Senate, which are already crafting bills at different spending levels after hard-line conservatives in the House pushed back on a deal struck between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has insisted the limits agreed to for defense spending were too low, while McCarthy signaled earlier this year that further funding for Ukraine would need to come through the annual appropriations process as opposed to a separate funding bill.

“The question to me is … why would you do a supplemental? We just passed an agreement. You work through the [appropriations process]. They’re trying to go around the agreement,” McCarthy said in June.

“If anyone thinks at the end of the day, ‘Ukraine needs money,’ you’re gonna have to show: What did we spend our money on? What is the plan for victory? And what do you need the money for? You don’t just go say, ‘Oh, go vote for some supplemental,’” he added. 

In a letter to McCarthy last month, a group of 21 conservatives called on the Speaker to “publicly reject” the possibility of a supplemental Ukraine appropriations bill, while also pressing for GOP negotiators to mark up overall funding bills at far lower levels than the caps agreed upon between Biden and McCarthy.

At the same time, Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) last month announced a deal struck with Republicans to add $13.7 billion in additional emergency funding on top of their appropriations bills. The proposal included $8 billion for defense programs and $5.7 billion for nondefense programs.

Senate appropriators on both sides of the aisle defended the move, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) citing Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

“It’s really an emergency, what Russia is doing, and Ukraine, with grain production,” Graham said then. “Wait until it hits the developing world. About half the developing world gives their grain needs from Ukraine.” 

“There is a tsunami of problems flowing from the lack of food and this war caused by Russia and the money in this bill helps some,” he said at an appropriations hearing last month. “And it will encourage other countries to do more.”

The roughly $47 billion in direct security aid for Ukraine approved by Congress last year is drying up. 

The latest packages in June and July have inched closer and closer to the end of the pile of approved money, even as Ukraine’s war with Russia continues in full force.

Ukrainian forces are in the midst of one of the hardest battles in the war yet, struggling to overcome entrenched Russian lines in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

The slow pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive might add to the tensions expected to play out on the House floor from more conservative lawmakers who are opposed to funding Ukraine’s military needs.

But House Republicans have maintained there is still strong support for Ukraine in the lower chamber.

Republican leaders in the House Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs committees have also called for more advanced weapons to Ukraine, including Army Tactical Missile System and F-16 fighter jets.

Several GOP-backed efforts aimed at reining in U.S. involvement in the war through an annual defense policy bill also failed after a majority of the conference voted against the initiatives.  

Still, public support for Ukraine has dropped since last year, with a CNN poll last week that found 55 percent of Americans don’t approve of sending more aid to Ukraine.

Republicans in the poll were less supportive of sending more aid to Ukraine than Democrats, with 71 percent in the GOP against and 38 percent of Democrats who said the same.