Ukraine aid on the line as Congress fiddles
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine comes to Washington Tuesday to make a personal pitch for US aid but also to serve as a living, breathing reminder that there is a war going on in Europe, that Russian missiles are still changing the lives of people in the streets of its capital, Kyiv, and that Ukrainian children are still being held hostage in Russia — itself a war crime.
American attention spans are short, and another war — this one in the Middle East — is the one coming into our homes each day and night on TV screens.
The focus on the need to help Israel in its ongoing response to a horrific terror attack within its borders must not be allowed to distract from the critical nature of also helping Ukraine resist a Russian invasion that threatens not just Ukraine’s independence but the stability of all of Eastern Europe.
Before dawn on Monday, eight Russian ballistic missiles landed in Kyiv, injuring four and setting an apartment building on fire. The fear is future strikes will target the nation’s energy infrastructure as the worst of winter approaches.
Ukraine needs the latest tranche of American aid — some $61 billion in military and economic assistance — before the end of the year. The aid is part of the $110 billion national security package the Biden administration has been trying desperately to get approval for before Congress leaves for its holiday break.
But the games that congressional Republicans are intent on playing in an attempt to get something back from the administration on border security grow ever more cynical — and shameful. It’s not that some changes aren’t long overdue to stem the growing influx of migrants that even well-intentioned cities like New York and Boston are having trouble coping with. It’s that somewhere along the way there is also growing evidence that elements within the Republican Party have truly lost their way.
Case in point, while Zelensky is in Washington to make his plea for freedom-saving military aid to his nation, some Republican lawmakers will instead be attending a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, of Hungary, would-be authoritarian and charter member of the Putin fan club, who is pitching an end to US aid for Ukraine. His hosts, according to a report in The Guardian, are the Heritage Foundation, once a proud supporter of Ronald Reagan’s robust approach to supporting freedom-loving democracies everywhere.
Reagan would not recognize the Republican Party as it exists today — especially those who fail to see the wisdom and the strategic advantage of supporting a people willing to fight for their own freedom.
In his most urgent plea last week, President Biden said of his aid plan, “This cannot wait. It’s stunning that we’ve gotten to this point in the first place. … Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just in Ukraine but beyond that.”
And so while Congress fiddles on an aid package that also includes some $14.3 billion in military assistance to Israel, the Biden administration announced last week the immediate sale, on an emergency basis, of $106.5 million worth of tank ammunition, about 13,000 rounds, from existing Army stocks.
The focus on the need to help Israel in its ongoing response to a horrific terror attack within its borders must not be allowed to distract from the critical nature of also helping Ukraine resist a Russian invasion that threatens not just Ukraine’s independence but the stability of all of Eastern Europe.
The negotiating on the aid package continues in the wake of its defeat last week in the Senate on a procedural vote.
“I support funding for Ukraine, I support funding for Israel. But this is an opportunity for us to force the Biden administration to do what they should have been doing all along” on border security, Senator John Cornyn told reporters at the time.
The Biden administration has already proposed including some $14 billion for border security — most of it for additional Border Patrol agents and immigration judges and efforts to deal with the backlog of asylum cases. But that has thus far failed to meet the GOP threshold for needed efforts to stem the growing migrant influx at the southern border. Much of the ongoing discussions center around the admittedly broken asylum process and raising the standard for a claim of “credible fear of persecution” during the initial screening to weed out “non-meritorious claims earlier” in the process, according to a Senate Republican working group briefing paper.
Other efforts include restricting entry by those claiming asylum who have already transited through one “safe” country unless they were denied protection there.
It’s unfortunate that immigration reforms got lumped in the same piece of legislation as foreign aid. But here we are. So, yes, Democrats — some of whom are as unhappy with the crisis at the border as their more vocal Republican colleagues — will have to give a little to save this critical year-end deal and its promise of essential military assistance to Ukraine and to Israel. The security needs of those nations ought not to be held hostage to any further political gamesmanship. Perhaps Zelensky’s personal plea can remind many who seem to have forgotten that they are also playing games with the lives of a brave people fighting for their own freedom.