House poised to approve additional $40 billion in aid to Ukraine
WASHINGTON —The House is poised to vote Tuesday on nearly $40 billion in additional aid for Ukraine as the country battles Russia's brutal invasion, now in its third month.
The package of military, economic and humanitarian support, which is $7 billion more than the $33 billion President Joe Biden requested, will probably be approved on a bipartisan vote, with the Senate expected to follow suit as early as this week.
Congress provided $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine this year, meaning that if the latest package is passed, lawmakers will have approved a total of more than $50 billion in aid.
“This monumental package of security, economic and humanitarian aid will be on the Floor tonight, where we hope to secure a strong bipartisan vote,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon. “Time is of the essence, and we cannot afford to wait. With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won.”
According to a summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee, the package includes nearly $15 billion in military equipment, training, intelligence support and salaries for Ukraine's national security forces; nearly $14 billion in programs administered by the Department of State, such as humanitarian support for Ukrainian refugees and the planned return of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv; and $5 billion devoted to addressing the issue of global food insecurity.
Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Kyiv last month and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In her letter Tuesday, she noted that the package that the House will consider goes even further than Biden's request in including additional military and humanitarian aid.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday afternoon that he spoke with Biden last week and asked that the Ukraine package move “by itself and quickly.”
“It needs to be clean of extraneous matters directly related to helping the Ukrainians win the war,” McConnell told reporters.
Exiting their respective party lunches Tuesday afternoon, Senate Democrats and Republicans each expressed a measure of optimism that both chambers of Congress could act to send a bill to Biden's desk by the end of the week.
Recounting the Democratic gathering, where Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova spoke, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters that lawmakers heard a “heartfelt and easy-to-understand message.”
“People are dying, they're running out of supplies and ammunition [and] they need our help quickly,” he said of Markarova's message. He noted that the top diplomat told Democrats, “Thank you and speed it up.”
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said he thought that the Senate could vote “as early as the end of the week,” noting that at one point, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., “were talking by phone in the middle of the lunch, so I think it was really being negotiated.”
Republicans offered a similarly hopeful note. Alabama's Sen. Richard C. Shelby, the top GOP lawmaker on the Senate Appropriations Committee, described the talks as “really, really close; we're on the right track.”
“Let's see what the House does,” he said. “If it's good and palatable . . . we'll take it. But we gotta see.”
In a joint letter to lawmakers Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Congress to approve the aid package, saying that the remaining authorized funds would run out by May 19. The Biden administration has only $100 million left in authorized money for supporting Ukraine, the secretaries said.
“In short, we need your help,” they wrote.
The authorized drawdown funds, which send equipment and arms from the Pentagon's stocks, have been used to ship dozens of 155 mm howitzers, tens of thousands of artillery rounds and hundreds of drones, among other military supplies. Last Friday, Biden announced another drawdown aid package to Ukraine that included additional munitions and radar equipment.
“The ability to draw upon existing [Defense Department] stocks has been a critical tool in our efforts to support the Ukrainians in their fight against Russian aggression,” the secretaries wrote to Congress. “We urge you to act quickly on the Administration's request.”
Biden expressed optimism Monday that lawmakers would approve the spending plan quickly. In a bid to hasten congressional passage, the president said he had retracted earlier plans to combine the Ukraine proposal with coronavirus funding legislation in a single draft bill.
“I have been informed by congressional leaders in both parties that such an addition would slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid — a view expressed strongly by several congressional Republicans,” he said. “We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort.”
Aid for Ukraine has so far enjoyed bipartisan support. Last month, the House voted 417-10 to pass a lend-lease bill that aims to expedite weapons shipments to Ukraine. Only a few weeks before, the Senate had passed it unanimously. Biden signed that bill Monday.
Even so, 31 Senate Republicans voted in March against a sweeping, $1.5 trillion spending bill to fund government agencies and departments through the remainder of the fiscal year — a bill that also included $13.6 billion in assistance for Ukraine. In the House, the measure was opposed by 54 Republicans and 15 Democrats.
The measure was approved by both chambers and Biden signed it into law, saying the United States was “moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country.”