U.S. lawmakers weigh Ukraine funding bill

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers say they are discussing legislative responses to the Ukraine crisis, including a new funding bill, and some want to see Congress act on them next week.

Members of both parties have signaled support in the last two days for such a supplemental spending measure. And lawmaker-crafted sanctions beyond those the Biden administration is implementing via presidential powers may have become more likely as a wider war in Ukraine may already be underway.

Until now, Republicans have pushed for enacting tougher sanctions against Russia sooner than the Biden administration has preferred, but many Democrats and the White House have wanted instead to hold fire on the sanctions to see how Russia acted.

But recent congressional statements and the news from Ukraine of the start of a Russian invasion suggest bipartisan support for additional sanctions could grow. The White House over the weekend implemented limited sanctions against doing business with regions in eastern Ukraine that Russia has begun to invade, and President Joe Biden is expected to put in place on Tuesday the more “severe” sanctions they have promised for weeks.

And while the U.S. government has stepped up in recent weeks weapons deliveries to Ukraine and to NATO allies on the Russian front — including bolstering them with thousands of new U.S. troops and weapons — Congress appears poised to accelerate this trend.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior Republican appropriator and longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he wants Congress to act on a supplemental spending bill next week.

He told reporters funds should be allocated to help Ukraine and America’s NATO allies in Eastern Europe defend themselves against kinetic military attacks and cyber onslaughts from Russia. Graham did not offer a specific amount to be spent and did not advocate sending U.S. troops to Ukraine.

He also proposed requiring the creation of an executive branch interagency task force to devise and implement sanctions against Russian oligarchs aligned with Putin in what Graham called “a mafia state.”

“As Putin tries to dismember NATO, we need to try to make it stronger,” Graham said. “The emergency supplemental needs to help our allies and provide more assistance to Ukraine.”