The White House has already ruled out negotiating any legislative deal to ride along with the debt limit increase.Ĭongress passed three Ukraine assistance packages in 2022. In January, the Republican leader criticized Biden for not moving “quickly enough to help Ukraine sustain counteroffensive or fully defend its cities against missile and drone attacks.”Ĭongressional leaders weren’t expecting to have a showdown over spending legislation until after they passed legislation to raise the debt limit - and the Treasury Department has yet to announce the “X date” by which Congress must act to avert a national default.Ī Democratic aide pointed out that the administration is not likely to ask Congress to pass another Ukraine military assistance package before the end of September because lawmakers aren’t expected to take up any “must pass” bills except for debt limit legislation before the end of the fiscal year. “We’ll continue to push President Biden and his administration to move faster to exert our leadership, invest in our own defense, equip our friends and keep America safe,” McConnell said on the Senate floor last month after a trip to allies and partners in Europe.
The money for Ukraine was $10 billion more than the administration requested. “The administration says they have enough for the end of the fiscal year, which would line up with a but I don’t know if that will change and we’ll need something sooner,” said a Republican aide, who had not expected congressional action on another Ukraine assistance package before September.Ĭongress attached $47 billion in military and economic assistance for Ukraine to the $1.7 trillion omnibus package it passed in December, anticipating it would last throughout 2023. The White House hasn’t yet formally asked Congress for more money to fund the war in Ukraine and senior administration officials in briefings with lawmakers have conveyed an optimistic narrative about Ukraine’s ability to match and even defeat Russia’s armed forces.
The Biden administration frontloaded its shipment of military aid to Ukraine for 2023 at the start of the year, and only has an estimated $3 billion in drawdown authority for the rest of the year, according to a projection based on numbers compiled by the Defense Department’s comptroller.Īn administration official pointed out that additional funding for Ukraine military assistance could come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and the Department of State’s Foreign Military Financing Program.īut the president’s drawdown authority has the most immediate impact because it allows the Defense Department to transfer weapons directly to Ukraine or to NATO allies that ship weapons to the war zone.
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