The Biden administration is expected to send another request to Congress this week for Ukraine, after warning that the money from the latest package is almost exhausted. But while there is widespread support on Capitol Hill for more aid to Ukraine, the path to transition is much more uncertain in the Senate.
It is not yet clear what tool Democrats will use to pass on aid to Ukraine, but a likely option would be to attach $ 10 billion in aid to Covid-19 funding, which is already passing through the Senate. However, attaching aid to Ukraine to money for coronavirus testing and treatment could put critical wartime aid at the heart of the political fight against immigration. Before the break, the $ 10 billion Covid-19 aid package came to a halt after Republicans insisted they would not fast – follow the process unless Democrats agree to vote on an amendment that would block the administration’s decision to repeal Title 42 , an order from the Trump era that allowed the Trump administration and Biden to return immigrants to the border in their home countries during the pandemic immediately cited a public health crisis. The order is expected to be revoked in late May, but the decision has met with strong opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats, who have warned that the decision will also increase illegal border crossings.
To quickly pass the relief of Covid-19 before the break, Republicans said they wanted a vote to block the administration’s decision on Title 42. Majority leader Chuck Schumer did not give it to them.
Talks on how to hand over both the Covid relief and aid to Ukraine will begin on Monday when lawmakers return to Washington. Sumer, a New York Democrat, has also indicated that he wants to include global funding for vaccines in a aid package for Ukraine. Vaccine funding was not included in the $ 10 billion Covid package due to Republican resistance to the talks.
Why the Biden administration needs more money for Ukraine
The reason the Biden administration says it needs more money for Ukraine now is that the administration has used $ 2.45 billion of the $ 3 billion to fund Congress approved for funding by the Presidential Fund to withdraw funds to April 22, according to a source familiar with the matter. Congress allowed $ 3 billion in this specific court with money when it passed the omnibus bill on spending in March.
In all, Congress accepted $ 13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine when it adopted its government funding package in March. This included increasing the specific sweat money the administration estimated it would spend on Ukraine to $ 3 billion.
But the pot of money is running out. After six weeks, the Biden administration spent all but about $ 50 million of the $ 3 billion pot. Lawmakers are already holding preliminary discussions on writing and adopting another additional aid package for Ukraine, but talks are still preliminary, a congressman said.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the administration did not want to run out of funding from the presidential withdrawal body before another package of additional aid was passed in Congress.
“We are nearing the end of these funds, so we are actively engaging with members of Congress,” Kirby told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday. “We do not want to get to the point [sic] where we are ultimately, where we have actually exhausted the powers and funding to carry it out. So we’re having these discussions. “
Last week, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhoff of Oklahoma, called on Congress to begin writing a new package of additional aid to Ukraine in a series of tweets.
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