Biden Requests $33 Billion More for Ukraine. Congress Could Complicate Things.
Budget

Biden Requests $33 Billion More for Ukraine. Congress Could Complicate Things.

Sipa USA

President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Congress for $33 billion in emergency military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, urging lawmakers to quickly provide additional support for the country as it fights Russia’s invasion. But congressional disputes over Covid funding and immigration policy could complicate a bipartisan desire to deliver more aid to Ukraine.

“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom. And our NATO Allies, our EU partners — they’re going to pay their fair share of the costs as well, but we have to do this. We have to do our part as well, leading the Alliance,” Biden said. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.”

According to a White House statement, Biden’s request includes $20.4 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, $8.5 billion in economic assistance meant to help the Ukrainian government continue to function and provide basic services and $3 billion in humanitarian aid, which includes assistance to Ukrainians displaced by the war and food support for developing countries hurt by the disruption of Ukrainian supplies of wheat and other crops.

The president’s request also seeks another $500 million to support the production of U.S. food crops that are seeing global shortages as a result of the war. And it proposes giving U.S. authorities expanded power to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs — and then liquidate those assets, with the proceeds going to benefit Ukraine.

Biden said the U.S. has nearly exhausted the $13.6 billion in funding provided by Congress in March. “Basically, we’re out of money,” he said.

The new $33 billion request is meant to cover the costs of supporting Ukraine through the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30. As emergency supplemental spending, the additional outlays would not have to be offset by spending cuts elsewhere.

Biden’s ask already faces congressional hurdles: The president called it critical that the additional aid funding gets approved as quickly as possible, and though the assistance has bipartisan support, lawmakers are already wrangling over just how it might be passed.

As we outlined yesterday, the fate of the Ukraine aid might be tied to an additional round of Covid-19 funding, if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democrats decide to package the two together in an effort to counter Republicans’ linking of the coronavirus money to keep in place Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic border policy allowing for the quick expulsion of migrants.

In his request Thursday, Biden again urged Congress to provide another $22.5 billion for Covid vaccines, testing and treatment. “To avoid needless deaths in the United States and around the world, I urge the Congress to include this much needed, life-saving COVID funding as part of this supplemental funding request,” Biden wrote, tying the two funding requests together.

Asked later whether the Covid and Ukraine aid packages should be bound together legislatively, Biden said, “Well, I don't care how they do it. I'm sending them both up. I mean, they can do it separately or together. But we need them both.”

Some Republicans warned against linking the two aid bills. “[Schumer] thinks he can leverage support for Ukraine to get Covid supplemental funding. But I’m just saying, as a practical matter, I don’t think that’s a good move for him, because I think that our members are very much interested in having those votes separately,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told Politico, adding, “And if he tries to link them, it probably dooms both.”

If Democrats do link the two packages, Republicans would likely demand a vote on the GOP amendment to keep Title 42, again placing Democrats in a bind.

Senior Democrats reportedly insist they won’t let the aid to Ukraine be delayed, but some Senate Democrats told Politico they expect Schumer to pair the two funding bills. “In the near term, many Democrats appear willing to dare Republicans to vote down a bill that includes the much-needed Ukraine military assistance,” Politico’s Andrew Desiderio reports.

Considerations about the best legislative path for the aid must also factor in the House, where Desiderio says that the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Hispanic Caucus are indicating that at least some of their members would oppose a package that also includes Republican language blocking the Biden administration from ending the Title 42 immigration restrictions. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters Wednesday that that the Ukraine bill is urgent enough to move on its own.

The bottom line: Republicans have insisted on linking additional Covid aid to Title 42. Now Democrats have a decision to make about whether to tie the pandemic funding to Ukraine aid.

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