Republican proposals to cut Ukraine aid received bipartisan pushback during the House’s debate of its fiscal year 2024 defense spending bill on Wednesday.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) offered a measure to cut $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative from the House’s $826.5 billion defense appropriations bill, while Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) proposed prohibiting any further weapons aid to Ukraine completely. Final roll call votes on both amendments are expected to occur later this evening.
“The [Ukraine aid] funding included in the bill is not supplemental funding. It’s not a blank check. It has broad support,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chair of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee (HAC-D), said in opposition to Biggs’ amendment.
Both Biggs and Gaetz noted the U.S. has provided over $100 billion in economic, humanitarian and security aid to Ukraine to date and argued priority should be placed on provisions related to southern border security over continued assistance for Kyiv in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
“I do not fear broken Russian tanks rolling through Europe. I fear Russia’s nuclear weapons and the risk that we could be sleepwalking into a nuclear conflict that could end life as we know it on the planet. All for what? So we can live out some neoconservative dream in Ukraine? Give me a break,” Gaetz said when discussing his amendment.
Republican Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) pushed back on Gaetz’s proposal, and noted his comments also reflected the position of Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chair of the full House Appropriations Committee.
“I’ve been very clear to [DoD], no blank checks. That’s why this bill contains many new oversight provisions and funding for a Special Inspector General for Ukraine if authorized in the final [National Defense Authorization Act],” Womack said. “[Rep. Gaetz] noted that funds going to Ukraine should be used for our southern border. I argue that we should secure the border and partner with Ukraine to degrade Russia while never taking our eye off China. We do not yet know how the war will play out. But I do know that voting for this amendment would send the wrong message at the wrong time.”
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), ranking member on HAC-D, also cited Democrats’ opposition to Gaetz’s proposal to limit further security assistance to Ukraine.
“The United States and the other democratic nations of the world must continue to oppose [Putin]. If we do not, then he or another authoritarian leader will try something like this again. Yes, either in Ukraine or elsewhere in the world,” McCollum said.
The House is likely to vote in final passage of its FY ‘24 defense spending bill on Thursday, after the legislation stalled out twice in recent weeks due to several conservative GOP members breaking from their party to vote against the rule for floor debate (Defense Daily, Sept. 19)
Democrats have noted their objections to the legislation’s nearly $2 billion cut to multi-year procurement for select munitions and its inclusion of a slew of GOP-led proposals they’ve criticized as “needlessly divisive,” with lead members of the party noting the bill is unlikely to become law (Defense Daily, June 22).
“It is incomprehensible to me that the majority would actually spend as much time — really, any time — on culture war riders and focusing on their extremist priorities as opposed to protecting the national security interests of our nation. Here we are, once again, considering a bill that has no chance of becoming law as we hurdle recklessly toward a costly government shutdown,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said during floor debate on Wednesday.
The House did adopt a series of amendment packages by voice vote on Wednesday, which included provisions such as adding $55 million for more anti-rollover safety upgrades to Army Humvees, a $10 million adjustment to Army aircraft procurement for an additional UH-72B Lakota helicopter, a $15 million transfer across spending accounts to increase the Army’s M971A3 Heavy Dump Truck program and $15 million for its Infantry Squad Vehicles.
Lawmakers also approved a $150 million adjustment for the Air Force’s aircraft procurement account to buy one LC-130J Super Hercules aircraft and a $16.5 million transfer to the Defense-wide research and development account for Hypersonic Advanced Composites Manufacturing.
House Republican leaders last week rolled out their one-month continuing resolution (CR) deal to avoid a government shutdown, which exempted defense funds from a spending cut but did not include further Ukraine aid, with the proposal receiving immediate pushback from Democrats and some GOP members (Defense Daily, Sept. 18).
The Senate on Tuesday unveiled their own bipartisan CR proposal to keep the government open through Nov. 17, which included $4.5 billion for Pentagon-related Ukraine aid efforts (Defense Daily, Sept. 26).