The White House has said it will run out of money to continue assistance efforts for Ukraine by the end of the year without action from Congress to provide additional funds.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sent a letter to congressional leaders detailing the “acute urgency” with the current state of Ukraine aid funding, which follows remarks from senior Pentagon leaders over the weekend urging lawmakers to take up the Biden administration’s full $106 billion supplemental spending request.
“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks. There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money—and nearly out of time,” OMB Director Shalanda Young wrote in her December 4 letter. “Cutting off the flow of U.S. weapons and equipment will kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield, not only putting at risk the gains Ukraine has made, but increasing the likelihood of Russian military victories.”
Young noted recent Ukraine security assistance announcements to assist in Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion have “become smaller and the deliveries of aid have become more limited,” adding the Pentagon has now used 97 percent of the $62.3 billion for Ukraine it received in previous supplementals and the State Department has used 100 percent of the $4.7 billion in funds it received for military-related assistance.
A $425 million weapons aid package announced in early November exhausted the remaining $300 million in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds the Pentagon utilizes to procure capabilities from industry to support Kyiv (Defense Daily, Nov. 3).
“We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight. This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now. It is time for Congress to act,” Young wrote.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was among several Pentagon leaders at Saturday’s Reagan National Defense Forum (RNDF) in Simi Valley, California urging Congress to take up the Biden administration’s supplemental request, to include further Ukraine aid.
“And I also urge you to pass our urgent supplemental budget request to help fund our national-security needs, to stand by our partners in danger, and to invest in our defense industrial base,” Austin said during his keynote remarks. “We must continue to be clear to the American people about the stakes in Ukraine. Ukraine matters profoundly to America and to the entire world.”
The Biden administration rolled out its $106 billion supplemental spending request in October, which includes $61.4 billion to continue supporting Ukraine, $14.3 billion in assistance for Israel following Hamas’ incursion on Oct. 7 and as the country pursues a ground invasion of Gaza, $7.2 billion in Foreign Military Financing grants, $4 billion to support partners in the Indo-Pacific region and $3.4 billion to bolster submarine industrial base efforts (Defense Daily, Oct. 20).
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) expressed confidence during an RNDF panel that Congress will move on the supplemental and further Ukraine aid, adding he believes the “vast majority” of lawmakers “understand that we have to do this.”
“I believe we will get the Ukraine supplemental because I think a majority of my colleagues…understand how critical it is not just to Ukraine and to our position in Europe keeping NATO countries and other countries together with us but, as a very simple axiom, I’d rather send resources than young Americans. I think if we can communicate that effectively, then we will,” Reed said. “I think there are some holdouts you’ll never persuade because it is not an intellectual exercise, it’s a more visceral exercise in what they say and what they don’t say. That’s a very small minority.”
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the top Republican on SASC, on a separate panel said he was “relatively optimistic” on the supplemental’s prospects in Congress, while noting he believes more debate lies ahead on the border security-related provisions included in any such bill.
“I’m not quite exuberantly optimistic, but we very much need it. I’m gratified that the new speaker has begun to acknowledge that we have to stay with our friends in Ukraine. That’s very helpful. We can get a two-thirds vote in both [chambers] if we do this right and that will save us a lot of trouble,” Wicker said. “But there’s going to have to be some more negotiation. As I say, we’re going to have to have something [in the supplemental] on the border, something meaningful on the border.”
A recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing previewed the forthcoming debate on proposals to build on the border security items included the Biden administration’s supplemental proposal, with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the panel’s chair, cautioning Republicans against trying to “jam a huge far right wish lists on immigration” into the bill (Defense Daily, Nov. 8).
The White House has also previously noted that $50 billion within the request would be invested into the U.S. defense industrial base.
“While we cannot predict exactly which U.S. companies will be awarded new contracts, we do know the funding will be used to acquire advanced capabilities to defend against attacks on civilians in Israel and Ukraine—for example, air defense systems built in Alabama, Texas, and Georgia and vital subcomponents sourced from nearly all 50 states. We will modernize vital munitions and equipment like Javelins made in Alabama; Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System made in West Virginia, Arkansas and Texas; tactical vehicles made in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana; and 155mm artillery shells made in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Iowa and many other states,” Young wrote in her letter.
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his RNDF discussion cited the defense industrial base investments within the supplemental as key to continuing support while also assisting the Pentagon’s own modernization efforts.
“It goes back into our defense industrial base to build out capability not only for our allies and partners but also for us. And that to me is important because it helps us continue down the path of modernization and to bring in capability,” Brown said. “Many of our allies and partners like U.S. equipment, U.S. capability. And to be able to get the funding in the supplemental in place to continue to provide support for both Ukraine and Israel also supports us in our defense industrial base as well.”
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, also addressed previous remarks from the Army that it will require the $3.1 billion included in the supplemental request to boost 155mm artillery ammunition production in order to meet its aim to build 100,000 such rounds per month by late 2025 (Defense Daily, Nov. 8).
“Let’s be clear, if we don’t get this supplemental that’s sitting over there right now with that additional funding, we won’t get there,” LaPlante said during an RNDF panel on industrial capacity.
LaPlante also said that getting Ukraine and Israel drones and loitering munitions as well as counter-UAS capabilities is an “urgent issue,” adding that production of the latter needs “to go through the roof” similar to the approach DoD has taken with boosting 155mm artillery round manufacturing.
“There’s a crisis actually happening right now, an operational one I would say, in the UAS and counter-UAS situation,” LaPlante said. “We need the counter-UAS capabilities at scale. We need lots of money. We need production lines to go up fast.”