The next speaker of the House, after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was forced out on Tuesday, is set to have a significant role in the fate of future security assistance for Ukraine as opposition to further aid continues to grow among conservative lawmakers.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus member, announced their intent on Wednesday to seek the speakership, with the former having been mostly supportive of Ukraine aid efforts while the latter has said assistance for Kyiv is not a priority.
“I’m against that…the most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine. It is the border situation and it is crime on the street,” Jordan said on Wednesday when asked if he would move forward on a Ukraine aid package if he was speaker.
McCarthy on Tuesday became the first House Speaker ever to be voted out of the position by his fellow lawmakers, which followed a tumultuous tenure where the California Republican had to navigate a razor thin GOP majority.
Ultimately eight Republicans–Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)–joined all Democrats in supporting the motion to oust McCarthy as speaker.
Both Scalise and Jordan did not specifically mention Ukraine in their “Dear Colleague” letters sent out Wednesday seeking support in their bid to be the next speaker.
“Now is not the time to slow down. We are conducting critical oversight of a corrupt administration. We are in the midst of considering individual appropriations bills in an open and transparent process, with members from across the Conference offering amendments to ensure their constituents and districts are represented. We laid out an aggressive schedule to complete floor consideration of all 12 appropriations bills to go into Senate negotiations with the strongest hand possible, and we cannot afford to lose any more time achieving that goal,” Scalise said in his letter to lawmakers on Wednesday.
Jordan, in his letter, said Congress “must get our fiscal house in order and reduce spending so that we can leave more to the next generation than a crushing deficit” and cited border security as a top priority.
A “report card” from Republican advocacy group Defense Democracy Together rates GOP lawmakers on their level of support for Ukraine assistance, noting the assigned grades “reflect each member’s public statements (or lack thereof) on the war, because leadership requires explaining clearly and consistently why a Ukrainian victory and a Russian defeat is in America’s best interests.”
Scalise has received a “B” rating from the group, which notes his support for most Ukraine aid-related measures while deeming his public statements as “neutral” on the matter.
Jordan, meanwhile, received an “F” grade after having voted against nearly every Ukraine aid proposal, with the group deeming his level of support for Kyiv as “very poor.”
McCarthy, for his part, had a “B-” rating, with the group labeling his public statements as “anti-Ukraine” while being mostly supportive of providing security assistance.
One of McCarthy’s final moves as speaker was to remove $300 million in Ukraine aid from the House’s FY ‘24 defense spending legislation and to have the funding considered in a separate bill, which was intended to shore up enough Republican support to pass the defense spending bill after a group of hardline conservative members signaled their opposition to continued Ukraine aid (Defense Daily, Sept. 28).
The House last week passed both the defense appropriations and Ukraine aid bill, with Scalise supporting the latter bill while Jordan voted against it.
DoD Comptroller Michael McCord has said the department has “deep concern” over the lack of Ukraine aid in the stopgap funding measure passed over the weekend to avert a government shutdown, noting the Pentagon is “already out of funding” for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and only has $1.6 billion remaining out of the $25.9 billion Congress has previously appropriated for replenishing inventories of equipment provided to Ukraine through presidential drawdown authority (Defense Daily, Oct. 2).
The Biden administration in August sent Congress a new supplemental spending request, which includes $5 billion in further Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding, which is used to award contracts to industry to meet Ukraine weapons needs, and another $4.5 billion to replace DoD weapons stocks and reimburse the department for services, education and training provided to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Aug. 10).
A group of over two dozen conservative GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), recently sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young detailing their opposition to the Biden administration’s supplemental spending request seeking $24 billion in continued aid for Ukraine (Defense Daily, Sept. 22).