White House officials and Democratic lawmakers lobbying for the extension of US economic and military assistance to Ukraine have sounded the alarm over GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson’s perceived foot-dragging in setting up a vote on the issue.
Citing recent attempts to include Ukraine funding into omnibus, must-pass funding measures, Democratic lawmakers pointed out that the next stopgap funding bill won’t be coming until late January or early February of 2024, and expressed fears about whether Kiev can hold out for that long.
“I don’t know that Ukraine can survive until February of 2024,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told Beltway media this week. “My sense is they start to run short of ammunition in the next several weeks.”
“We have to bear down, get this done and get this supplemental passed soon because the brave Ukrainians who are fighting as winter is coming are looking at losing the supplies they’ve needed for ammunition, for missiles, for drones, for defense, for armor, and we cannot possibly afford to abandon Ukraine,” his colleague, Democratic Senator Chris Coons concurred.
Johnson and his conservative Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives torpedoed President Joe Biden’s proposed $105 billion all-in-one funding bill this month containing money for Ukraine, Israel, cash for US brinksmanship with China in the Pacific, and the border crisis, instead pushing through a stopgap measure preventing a government shutdown and assuring funding for government services, but not a cent more. The bill passed the Senate, and President Biden reluctantly signed it, despite earlier threats by the White House to veto the measure.
For the Pentagon and US civilian agencies tasked with doling out cash to Kiev, Johnson’s reluctance to tee up a vote on Ukraine poses a real danger, with US military officials warning earlier this month that there was only about $1 billion remaining in the Ukraine war chest, and a USAID administrator revealing that its funds for direct budgetary support were all gone.
"Without further appropriations, the government of Ukraine would need to use emergency measures such as printing money or not paying critical salaries, which could lead to hyperinflation, and severely damage the war effort," USIAD assistant administrator Erin McKee said in congressional testimony earlier this month.
Senior White House aides informed media that part of the administration’s problem with Johnson is that it “does not yet have a clear read” on the politician’s negotiating style, and expressed concerns that the speaker may not be as malleable as his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy to backroom side deals (which helped culminate in McCarthy’s ouster).
“People are well aware that if a vote were put up in the House of Representatives today [on Ukraine, ed.], it would pass with an overwhelming majority of members – that the issue is not the level of support as it is getting to that vote,” Democratic congressman Jason Crow explained. But “because of the political conditions and the change in leadership, getting the vote has been the hard part,” the flustered lawmaker added.
Zelensky’s Office Says Chances ‘High’ for Nationalizing Internationally-Owned Telecom Giant Kyivstar
22 November 2023, 20:46 GMT
The US' pro-Ukraine lobbyists expect to hold a vote on funding for Kiev and other spending priorities, including Israel and the border, in the Senate after Thanksgiving, where the neoconservative wing of the GOP led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to play the decisive role. But in that chamber, Democrats and Republicans have run into other problems, with the White House disagreeing with Senate Republicans’ proposed hardline immigration and border-related positions, such as a lack of "path to citizenship" measures for millions of illegal immigrants living in the country.
“If our Republican colleagues demand too much in this negotiation, we won’t be able to get it passed in the Senate and then in the House,” Senator Coons said.
Zelensky’s Troubles
Whatever Washington decides, it will need to do it quickly. Kiev has been engaged in a desperate search for more cash since at least September, with the conflict with Russia eating away at more and more of the nation’s budget, and America’s allies tamping down their assistance, as Ukraine’s debt rapidly approaches 100 percent of GDP, and vulture funds that pumped tens of billions of their own dollars into the country searching for a return on their “investment.”