A White House letter urging Congress to quickly approve more funds to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia prompted a stern rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday.
Johnson stressed that the Biden administration and Senate Democrats have yet to close a policy rift with Republicans demanding more fiscal responsibility and a concerted effort to remedy the border crisis as part of a deal to secure additional Ukraine aid.
“The Biden Administration has failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Administration is continually ignoring the catastrophe at our own border,” Johnson said in a post to X.
“House Republicans have resolved that any national security supplemental package must begin with our own border. We believe both issues can be agreed upon if Senate Democrats and the White House will negotiate reasonably,” he added.
The speaker was responding to a White House letter signed by Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warning lawmakers that the $111 billion in supplemental funds previously allocated to Ukraine is now running out.
In a new letter, White House tells Congress that without legislative 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."
"We are out of money—and nearly out of time." pic.twitter.com/5WygUBa6yv
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 4, 2023
“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,” Young wrote.
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Biden seeks another $61.4 billion for Ukraine as part of a larger “supplemental funding” request totaling about $106 billion, with funds also designated for Israel in its war against Hamas, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, humanitarian assistance, and border security.
After rejecting a House bill to offset $14.3 billion in aid for Israel by slashing the same amount of funds meant for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he wanted the Senate to take up Biden’s supplemental request as early as this week.
But Senate Democrats are struggling to secure enough GOP support for a filibuster-proof majority amid disagreements on how to tackle U.S. border security reforms — a feud in which Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) touted how his Republican colleagues “have been laser-focused on actually fixing our broken asylum process, not just pouring more money into a system that’s simply not working.”