Republicans Calling for More Oversight on Ukraine Spending Amid Growing Scrutiny

The Future of Military Assistance for Ukraine

The House Armed Services Committee is set to review the proposed $874.2 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) defense budget starting on June 21. This budget includes $80 million in military assistance for Ukraine. However, it also closes out further funding for Kyiv for the current fiscal year that ends on October 1.

Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, the United States has authorized over $100 billion in assistance for Ukraine, according to the U.S. State Department. This includes $40 billion in military gear and munitions.

Among the recent assistance, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced $2.1 billion in “security assistance” on June 9, and the Pentagon released a $325 million tranche on June 13. These funds are part of the FY24 national defense budget, which received swift and unanimous approval from six House Armed Services Committee subcommittees on the same day.

While the Pentagon’s FY24 budget does not include additional funding for Ukraine, it does allocate $80 million for an MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” However, this allocation falls short compared to the $86.6 million increase for “combat support forces” in the U.S. Navy’s Somalia Persistent Presence program and its $1.8 billion allocation for “communications/electronic warfare.”

The U.S. Army is also seeking nearly $400 million to continue battling ISIS in Iraq ($242 million) and Syria ($156 million).

Any future aid packages for Ukraine would require supplemental spending approved by Congress, according to the DOD.

Military aid for Ukraine is not sourced from the DOD budget but from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This allows the Biden administration to draw down funding without Congressional approval and order weapons from industry to send to Ukraine, rather than depleting U.S. stocks.

Ukraine is mentioned twice in the 412-page draft FY24 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), filed as House Bill 2670. Congress will debate this act throughout the summer before the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

Key Provisions for Ukraine

Regarding the $80 million ATACMS allocation, the proposed NDAA “directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees, not later than Dec. 31, 2023, on the progress of using USAI for the procurement of and availability of ATACMS to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

Under a section called “Mission Support to Ukraine,” the draft NDAA states that the House Armed Forces Committee “seeks to better understand how the Department of Defense is prioritizing and approving or disapproving requests from the Government of Ukraine for smaller dollar value and lower quantity capabilities made by small businesses or non-traditional providers.”

The committee requests Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to appear before them “not later than” Dec. 1, 2023, to provide “details on any request made by the [Ukraine] Ministry of Defense or National Police that have not been adjudicated within 90 days of submission or request.”

The committee also wants the Pentagon to provide information on “any request for support for systems, capabilities, or platforms made by the government of Ukraine and denied; justification for denied or partially denied requests for support; and methods to improve the acquisition of non-programs of record, defense articles, and services for the provision to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority or the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.”