House conservatives urge Biden to retract Ukraine funding request.
House Faces Heated Battle Over Emergency Supplemental Funding
On top of the 11 appropriations bills the House will be tasked with passing when it returns from August recess, lawmakers will now face a heated battle on what to do about the emergency supplemental request from President Joe Biden that hard-line conservatives increasingly oppose.
On Thursday, Biden requested $40 billion in emergency supplemental funding, which includes $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, $12 billion in disaster relief, and a couple of billion for border security. By doing this, the White House can go around the spending limits set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised the debt ceiling but set spending caps on this year’s appropriations.
Conservatives Push Back Against Supplemental Request
But the move drew immediate pushback from conservatives in the House who not only don’t want to see more aid go to Ukraine but also believe the White House is breaking the terms of the debt ceiling bill where strict spending caps were set.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) led a group of 12 House Republicans in sending a letter to Biden urging him to rescind his request for emergency supplemental funding for aid to Ukraine to assist them in their fight against Russia.
“By requesting a supplemental appropriations package, you are putting the U.S. on a path toward a government shutdown by violating the debt ceiling agreement,” the letter reads.
This does complicate the appropriations process. House Republicans were already struggling to pass appropriations bills, only passing one of 12 before leaving for the August recess. The main struggle is they couldn’t get hard-line conservatives and centrists on the same page, and now the supplemental request will only further complicate things.
The defense hawks in the Senate are supportive of additional aid to Ukraine, while conservatives in the House have specifically stated they won’t support a supplemental, causing an impasse.
The Biden administration has been adamant that emergency funding does not count toward the spending cap negotiated in the debt ceiling bill, but House Republicans have forcefully disagreed with that stance.
Republicans claim in the letter that if Biden really wanted the funding he’s requesting in the supplemental, then he should have put it in his budget request and had it go through the normal appropriations process, but since he didn’t, they want him to rescind the request and “adhere to the spending limitations established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
“This request exacerbates your administration’s out-of-control deficit spending and circumvents the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement,” the letter reads. “Americans are tired of funding endless wars and want policies that not only help restore fiscal sanity in Washington, but also put America and American citizens first. … We ask that you withdraw your request for additional assistance until you provide Congress with a comprehensive strategy and mission for U.S. involvement in Ukraine.”
Biden’s Request for Ukraine Aid
Biden unveiled the highly anticipated request on Thursday, requesting Congress to approve an additional $24 billion to go toward Ukraine as its military continues to fight off an invasion from the Russian government. The request seeks $13 billion to go toward security assistance with another $7.3 billion toward economic and humanitarian efforts, setting the stage for a battle with House Republicans who have been wary of providing the war-torn country more economic assistance.
The funding proposal also includes requests for $12 billion in new funding for disaster relief and another $3.3 billion to assist countries whose infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed amid the Russian invasion. Another $4 billion would go toward U.S. border security, bringing the request’s total to $40 billion.
The request is likely to garner some bipartisan support in the House, as several Republicans have publicly expressed a desire to continue funding the Ukrainian war effort. However, at least one senior GOP member told the Washington Examiner that Republicans do not have the votes to get a Ukraine supplemental across the line without Democratic help.
“People are completely against spending more money to Ukraine, with all of our existing problems here at home,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told the Washington Examiner. “And so my role will be being a very loud voice, urging my colleagues in Congress to vote no. And making sure that everyone knows which Republicans want to send their hard-earned tax dollars over to Ukraine, which Democrats want.”
Greene noted there’s a large number of Republicans who are opposed to the idea of increasing military aid to Ukraine, noting it’s an “absolute nonstarter” for many conservatives.
“I’m hoping our leadership won’t even bring that to the floor,” Greene said. “It should be a nonstarter. And I’ll be pushing as hard as possible to say this is not what we should be doing.”
That sentiment is also being felt among GOP voters as recent polling shows the amount of support among Republicans to provide financial assistance has shrunk over the last year. Roughly 62% of Democrats support contributing increased aid to Ukraine compared to just 28% of Republicans, according to a study from the Brookings Institution.
It’s likely the legislation will receive support from House Democrats, with several members already praising Biden for his efforts to support Ukraine while also seeking to address the flow of fentanyl across the southern border.
“We applaud the Administration for putting forward a supplemental funding request that addresses each of these important issues facing our nation,” said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH). “Now, Congress must get it across the finish line.”
It’s unclear whether House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will bring the proposal to the floor for a vote, vowing earlier this year that any Ukraine-related funding must come through the regular appropriations process rather than a supplemental aid request.
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