White House frantically sounds the alarm on Ukraine aid: ‘We are out of money’
Christian Datoc
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The White House continues to implore Congress to approve more aid for Ukraine, with Biden administration officials actively warning that the U.S. will exhaust its remaining appropriated funds by the end of the year.
President Joe Biden submitted a nearly $106 billion supplemental funding request to Congress in late October. That proposal included $61.4 billion in new aid for Ukraine, in addition to money for Israel, operations related to the southern border, and security assistance for Taiwan.
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White House officials have kept up the pressure on new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to approve that package to ensure continued support of Ukraine’s military but have largely avoided indicating when exactly the existing aid would be exhausted.
That ended Monday when White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young informed Congress in a letter that “we are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight.”
“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. There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money — and nearly out of time,” Young wrote to Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now. It is time for Congress to act.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also spoke last week during a press briefing about how “important” it is for Congress to approve the president’s supplemental request.
“We didn’t pull those figures out of thin air. We need that funding. We continue to urge Congress to pass that supplemental as soon as possible,” he told reporters. “Again, as I said before many times, the runway is getting shorter. And we think we got until, you know, about the end of the year before it gets really, really hard to continue to support Ukraine. And the end of the year is coming soon.”
He added during a Friday briefing that Congress must “immediately” approve an additional aid package for Ukraine “so we can provide them assistance in an uninterrupted way.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at Monday’s White House press briefing that any lawmakers who vote against additional Ukraine aid will “hurt Ukraine and help Russia.”
“There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. As Director Young said, we’re running out of money, and we are nearly out of time. Congress has to act now to take up the president’s supplemental request,” he stated. “I believe that any member of Congress who does not support funding for Ukraine is voting for an outcome that will make it easier for Putin to prevail. That is, a vote against supporting Ukraine is a vote to improve Putin’s strategic position. That’s just an inescapable reality.”
Johnson, who before succeeding Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) atop the House opposed sending Ukraine a so-called blank check, appears to have softened his stance on the issue in recent days.
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“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe and we understand the necessity of assisting there,” he said during an event last week in Florida, and Johnson reportedly told Republican senators last week that he doesn’t have the votes to link Ukraine aid to additional border funding, as preferred by GOP members of the upper chamber.
Further complicating the matter is Biden’s lack of a relationship with Johnson. The latter wasn’t sworn into office until the former had already departed the vice presidency in 2017, and White House officials have privately expressed concerns that the pair’s lack of rapport could complicate passage of both Biden’s supplemental request and a new government funding package next year.