The Pentagon has “deep concern” over the lack of Ukraine aid in the stopgap funding measure passed to avert a government shutdown, the department’s comptroller has said, adding it may result in delaying or curtailing security assistance efforts.
In a Sept. 29 letter to House Minority leadership, DoD Comptroller Michael McCord said the Pentagon is “already out of funding” for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and only has $1.6 billion remaining out of the $25.9 billion Congress has previously appropriated for replenishing inventories of equipment provided to Ukraine through presidential drawdown authority.
“We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future. Failure to replenish our military services on a timely basis could harm our military’s readiness,” McCord wrote in his letter. “Without additional funding now, we would have to delay or curtail assistance to meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements, including for air defense and ammunition that are critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive and continues its bombardment of Ukrainian cities.”
The continuing resolution (CR) President Biden signed late Saturday night to avoid a shutdown just hours before the deadline will keep the government open through Nov. 17 and allow the House and Senate more time to complete work on passing final fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills.
After the House had proposed a CR with spending cuts to non-defense programs and no Ukraine aid and the Senate offered a bipartisan deal that included $4.5 billion for Pentagon-related Ukraine efforts, Congress ultimately passed a version without the spending cuts but no assistance for Kyiv.
“I welcome congressional action tonight to avert an unnecessary and destructive government shutdown that would have had a profound impact on the lives of our troops and civilians who work and sacrifice to defend this country every day. But I also urge Congress to live up to America’s commitment to provide urgently-needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against the forces of tyranny. America must live up to its word and continue to lead,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
McCord in his letter said the lack of USAI funding, which is used to award contracts to industry to meet Ukraine weapons needs, could “negatively impact” DoD’s ability to purchase 155mm artillery ammunition for Kyiv and affect ongoing efforts to ramp up the munitions industrial base.
“A funding cutoff would also send a negative signal to our defense industrial base, which we have asked to step up munitions productions across the country, resulting in increased defense capacity and higher employment. We cannot afford to throw that progress away,” McCord wrote in his letter.
The Pentagon also doesn’t support an idea floated to transfer funds from the short-term CR to fund more security assistance, according to McCord, who added the move would create “unacceptable risk” for the department, which is already operating around $25 billion below its requested FY ‘24 budget topline during the stopgap funding period.
“The bottom line is we cannot sustain adequate levels of Ukraine assistance with transfer authority alone,” McCord said.
The House last week removed $300 million in Ukraine aid from its FY ‘24 defense spending legislation and decided to consider the funding in a separate bill, which was a move from Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to shore up enough Republican support to pass the defense spending bill after a group of hardline conservative members signaled their opposition to continued Ukraine aid (Defense Daily, Sept. 28).
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, urged Congress to pursue securing additional aid for Ukraine noting bipartisan support remains to continue assisting Kyiv in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
“I and the vast majority of my Democratic and Republican colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee voted for this continuing resolution because shutting down the government was simply not an option that hard working Americans and their families could afford. There remains bipartisan, bicameral support for Ukraine. We will aggressively pursue all options to ensure that Ukraine continues to receive the tools they need to resist Russia so that Putin will be forced to negotiate peace and so that Ukraine will remain a free, democratic, and independent country,” Smith said in a statement.
The Biden administration in August sent Congress a new supplemental spending request, which includes $5 billion in further Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding, which is used to award contracts to industry to meet Ukraine weapons needs, and another $4.5 billion to replace DoD weapons stocks and reimburse the department for services, education and training provided to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Aug. 10).