Biden won't press Congress for more Ukraine aid before Trump takes office
RIO DE JANEIRO – President Joe Biden does not plan to push Congress to pass additional Ukraine aid and will instead focus on distributing assistance that has already been approved.
Biden’s administration is racing to transfer weapons to Ukraine before the outgoing president leaves office in January.
Equipment has been slow to move in recent weeks, and a revised estimate from the Pentagon puts the amount the Biden administration has at its disposal higher than was previously known.
“The focus is on utilizing the resources we currently have,” a senior administration official told USA TODAY. “We are in the midst of surging military aid to Ukraine to put them in the best possible position as the president directed.”
Time is running out to get more than $7 billion in equipment to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. A new package the official said was expected to be released last Thursday had still not come by Tuesday afternoon.
"The President has committed to ensuring that every dollar that Congress is allocated will be spent," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
"We roll out packages frequently. I don't have one to announce today, but when we do, you're going to see that cadence continue throughout the year and through the end of the administration," she said.
Biden rushes to release aid before Trump enters office
Biden has faced pressure from Ukraine’s president and others to strengthen Kyiv’s position before he leaves office, including supporting the country’s push to join the NATO alliance.
He quietly lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range U.S. weapons this week, and on Tuesday, Ukraine launched its first strikes with the missile system. The long-range missiles can hit targets nearly 200 miles from their ground-based launch sites.
Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer said the deployment of around 11,000 North Korean troops to Russia to join the war constituted “a significant Russian escalation.” Those troops have likely moved into Kursk, a region of Russia taken by Ukraine in an August incursion near the border, Singh said Monday.
Before the U.S. presidential election, Biden ordered the Department of Defense to release all of the remaining security assistance that Congress appropriated for Ukraine before the end of his term.
He authorized the transfer of $5.5 billion in equipment to ensure his administration could “fully utilize the funding appropriated by Congress to support the drawdown of U.S. equipment for Ukraine and then replenish U.S. stockpiles.”
The Pentagon now says it has up to $7.1 billion authorized through Biden’s presidential authority that it can use to supply Ukraine with weapons.
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It also has an additional $2.1 billion to spend on air defense, Unmanned Aerial Systems, or drones, air-to-ground munitions and more through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
The initiative authorizes aid through contracts for weapons in the future, while the drawdown pulls from existing stocks and pays to replenish them.
Still, the Biden administration has publicly maintained that it can deliver billions of dollars in remaining aid in two months.
“The overriding strategic role for the rest of this term on Ukraine is to make Ukraine as strong as possible. And that means surging as much materiel and equipment as we can get into Ukraine over the course of the near term,” Finer said Monday at the Group of 20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
“It means using all of the funds that have been appropriated for the United States to provide Ukraine during the rest of this term and this administration. We are on track to execute that,” Finer said.
White House focuses on disaster relief
Biden is attending the G20 Summit in Brazil. He is scheduled to return to the U.S. on Tuesday evening.
“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' he told leaders of the world's top economies, including Russia's foreign minister, on Monday. "Everyone around this table, in my view, should as well."
Earlier in the day, the Biden administration asked Congress for more disaster relief assistance, totaling nearly $100 billion. It notably did not ask for assistance for Ukraine at that time.
Congress last approved Ukraine aid in April. That bill included more than $60 billion in support for Ukraine. The U.S. also announced a $20 billion loan for Ukraine in October that is backed by the interest from frozen Russian assets.
“Ukraine is obviously going to need additional support, there's no doubt about that,” Finer told USA TODAY at his briefing. “What vehicle, what timing, I will not get into from the podium here, but Ukraine is going to need additional support going forward if it's going to stay in the fight. I think that's self-evident."
Clock ticks down to Congress spending deadline
Congress must pass new spending authority by Dec. 20 to prevent a government shutdown. Assistance for Ukraine could be part of those discussions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested on Sunday that Republicans favor waiting until next year to pass a broad spending deal that goes beyond extending already agreed-upon funding levels through a mechanism known as a continuing resolution.
Democrats currently control the White House and the U.S. Senate. Republicans have the majority of seats in the House. In the new Congress, Republicans will hold a majority of seats in both legislative chambers. And after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, the GOP will have a trifecta.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, who is Trump’s pick to lead the State Department, suggested to reporters last week, before his selection was announced, that there was not an appetite among Republicans on Capitol Hill to have a debate over Ukraine aid this year.
“Let’s wait ‘til the new administration is in place before we configure that,” Rubio, R-Fla., said. “We still have to fund the government next month just to be able to finish here.”
On Monday evening, Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said the Biden administration is working to get out as much aid to Ukraine as possible before the handoff.
"We only have a couple months, so even if they got more authorization, they can't get it out quick enough," Cardin, D-Md., said.
“I worry about what's going to happen under the Trump administration, but I do think there is clear bipartisan support for Ukraine beyond just this budget year,” Cardin said.
More: Biden in the background at G20 Summit as leaders brace for second go-round with Trump
Trump's Ukraine rhetoric sparks concern
Trump has repeatedly said he'd negotiate with Russia to end the war, putting U.S. allies and supporters of Ukraine on edge. On the campaign trail, he said he will end the war "in a day" without elaborating on how he would resolve the conflict.
In a podcast interview last month, Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s requests for aid, calling him “one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people," he said of Zelenskyy. "But he should never have let that war start."
He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “genius.” In a call after his election victory, he reportedly advised Putin not to escalate the war. Russia’s Kremlin has denied that the call took place.
Incoming vice president JD Vance proposed in September that Trump could end the war by freezing the Russia-Ukraine border along the current battle lines – allowing Russia to keep the land it has seized, and fortifying Ukraine against a future Russian invasion.
Contributing: Riley Beggin
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden won't fight Congress on Ukraine aid before Trump takes office