Biden Circumvents Congress and Announces Another $200M In Additional Military Aid For Ukraine
(Chaz Anon) President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in Washington DC in an attempt to get more money out of the financially strapped American taxpayer.
After Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced there would be no money for Zalenskyy, President Joe Biden used the “drawdown” provision in the Foreign Assistance Act to pre-approve $200 million in aid for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with him at the White House on Tuesday.
Zelensky started his day in Washington D.C. begging for money on Fox News. In broken english, he seemed to be asking western leaders to send ALL their money to Ukraine, “Don’t build roads. Spend all your money on weapons, drones, Society and pensions… we have only one enemy: Putin.”
After groveling on Fox, Zelenskyy went to Congress and met with Speaker Mike Johnson who was not convinced and called out the Biden Administration for not having a clear formulation of a strategy to win and clarity of details how to do so.
Zalenskyy then met with the President at the White House to discuss the U.S. sending additional aid to Ukraine. President Biden told the media to “𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝” before announcing that he has “𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 $𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲.”
The “drawdown” provision in the Foreign Assistance Act allows him to provide Defense Department stockpiles to countries without approval from congress.
The $200 million package is the 53rd such drawdown package provided to Ukraine since March 2022 and is in addition to the billions of dollars in aid that was already authorized by Congress.
Sputnik reports:
US President Joe Biden announced during a Tuesday joint meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he has “just signed another $200 million drawdown” from the Pentagon for Ukraine.
The announcement comes as Congress remains deadlocked on authorizing more aid to Ukraine. Biden has asked Congress to provide $60 billion in aid to Ukraine in a funding package that also includes aid for Israel and money to secure the southern US border.
However, some Republicans have asked for more concessions on the border, including changes to the asylum system, a non-starter for many Democrats, in exchange for increased funding in Ukraine. The House of Representatives also passed a standalone aid bill for Israel, which the Senate has refused to consider.
Zelensky visited Washington in what has been described by US media as a “last-ditch effort” to convince Congress to authorize more aid to his country. Part of that visit included separate meetings with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Both Johnson and Schumer said their meetings with Zelensky went well but had different opinions on the details of their meetings.
Johnson criticized the Biden administration for not articulating how Ukraine can win against Russia. “The Biden administration appears to be asking for billions of dollars without specifics, without a clear strategy for winning, and without the answers I think the American people deserve,” he said at a news conference following his meeting with Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Schumer, who has been extremely hawkish on Ukraine since the start of the special military operation, claimed that Zelensky explained Ukraine’s path to victory to him.
“He [Zelensky] described in detail what kind of help was needed and how it would help win. Even many of our Republican politicians were saying that we were winning this war,” Schumer claimed
Schumer said he called Johnson and asked him to keep the House open after this week so the $61 billion aid package can be approved.”Last night, I spoke with Speaker Johnson and urged him to keep the House in session a little longer to give the supplemental a chance to come together,” Schumer said at a briefing.
The much smaller aid package announced by Biden on Tuesday uses an authorization provided in the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) which allows the president to provide foreign aid using stocks the Defense Department has on hand without congressional approval.
This latest drawdown is at least the 53rd drawdown ordered by the Biden administration since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
The last drawdown, costing $175 million, was ordered by the Biden White House last week.
