House GOP in no rush to give more Ukraine aid after $6 billion error

WASHINGTON ― House Republicans who have previously supported Ukraine are in little rush to approve a fifth round of aid amid growing skepticism within their caucus.

The Pentagon says it still has roughly $5.5 billion worth of authority to keep transferring weapons to Kyiv, even though the last Ukraine aid package Congress passed is set to expire at the end of the month.

How? Pentagon lawyers argue that they can use the remaining drawdown authority indefinitely due to a complicated confluence of circumstances arising from the Biden administration miscalculating the value of Ukraine military aid earlier this year.

The miscalculation has prompted an audit from the Pentagon Inspector General, but it’s also given the Defense Department more leeway to keep arming Ukraine even if Congress fails to pass the White House’s latest $25 billion supplemental request in military and economic aid for Kyiv. It also means Republicans who have voted for Ukraine aid in the past don’t feel much urgency to pass another package, even with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to travel to Capitol Hill to persuade them otherwise on Thursday.

“I’m not necessarily opposed to supporting the Ukrainians further, but I am opposed to doing it at this point without some sort of explanation from the executive branch, Secretary of Defense [Lloyd Austin] telling us what we are doing with this money and where it’s going and what the end state is,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., a defense appropriator, told reporters last week. “You can’t give a blank check to the executive branch.”

Garcia said Republicans have been asking for “oversight and accountability reports from the Ukrainian Congress” but “we haven’t gotten that feedback from Zelenskyy and this parliament.”

Even if the Biden administration maintains it can use the outstanding authorization to keep transferring weapons to Ukraine, another $2.5 billion in funding to backfill U.S. stockpiles of items sent to Kyiv expires at the end of the month absent another supplemental spending bill from Congress.

Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., told reporters last week that Congress needs to prioritize passing a defense spending bill, which the House failed to do last week amid a Freedom Caucus revolt , before a Ukraine supplemental.

And Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who chairs the House Readiness subcommittee on Armed Services, declared “The era of Ukraine’s blank check from Congress is over” in a Fox News op-ed on Monday. Waltz called for conditions on Ukraine aid, without specifying what they should look like.

“There must be policy space between Biden’s current strategy of ‘as long as it takes’ and those demanding “not another dollar,” Waltz wrote.

The GOP criticism marks a turnaround from last year, when pro-Ukraine Republicans criticized the Biden administration last year for allowing $2.1 billion in drawdown authority expire at the end of fiscal 2022. Republican senators argued that the Biden administration should have used the expiring funds to give Kyiv additional weapons.

This year, the Pentagon is arguing it can use its remaining $5.5 billion in Ukraine drawdown authority as long as it wants, so long as Secretary of State Antony Blinken notifies Congress of the intent to execute a drawdown before the end of the fiscal year. And because the remaining $5.5 billion is the result of a $6 billion Ukraine drawdown accounting error, the Pentagon argues, those State Department notifications have already taken place. Thus, the Biden administration says, the Ukraine drawdown funds can carry over into FY24.

“Therefore, the department’s execution of a drawdown can extend across fiscal years,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood told Defense News in a statement. “Drawdowns that the Secretary of State has directed this fiscal year may continue to be executed using the adjusted proper valuation of the defense articles drawn from [the Defense Department’s] inventory, until the monetary cap of the particular existing drawdown is reached.”

The Biden administration has said that the accounting error, first announced in May, stemmed from a miscalculation in the Pentagon’s valuation of weapons aid to Ukraine.

Prior to the accounting error, the Pentagon had calculated the total values of weapons using the projected costs to replace that equipment. Since then, the Pentagon has calculated drawdown amounts using the original cost of the weapons, minus depreciation. This has freed up substantially more drawdown funds to transfer weapons to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 21, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch this month announced an audit of the valuation of weapons sent to Ukraine.

The Pentagon “must comply with Federal laws and regulations, and it is important that it be consistently applied” across the department, he said in a statement. “The policies for how to value equipment provided under [presidential drawdown authority] also are not unique to Ukraine assistance and could impact future use of [presidential drawdown authority] for other foreign partners.”

Storch briefed the Senate alongside other inspectors general on Ukraine aid last week. And on Tuesday, four pro-Ukraine Republican senators – including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky – praised Storch’s appointment as the lead inspector general for Ukraine aid.

“Thanks in large part to the requirements Senate Republicans have attached to our aid since the beginning of Russia’s escalation, the United States has unprecedented visibility into how Ukraine is using American weapons,” said McConnell.

McConnell has made the case for passing additional Ukraine aid on the Senate floor in recent weeks. Zelenskyy will also brief the full Senate on Thursday, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has not made similar arrangements for the wartime leader to do the same in the House – the major obstacle to securing another $25 billion in U.S. support.

It marks a downgrade from Zelenskyy’s last trip to Washington, where leaders in both parties invited him to address a joint meeting of Congress – though the majority of House Republicans skipped that speech.

“The more this drags out and the more it looks like a stalemate and a war of attrition ,” the less support it gets,” said House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas. “And that’s why it’s going to be very important for Zelenskyy to talk about what is your plan for victory, what do you need? So we can go to the administration and say this is what they need in a supplemental.”

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——此前支持乌克兰的众议院共和党人，由于党团内部日益增长的怀疑情绪，并不急于批准第五轮援助。

五角大楼表示，尽管国会通过的最后一项对乌克兰的援助计划将于本月底到期，但它仍然拥有约 55 亿美元的授权，可以继续向基辅转移武器。

如何做到？五角大楼的律师辩称，由于拜登政府今年早些时候错误估计了对乌克兰的军事援助价值，导致一系列复杂情况同时发生，因此他们可以无限期地使用剩余的撤军授权。

这一误判促使五角大楼监察长展开审计，但也让国防部有了更大的回旋余地，即便国会未能通过白宫最新提出的250亿美元对基辅的军事和经济援助补充请求，国防部仍可继续向乌克兰提供武器。这也意味着，过去曾投票支持对乌克兰援助的共和党人并不急于通过另一项援助方案，即便乌克兰总统泽连斯基将于周四前往国会山游说他们改变主意。

“我并非一定反对继续支持乌克兰，但我反对在行政部门，尤其是国防部长（劳埃德·奥斯汀）没有给出任何解释的情况下就这样做，他需要告诉我们这笔钱的用途、去向以及最终目标是什么，”加州共和党众议员、国防拨款委员会成员迈克·加西亚上周对记者表示。“你不能给行政部门开一张空白支票。”

加西亚表示，共和党人一直要求“乌克兰国会提供监督和问责报告”，但“我们还没有收到泽连斯基和议会的反馈”。

即使拜登政府坚持认为可以利用剩余的授权继续向乌克兰输送武器，但如果国会不通过另一项补充支出法案，用于补充美国向基辅运送物资库存的 25 亿美元资金也将在本月底到期。

国防拨款委员会主席、加州共和党众议员肯·卡尔弗特上周告诉记者，国会需要优先通过国防开支法案，而众议院上周在自由党团的反对下未能通过该法案，之后才能考虑乌克兰补充拨款。

众议院军事委员会战备小组委员会主席、佛罗里达州共和党众议员迈克·沃尔兹周一在福克斯新闻发表评论文章，宣称“国会给乌克兰开空白支票的时代已经结束”。沃尔兹呼吁对乌克兰援助附加条件，但并未具体说明这些条件应该是什么。

沃尔兹写道：“拜登目前的‘不惜一切代价’的策略与那些要求‘一分钱也不要再花’的人之间，必须存在政策空间。”

共和党的批评标志着与去年截然不同的立场。去年，亲乌克兰的共和党人批评拜登政府允许21亿美元的撤军授权在2022财年末到期。共和党参议员认为，拜登政府应该利用这些即将到期的资金向基辅提供更多武器。

今年，五角大楼辩称，只要国务卿安东尼·布林肯在财政年度结束前通知国会其撤军意图，它就可以随意使用剩余的55亿美元乌克兰撤军授权。五角大楼还辩称，由于这剩余的55亿美元是60亿美元乌克兰撤军会计错误造成的，因此国务院已经发出过相关通知。拜登政府表示，因此，乌克兰撤军资金可以结转到2024财年。

五角大楼发言人克里斯·舍伍德在一份声明中告诉《防务新闻》：“因此，国防部的裁军行动可以跨越多个财政年度。国务卿在本财政年度指示的裁军行动，可以继续使用从国防部库存中提取的国防物资的调整后合理估值来执行，直到达到特定现有裁军行动的金额上限为止。”

拜登政府表示，5 月份首次公布的会计错误源于五角大楼对乌克兰武器援助估值的误算。

在会计错误发生之前，五角大楼一直使用预计的装备更换成本来计算武器总价值。此后，五角大楼改用武器的原始成本减去折旧后的价格来计算撤回金额。这使得五角大楼能够腾出更多撤回资金，用于向乌克兰转移武器。

2022年12月21日，乌克兰总统泽连斯基在美国国会大厦众议院会议厅向国会联席会议发表讲话。（Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images）

五角大楼监察长罗伯特·斯托奇本月宣布对运往乌克兰的武器估值进行审计。

他在一份声明中表示，五角大楼“必须遵守联邦法律法规，而且重要的是，这些法律法规必须在整个部门内得到一致执行”。他还表示，“根据[总统撤军授权]提供的装备的价值评估政策并非乌克兰援助所独有，可能会影响未来对其他外国伙伴使用[总统撤军授权]的情况。”

上周，斯托奇与其他监察长一起向参议院汇报了乌克兰援助情况。周二，包括肯塔基州少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔在内的四位亲乌克兰的共和党参议员对斯托奇被任命为乌克兰援助首席监察长表示赞赏。

麦康奈尔说：“很大程度上要归功于参议院共和党人自俄罗斯局势升级以来对我们的援助附加的要求，美国现在对乌克兰如何使用美国武器有了前所未有的了解。”

近几周，麦康奈尔一直在参议院力陈通过追加对乌克兰援助的必要性。泽连斯基也将于周四向参议院全体议员汇报情况，但众议院议长、加州共和党人凯文·麦卡锡尚未安排这位战时领导人在众议院进行类似汇报——这是确保美国再提供250亿美元援助的主要障碍。

与泽连斯基上次访问华盛顿相比，这次访问的级别有所下降。上次访问华盛顿时，两党领导人都邀请他出席国会联席会议并发表讲话——尽管众议院的大多数共和党人缺席了那次演讲。

“这场战争拖得越久，越像一场僵局和消耗战，它获得的支持就越少，”众议院外交事务委员会主席、德克萨斯州共和党众议员迈克·麦考尔说。“因此，泽连斯基必须阐明他的取胜计划，他需要什么？这样我们才能向政府提出补充拨款，告诉他们这些是他们需要的。”

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。