Ukraine aid in peril as Senate Republicans walk out of heated briefing

WASHINGTON ― Republican Sens. Deb Fischer and Mitt Romney walked side by side Tuesday as they hastily left the Biden administration’s classified briefing on a massive defense spending package that includes Ukraine and Israel aid, both visibly agitated.

Fischer of Nebraska and Romney of Utah were among numerous Republicans to exit the briefing early. By their account, administration officials did not provide answers to their questions on Ukraine beyond what’s publicly available in unclassified public reports, compounding their frustration with Democrats for refusing to meet their demands for immigration policy changes in the legislation.

The unrelated partisan fight over immigration policy threatens to derail the roughly $113 billion package that also includes funding for the U.S. southern border and Indo-Pacific security partners, all while the Biden administration rapidly runs out of the little remaining Ukraine aid. It raises serious questions about whether Congress will continue providing aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion despite previous Senate Republican support for a a bipartisan defense supplemental package.

“We’ve had it,” Fischer said. “When you have Deb Fischer who’s upset about this, they better be worried. Because I have backed everything.”

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., was among Republicans who left the Biden administration’s classified briefing on a massive defense spending package that includes Ukraine and Israel aid on Dec. 5, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fischer, who sits on the Armed Services and Appropriations committees, has championed aid to Kyiv despite mounting House Republican opposition. She vented to reporters about her misgivings following the briefing — some of which extended beyond the immigration debate and marked Ukraine policy grievances set in motion months ago.

“The point is there’s no answer to any questions down there,” Fischer told Defense News, criticizing the Biden administration for requesting Ukraine aid via a supplemental rather than in its base budget proposal earlier this year. “They should have realized the issues. We’ve been very aware of the issues that we have in Ukraine with our own munitions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to address senators at the briefing via video but had to cancel, though it was unclear why. During a visit to Washington in September, he warned senators that Ukraine will lose the war if foreign assistance does not continue .

The Biden administration has l ess than $5 billion in presidential drawdown authority to continue transferring weapons to Ukraine from U.S. stockpiles and $1 billion to replenish weapons it’s already sent.

The director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, said Monday in a letter to congressional leaders that the administration would run out of these funds by the end of the year.

“Frankly after the last few minutes, I’m beginning to worry about the supplemental passing at all before the first of the year,” Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee and another Ukraine aid proponent, said after the briefing.

Wicker, who stayed for most of the briefing, told Defense News he found the administration’s answers lacking on its previous reluctance to send certain munitions — complaints pro-Ukraine Republicans have had for more than a year.

“That said, we very much need to pass a supplemental assisting our Israeli friends, our Ukrainian friends, getting ready for deterring war in the Pacific, and addressing our southern border, and part and parcel to our defense needs is the very inadequate submarine-industrial base,” Wicker argued.

‘A Russian city or Ukrainian city?’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., informed him in a phone call last week that he would not advance Ukraine aid if it does not include a hard-line immigration bill House Republicans passed earlier this year.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., leaves the chamber just after the House approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package for Israel, but without humanitarian assistance for Gaza, on Nov. 3, 2023. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Nonetheless, Schumer has scheduled the first procedural vote on the behemoth supplemental package for Wednesday. But that vote is expected to fail after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Republican caucus will vote against it without the immigration policy changes the party is demanding.

Notably, McConnell has spent most of the last year making the case for Ukraine aid to critics in his party and had previously supported a defense spending supplemental with the assistance to bypass the $886 billion caps laid out in the May debt ceiling agreement.

Heritage Action, the lobbying wing of the conservative Heritage Foundation, sent a letter to Johnson on Tuesday asking him to “strongly oppose” the Ukraine aid. The letter calls for no more assistance unless the Biden administration “provides a plan that defines the end goal in Ukraine, describes the expected U.S. commitment to achieve that goal, addresses the effects of the presidential drawdown authority on U.S. capabilities and assures further commitments from our European partners.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said that “a cynic would say the goal here is to take down Ukraine funding.”

“We are making the decision right now as to whether Kyiv is a Russian city or Ukrainian city,” Murphy told Defense News. “My level of frustration about the lack of seriousness from Republicans is due to the stakes that we are dealing with. And the stakes are whether Ukraine exists 12 months from now or is a part of Russia.”

The Senate’s proposed bill would provide $13.5 billion to continue arming Ukraine through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It allocates another $15.1 billion for the Defense Department to continue supporting Kyiv with military training, intelligence sharing and “an increased presence in the European Command area of responsibility,” per a Senate summary of the bill.

On top of that, the bill appropriates $24.5 billion to replenish weapons that the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine and Israel through its stockpiles. It also sets aside another $15.3 billion in Israel military aid and $2.8 billion to increase capacity for the munitions-industrial base.

The bill does not place conditions on aid to Israel despite conversations among Senate Democrats about doing so last week.

It also allocates $3 billion at Wicker’s insistence to help prepare the beleaguered submarine-industrial base for the trilateral AUKUS agreement that would see the U.S. and Britain help Australia build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet. Wicker has promised to hold up two key AUKUS authorizations from the annual defense policy bill unless Congress appropriates that funding.

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——周二，共和党参议员黛布·费舍尔和米特·罗姆尼并肩匆匆离开拜登政府关于一项大规模国防开支方案的机密简报会，该方案包括对乌克兰和以色列的援助，两人都显得非常激动。

内布拉斯加州的菲舍尔和犹他州的罗姆尼等众多共和党人提前离开了简报会。据他们所述，政府官员没有就乌克兰问题提供任何超出公开报告范围的答案，这加剧了他们对民主党拒绝满足其在立法中修改移民政策要求的失望。

这场与此无关的党派移民政策之争，有可能使总额约1130亿美元的援助计划胎死腹中。该计划还包括对美国南部边境和印太安全伙伴的拨款。与此同时，拜登政府对乌克兰的援助资金也即将耗尽。这引发了人们的严重质疑：尽管此前参议院共和党人曾支持一项两党共同提出的国防补充方案，但国会是否会继续向乌克兰提供援助，帮助其对抗俄罗斯的入侵？

“我们受够了，”菲舍尔说。“连黛布·菲舍尔都为此生气，他们最好担心一下。因为我支持一切。”

2023年12月5日，内布拉斯加州共和党参议员黛布·费舍尔(Deb Fischer)与其他共和党人一起离开了拜登政府关于一项大规模国防开支方案的机密简报会，该方案包括对乌克兰和以色列的援助。（图片来源：Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images）

菲舍尔是众议院军事委员会和拨款委员会的成员，尽管众议院共和党人反对声浪日益高涨，她仍然力主向基辅提供援助。简报会后，她向记者倾诉了自己的疑虑——其中一些疑虑不仅限于移民辩论，还涉及几个月前就已萌生的对乌克兰政策的不满。

“关键是，那里的任何问题都得不到解答，”菲舍尔告诉《防务新闻》，他批评拜登政府今年早些时候通过补充拨款而非基本预算提案来请求对乌克兰的援助。“他们应该意识到这些问题。我们非常清楚我们在乌克兰的军火供应问题。”

乌克兰总统泽连斯基原计划通过视频向参议员们发表讲话，但最终取消了行程，原因不明。今年9月访问华盛顿期间，他曾警告参议员们，如果外国援助停止，乌克兰将会输掉这场战争。

拜登政府拥有不到 50 亿美元的总统撤军授权，用于继续从美国库存中向乌克兰转移武器，以及 10 亿美元用于补充已交付的武器。

白宫管理和预算办公室主任沙兰达·杨周一在致国会领导人的一封信中表示，政府的这些资金将在年底前耗尽。

“坦白说，经过这几分钟的讨论，我开始担心在新年到来之前能否通过补充拨款，”密西西比州参议员罗杰·威克尔（Roger Wicker）在简报会后说道。威克尔是参议院军事委员会的首席共和党议员，也是乌克兰援助的支持者。

威克尔全程参与了简报会，他告诉《防务新闻》，他认为政府对之前不愿向乌克兰输送某些弹药的解释不够充分——亲乌克兰的共和党人对此抱怨了一年多。

“也就是说，我们非常需要通过一项补充法案，帮助我们的以色列朋友、乌克兰朋友，为遏制太平洋战争做好准备，并解决我们的南部边境问题。而我们国防需求中不可或缺的一部分，就是我们非常不足的潜艇工业基地，”威克尔辩称。

“是俄罗斯的城市还是乌克兰的城市？”

参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默（纽约州民主党籍）周二告诉记者，众议院议长迈克·约翰逊（路易斯安那州共和党籍）上周在电话中告知他，如果援助乌克兰的方案不包含众议院共和党人今年早些时候通过的强硬移民法案，他将不会推进援助。

2023年11月3日，众议院议长、路易斯安那州共和党人迈克·约翰逊在众议院批准了一项近145亿美元的对以色列军事援助方案后离开议事厅，但该方案并未包含对加沙的人道主义援助。（J. Scott Applewhite/AP）

尽管如此，舒默已安排在周三对这项庞大的补充法案进行首次程序性投票。但预计此次投票将会失败，因为参议院少数党领袖、肯塔基州共和党参议员米奇·麦康奈尔表示，如果该法案不包含共和党要求的移民政策修改，共和党党团将投反对票。

值得注意的是，麦康奈尔在过去一年里的大部分时间都在向党内批评者争取对乌克兰的援助，此前他还支持将国防开支与援助一起作为补充，以绕过5月份债务上限协议中规定的8860亿美元上限。

保守派智库传统基金会的游说机构“传统行动”周二致信约翰逊，要求他“强烈反对”对乌克兰的援助。信中呼吁，除非拜登政府“提供一份计划，明确乌克兰问题的最终目标，阐述美国为实现该目标所应做出的承诺，说明总统撤军授权对美国能力的影响，并确保我们的欧洲伙伴做出进一步承诺”，否则美国不应再提供任何援助。

康涅狄格州民主党参议员克里斯·墨菲表示，“愤世嫉俗的人会说，此举的目的是切断对乌克兰的资金援助。”

“我们现在正在决定基辅究竟是俄罗斯城市还是乌克兰城市，”墨菲告诉《防务新闻》。“我对共和党人缺乏严肃态度感到非常失望，因为我们面临的事关重大。而事关重大的是，12个月后乌克兰是否还存在，还是会成为俄罗斯的一部分。”

参议院提出的法案将拨款135亿美元，用于通过“乌克兰安全援助倡议”继续向乌克兰提供武器装备。根据参议院对该法案的概述，该法案还将拨款151亿美元，用于国防部继续支持基辅进行军事训练、情报共享，并“加强在欧洲司令部责任区内的军事存在”。

此外，该法案还拨款245亿美元，用于补充美国已通过其库存向乌克兰和以色列提供的武器。法案还拨出153亿美元用于对以色列的军事援助，并拨款28亿美元用于提升以色列军火工业基地的产能。

尽管上周参议院民主党人曾讨论过给对以色列的援助附加条件，但该法案并未这样做。

在威克尔的坚持下，该法案还拨款30亿美元，用于帮助处境艰难的澳大利亚潜艇工业基地为三方协议“奥库斯”（AUKUS）做好准备。该协议将使美国和英国帮助澳大利亚建造一支核动力潜艇舰队。威克尔承诺，除非国会拨款，否则他将从年度国防政策法案中搁置两项关键的“奥库斯”授权。

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。