Biden concerned about Ukraine funding — and is searching for ways to keep aid flowing
Senior Biden administration officials privately believe only weeks remain before a lack of additional Ukraine funding starts to become a serious battlefield concern — a scenario they are trying to avoid with public warnings and a major speech from President Joe Biden himself.
The race for the House speakership set off by the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday portends potentially serious consequences for Biden’s efforts to secure Ukraine funding, leaving the administration looking for solutions.
Publicly, officials say they remain convinced the majority of Americans — including in Congress — support sustained assistance for Ukraine. Yet the maneuvering this week demonstrates the persistent concern that American assistance to Kyiv could soon slow. Biden on Wednesday hinted that administration officials have been searching for workaround methods of providing Ukraine assistance should the White House’s funding requests go unmet.
“It does worry me,” Biden said when asked Wednesday whether he was concerned about delivering Ukraine the aid he’s promised. “But I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate in both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine.”
Administration officials have been warning Congress it must urgently approve additional funds to aid Ukraine’s war efforts — “obviously time is of the essence,” stressed one official.
Yet without even the chance for a vote on a new speaker until at least next week — and no clear pathway for a vote on new Ukraine assistance after that — the prospects of a new assistance package in the near-term appear slim.
Privately, officials believe a weekslong period where Congress were to hypothetically operate without a permanent House speaker — and not be able to legislate — would not be hugely concerning as it pertains to Ukraine funding.
Much more troubling, they said, would be if lawmakers begin to approach the end of the length of the most recently passed continuing resolution — which runs out November 17 — without any realistic prospects of approving additional funding for Ukraine.
Feeling the urgency, Biden told reporters Wednesday he was planning an address laying out the imperative of continued support for Ukraine.
“I’m going to make the argument that it’s overwhelmingly in the interests of the United States of America that Ukraine succeed,” he said. White House officials provided no other details about the speech, including when Biden might deliver it.
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