Pentagon reveals details of Biden’s request to Congress for $24bn for Ukraine
The Biden administration will ask the US Congress for additional funding to support Ukraine in the amount of $24 billion. The Pentagon has explained what it plans to spend the money on.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the Voice of America.
The Pentagon said that $8 billion would be allocated for the USAI programme (Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative) and $16 billion for replenishing US warehouses to enable the formation of new aid packages under the PDA programme (Presidential Decision Authority).
The USAI programme involves ordering and purchasing weapons from manufacturers, after which they are sent to Ukraine. In this case, manufacturing and delivery can take a long time: up to a year or more, depending on the order.
Under the PDA programme, the United States sends existing weapons to Ukraine from its own stockpiles, after which these stockpiles are replenished with new weapons. Under this mechanism, aid usually reaches Ukraine much more quickly: within days or weeks. Congressional funding is needed to replenish stockpiles and thus to be able to form PDA packages.
The additional funding is crucial for the US government to be able to respond effectively to the situation in Ukraine through the end of fiscal year 2025, the Pentagon says.
The Biden administration has decided not to include support for Ukraine in a separate request, but rather to include it in a "package" bill of exceptional funding that also includes spending on other things for fiscal year 2025. Congress may consider this bill as early as this year.
In any case, approval of additional funding for Ukraine will require the approval of a majority of both houses of Congress. At the moment, Democrats retain control of the Senate, while Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who will largely determine whether the bill will be brought to a vote as proposed by the White House, reacted to the news of an additional $24bn request for support for Ukraine.
"The American people voted decisively for President Trump because he promised to end wars, not continue them indefinitely. Those decisions are for the next administration to make, not the outgoing president," Johnson wrote on Platform X.
At the moment, the United States has approximately $8 billion in military support programmes for Ukraine. This includes about $6 billion for the PDA programme and $2 billion for the USAI programme.
