Senate leaders seek to revive Ukraine aid left out of shutdown-averting spending bill

The U.S. may have avoided a government shutdown over the weekend, but Senate leadership is setting up a new showdown with the House after funding for the Ukraine war effort was excluded from the temporary spending measure.

The Senate voted 88-9 on Saturday evening to pass the House’s 45-day continuing resolution, which includes disaster relief but no Ukraine funding. It was then sent to President Joe Biden‘s desk for signature. Senate Republicans abandoned a previous bipartisan continuing resolution after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) abruptly changed plans Saturday morning, announcing the House would be taking up its own bipartisan measure.

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Senate leaders had previously advanced legislation to fund the government until November that included $6 billion for Ukraine, with the anticipation that they could approve the rest of the aid at a later date.

In the coming weeks, the Senate’s staunchest Ukraine allies will attempt to push a stand-alone funding bill in an attempt to send more funding. One option is for the Senate to use a recently passed House bill that provided $300 million in funding for Ukraine. The legislation was passed after the money was taken out of a House Republican-drafted defense bill.

Several senators have mentioned that the Senate could attach Biden’s full-year appropriations request for Ukraine to the $300 million and then send it back to the House. In August, Biden called on Congress to provide an additional $24 billion.

“Ultimately Ukraine will get funding, it’s always difficult to figure out how to put it together,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) when speaking with reporters this weekend. “I would bet my beloved four-wheel drive pickup truck that we will have some supplemental funding for Ukraine.”

On Monday, McCarthy cast doubt on the prospect of allowing a vote on additional aid to Ukraine in a stand-alone bill.

“No, the one thing I have told everybody from the very beginning, the border, there are more Americans dying on the American border than there are in Ukraine. There are no Americans dying in Ukraine,” McCarthy said, answering a question about whether there will be a vote on aid to Ukraine on Monday. “Every single day, there are Americans the equivalent of an airliner dying because of the fentanyl coming across here. We’ve got to fix the border.”

“I have voted to arm Ukraine, America takes first priority here. And our border has to be secure,” McCarthy added.

Some senators believe an effort to combine Ukraine funding with a border bill could be a more viable option in the months to come. The bill that funds the government through mid-November did not include any funding specifically for the border after Senate Republicans abandoned a plan to attach a border amendment to their continuing resolution.

“You need to add in some border security. Nobody wants to help Ukraine more than I do. We just have to do it in a way to get the most votes and make it sustainable right,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, speaking with reporters over the weekend. “There are a lot of Republicans who say I can’t vote for Ukraine unless I do some of that, which makes sense to me.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made an impassioned defense for voting to advance the Senate’s original bipartisan continuing resolution that included aid for Ukraine to the conference but was unsuccessful and ultimately recommended members of his caucus vote against the previous proposal in the Senate.

“This was a rare moment when GOP senators did not line up behind the Republican Leader, in which he had staked a very clear position,” said a GOP Senate aide speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The conference ultimately did the opposite of what McConnell wanted.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and McConnell reiterated their commitment to supporting Ukraine after the continuing resolution passed on Saturday.

“In the coming weeks, we expect the Senate will work to ensure the U.S. government continues to provide critical and sustained security and economic support for Ukraine,” the Senate leaders said in a joint statement with Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Graham, who lead the relevant Appropriations subcommittee that handles Ukraine funding.

The U.S. has approved more than $75 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. The push for more funding comes after the Department of Defense warned Congress that it is running low on funding to replace the weapons it provides to Ukraine.

According to a letter to Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) dated last Friday, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord warned the department would “have to delay or curtail assistance to meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements, including for aid defense and ammunition that are both critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive and continue its bombardment of Ukrainian cities.”

As the war continues, there’s growing tension among the far right flank of the Republican Party in the House, who continue to wage an aggressive campaign to slash Ukraine aid.

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“They keep telling us that Ukraine is winning. And if Ukraine is supposedly winning the war, why are we hearing and seeing the White House going into panic mode, and we’re seeing all these senators and Democrats run around in panic mode, claiming that Ukraine is going to be defeated by the Russians if they don’t keep receiving money in the next 45 days,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in a phone interview with the Washington Examiner. 

“If they’re winning the war so big, why is it all of a sudden panic? So I think we’re being lied to about what’s happening over there in Ukraine,” she added.

Cami Mondeaux, Reese Gorman, and Emily Jacobs contributed to this report.