White House stands by linked Israel-Ukraine funding request

The White House is standing by its decision to link its supplemental funding request for Israel and Ukraine, despite pushback from Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre contended Republicans, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Armed Services ranking member Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), have advocated foreign policy priorities to be connected.

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“We have seen a bipartisan support, strong bipartisan support for the national security supplemental, that obviously includes Ukraine and Israel,” she told reporters Thursday. “So there’s no reason we should not be able to move forward to get that done.”

Jean-Pierre also confirmed new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had been invited to the White House Thursday for a Situation Room briefing on Biden’s $106 billion supplemental funding request, which simultaneously covers the Indo-Pacific and the southern border. The White House has additionally announced a $50 billion domestic supplemental funding request three weeks before a potential federal government shutdown over disagreements about spending.

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Earlier in the briefing, White House national security spokesman John Kirby urged Congress to approve funding for both Israel and Ukraine before Israel’s expected ground invasion into the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and amid Russia‘s offensive in eastern Ukraine.

“Time clearly is not on our side,” he said.