WASHINGTON- The battle to raise the US debt ceiling rekindled debate in Congress over funding for Ukraine, as House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Tuesday he had no immediate plans to take up legislation to boost defense spending beyond what was in last week’s deal.
McCarthy’s comments could signal a tougher road through Congress when President Joe Biden next asks for additional funds for Ukraine. The House and Senate last approved aid for the Kyiv government – $48 billion – in December, before Republicans took control of the House.
That money is expected to last at least through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Lawmakers said Biden is expected to request more funds by August or September.
The debt ceiling agreement, which Biden signed into law on Saturday, capped national security spending in the year ending Sept. 30, 2024 at $886 billion, the amount Biden requested but below what congressional defense hawks wanted.
After some Republicans threatened to vote against the deal over the tightened defense spending, the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders promised that the caps would not prevent the chamber from passing supplemental spending legislation to provide more money for Ukraine and the Department of Defense.
However, McCarthy, who negotiated the agreement with Biden, said he would not automatically allow a vote on supplemental spending legislation in the Republican-led House.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Ukraine or anything else. The idea that someone wants to go do a supplemental after we just came to an agreement is trying to blow the agreement,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.
However, some Republican senators still said they believed a supplemental spending bill would be necessary.
“I strongly believe we are going to need a supplemental for defense,” Senator Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters.
McCarthy said he supported Ukraine and helping Ukraine to defeat the Russian invasion but would want more information before moving ahead.
“I’m not giving money for the sake of giving money. I want to see what is the purpose, what is the outcome you want to achieve and then show me the plan to see if I think that plan actually can work?” he said.
House Republicans want any money for Ukraine – or other priorities – to move ahead via “regular order,” with Congress debating and passing the 12 appropriations bills lawmakers will work on this summer to fund government programs in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Overall, the House and Senate have approved more than $113 billion of military assistance and other aid for Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. The four tranches of assistance all passed with strong support from both Republicans and Democrats, although all were approved while Democrats controlled both the Senate and House.
The bill signing, which was closed to the press, marked a low-key, symbolic end to a crisis that vexed Washington for months, forced Biden to cut short an international trip in Asia and threatened to push the United States to the brink of an unprecedented economic crisis.
“Thank you to Speaker McCarthy, Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell for their partnership,” the White House said in a statement announcing the bill’s signing, naming the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate.
Officials later released a ten-second clip of Biden silently signing the document at the White House.
“It was critical to reach an agreement, and it’s very good news for the American people,” Biden said on Friday. “No one got everything they wanted. But the American people got what they needed.”
The Republican-controlled House voted 314 to 117 to approve the bill, and the Democrat-controlled Senate voted 63 to 36.
Fitch Ratings said on Friday the United States’ “AAA” credit rating would remain on negative watch, despite the agreement that will allow the government to meet its obligations.
