Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on the Biden administration to be “quicker and more proactive” in getting aid to Ukraine.
The Republican senator from Kentucky issued a statement on the subject on Friday, following comments from House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) just days earlier who said his conference would not provide Ukraine with a “blank check” of support.
“Russia continues escalating attacks on Ukraine’s civilians and energy infrastructure,” McConnell explained. “The lessons for us are clear. The Biden Administration and Ukraine’s friends across the globe must be quicker and more proactive to get Ukraine the aid they need. And Washington Democrats must stop their war against our own American energy security and independence.”
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The U.S. and its allies need to provide “additional air defenses, long-range fires, and humanitarian and economic support to help this war-torn country endure the coming winter,” he added.
The Senate Republican leader said that if his party took control of the Senate following the midterm elections, it “will focus its oversight on ensuring timely delivery of needed weapons and greater allied assistance to Ukraine.”
The comments about what a Republican-led Senate would pursue stand in contrast to McCarthy’s remarks about ending a “blank check.”
“It’s amazing to me that that somehow made news,” he said in a subsequent interview on CNBC Wednesday. “Wouldn’t you want a check and balance in Congress? Wouldn’t you want these hardworking taxpayers’ money, someone overseeing it? We’ve got to eliminate wasteful spending in Washington.”
He noted that Ukraine “is very important,” and that he supports “making sure that we move forward to defeat Russia in that program,” but he added, “There should be no blank check on anything. We are $31 trillion in debt.”
There is a portion of House Republicans that have already voted against previous aid packages, while some conservative groups have already called on party leaders to stop backing aid to Ukraine as well. What’s unclear is whether McCarthy and the 57 House Republicans that voted against a $40 billion aid package last May want to cease all aid to Ukraine or just decrease it. The composition of Congress is also an unknown that will greatly impact it.
A Department of Defense official declined to comment on whether there is concern within the agency about the possibility of House Republicans ending aid.
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“It would be inappropriate for us to speculate on the outcome of the midterms or hypothetical situations,” Lt. Col. Garron Garn, the DOD official, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “In the meantime, the U.S. and DOD stand united with allies and partners from nearly 50 countries to continue support to Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against Russian aggression.”
Congress has allocated a total of $65 billion in aid since Russia invaded last February. Democrats could look to pass another large aid package before the next Congress is sworn in and that package could be in the ballpark of $50 billion, according to NBC News.
