UPDATE: President Biden signed the bill late Friday.
The Senate on Thursday approved a stopgap funding bill needed to avert a government shutdown that includes up to $16 billion in new aid for Ukraine.
The legislation passed the Senate in a vote of 72-25 and is expected to be passed quickly by the House so it can reach President Biden’s desk by Friday night.
One provision in the bill is for a $12.3 billion aid package for Ukraine. It includes $4.5 billion in direct budgetary aid for the Ukrainian government, $2.8 billion for the Pentagon to pay for troops deployments in Eastern Europe, $1.5 billion to replenish US stockpiles sent to Ukraine, and $3 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). The USAI allows the US government to purchase weapons for Ukraine.
The stopgap funding bill includes a separate authorization for $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows President Biden to ship Ukraine weapons directly from US military stockpiles. So far, the US has given Kyiv over $12 billion in arms using this authority since Russia invaded.
Defense News reported that Republicans were pressing Biden to use $2.1 billion in presidential drawdown that was leftover from the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that was signed into law back in May. That aid expires on September 30th, and Republican leadership in Congress is not happy that Biden didn’t use the $2.1 billion.
But the Biden administration said that the $2.1 billion was factored into its request for the $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown authority. Meaning, the White House asked for $1.6 billion in new presidential drawdown authority, and the leftover $2.1 billion was added to that amount.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and other Republicans still weren’t happy and thought $5.8 billion should have been approved for presidential drawdown authority. On the Senate floor on Thursday night, Sen. Mitch McConnel (R-KY) called for the US to provide Ukraine with “more tanks, fighting vehicles, longer-range rockets, artillery, and air defense systems, more HIMARS, more drones, and preparatory training in western fighter aircraft.”
The 12.3 billion aid package and the new presidential drawdown authority will bring the total authorized for the US to spend on the war in Ukraine to $67.5 billion. To put the figure in perspective, Russia’s entire annual military budget for 2021 was $65.9 billion.
More, more, more…spending ourselves to oblivion — oh, no that’s wrong. Spending our way to facilitate the evil toys that will bring about oblivion.
Anything for beleaguered Florida ? No of course not, POS federal government could give a damn about its sheeple citizens. BTW $3.8b to apartheid Israel. Garbage racist “America”. Thanks Raytheon, Lockeed Martin.
“Anything for beleaguered Florida ? No of course not”
Wrong.
Funny how DeSantis flipped on hurricane relief when it was his own state, isn’t it?
The devils in the details. There was more than a little graft, pork and political payoffs in that Sandy hurricane bill.
I hear a lot of claims such as yours from state power advocates.
People that pay into a government program are somehow hypocrites for getting a fraction of what was extracted from them when they collect on a government program. The hypocrisy is better placed on those that advocate for inefficient and corrupt government agencies and then complain when those that oppose those programs get anything back.
Worst of all are those that pontificate on the duplicity of others while using tragic events to chastise others. In this case, perhaps it would be interesting to see who benefits from programs like FEMA. Could it be that ocean front property in flood zones are being subsidized by taxpayers that get no benefit from the program? Who owns these properties?
Excellent. And by the same logic we’d like to know the 25 “No”s.
It’s all online: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00351.htm
The “nos” this time around include Tommy “I don’t know the branches of the government” Tuberville, Ted “Bye, suckers, I’m off to Cancun!” Cruz, Josh “I can’t believe the leopards would eat MY face” Hawley, and Marsha “I confuse the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence” Blackburn.
Thanks. So all the ‘progressives’ are hawks, on the MIC take, or both.
You realize the Ukraine issue was one part of a massive funding bill, right?
Yes. The massive funding bill is indeed the core problem. A 80% reduction in federal spending is needed. This would result in a drastic reduction in corruption and largely end wars…
and Kammy at the DMZ praised our alliance with the Republic of North Korea.
How is that relevant to anything here?
Plus, everyone has verbal gaffes — I call my kids by the wrong name half the time. At least she knows how to pronounce “Nepal” and “Yosemite,” unlike trump.
She’s just as horrible as Trump regardless.
No one could be as horrible as Trump. (Although I feel like I should knock on wood after saying that.)
I liked Harris during the primaries, although nearly not as well as Warren. But I have found her a disappointment as VP. That said, she is at least intelligent and understands the law, and she doesn’t appear to be paying millions to family members who have zero qualifications, or grifting off stays at her own properties.
If you think Harris “understands the law,” you should probably actually look at her record. Like the time a judge had to explain to her that her complaint against Backpage was defective because what she was accusing them of doing wasn’t against the, um, you know, law. I don’t care one way or the other about the rumors that she slept her way up the political ladder, but the fact is she climbed that ladder by, at best, being a dutiful party-loyal foot-soldier who did whatever she was told. Which is why she completely cratered in the Democratic primaries, brought nothing whatsoever to the Democratic presidential ticket, and probably cost Biden at least a million votes.
Warren’s something of a different story. At least she accomplished some things to get where she is. Bad things — her basic formula is “if there’s any area of your life that isn’t being run by Elizabeth Warren, we need a PLAN to FIX that” — but things, anyway. One of the most amusing things about her was how she wanted a millionaire tax until she became a millionaire, then wanted an “ultra-millionaire” tax until she started to get close to being an “ulta-millionaire,” then decided maybe a “billionaire” tax was the ticket. If she ever gets to “billionaire,” maybe she’ll just come out against taxation altogether.
Oh, I think there’s clear evidence that she understood the law, knew it didn’t necessarily apply to this case, and decided to pursue it anyway, probably to score political points. Which is not a point in her favor …. but I do think she has far more awareness of the law than Trump and all of his attorneys have together.
I speak of foreign policy and US belligerence across the globe since that is why I’m here. She’s an equal of Trump in that regard. She’ll never be as big of an asshole. The Don has no peers in that regard.
If it was such a terrible bill, then it’s odd that only 67 in the entire house voted against it. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/17/us-rep-ron-desantis-defensive-after-disaster-vote/15825475007/
And I’m not chastising the hurricane victims or the people of Florida, except for maybe the ones who voted for De Santis. I’m just saying that “anti-hurricane relief” is a mighty uncomfortable badge to wear if you’re the governor of Florida.
“If it was such a terrible bill, then it’s odd that only 67 in the entire house voted against it”
The so called Patriot Act was only opposed by one courageous Congresswoman and it was a terrible law. Funding for Israel and unnecessary military pork pass comfortably every time and are terrible law. Just because something passes in Congress does not make it a good bill.
And sometimes a vote can indicate that it was a good bill. I know there’s ALWAYS pork but that has to be almost an accepted given nowadays.
Well let’s just give one $trillion to Florida for aid and be done with it then. Of course, anyone who would vote against that would then be a hypocrite.
Now you’re giving way too much credit to vote buying politicians.
By your logic Congress passing bills supporting wars with large majorities prove that wars are a good idea
After Katrina, Mr. Pence convened a little get together of men from industry and the GOP to discuss the topic of benefiting from a disaster in the future. Disaster capitalism. The Wall Street Journal got notes from one of the men in attendance. I did not bookmark it, cannot find it. Disaster capitalism. Very creepy and very wrong.
Well, there are multiple possibilities.
One is that when he voted against hurricane relief in 2013, he was still a bona fide “small-government conservative” and hadn’t yet become the complete authoritarian swamp creature careerist he is now.
Another is that the vote against hurricane relief back then was exactly the same kind of authoritarian swamp creature careerist opportunism he’s into now, just aimed in a different direction.
And there might be other possibilities.
But you’re right that it’s not a good look for him.
Not a good look? This is very generous, The gutter level opportunism brings these creatures to power.
Voters have always the choice between two system creatures in the pollling booth. Beforehand, primaries are the auditions where the corporate party money puts on a show of the suitability of candidates.
But voters buy into the sham over and over , while these creatures play on our fears and hopes And even our basest instincts. What is new?
We would not be worse of if all elected positions are filled randomly from social security database.
“We would not be worse of if all elected positions did not exist.”
Fixed that for you.
!!!
I would be inclined to replace the category professional politician with intelligent reasonable human beings.
It might be an improvement.
The bid tent carnival show comes along every four years. An advertising blitz of massive proportions by all candidates, liars all. Pulling the lever means nothing to me anymore, because it does not lead to change, real change for the betterment of the U.S. and the world. I think Sam Clemens said something like this: if voting were to mean something, the powers that be wouldn’t allow it. So it goes.
Oh, I 100 percent think he was an opportunist way back then and was kissing up to the other Tea Party folks of the time. The other no votes included Louie Gohmert, Thomas Massie, Marsha Blackburn, Mick Mulvaney — basically, the people you’d expect.
On January 5, 2013, DeSantis posted the following message on his Facebook.
“I sympathize with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid. At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.”
The vote applied to flood insurance and how it was funded, not general emergency aid, for hurricane victims.
Back then the politicians didn’t quite believe that dollars grow on trees in monetary orchards. They would all look like pikers now.
He can flip flop all he wants, but the Federal governments has a responsibility to protect its people during a natural disaster.
News flash: the federal government can’t do something if legislators block it. (In this case, DeSantis was massively outvoted.)
Btw, why is this sorry excuse for a leader turning down aid from the Indiana and NJ National Guards, even though people are still stranded?!
“Btw, why is this sorry excuse for a leader turning down aid from the Indiana and NJ National Guards, even though people are still stranded?!”
Bringing in more people for the sake of bringing in more people doesn’t make things better. Florida has lots of resources of its own, and has already brought in rescue teams from five other states. There are only so many boats, vehicles, and kits of rescue equipment. More people than are needed to use those things is just more people standing around with their thumbs up their asses eating food and drinking water that other people need.
I can’t speak for New Jersey but news articles indicate that Indiana was planning on bringing its own helicopters.
So it goes.
Paying for relief after is much less efficient than investing in prevention. How much will be spent to prevent the next floods nationwide in comparison to the obscenity of weapons for the proxy war against Russia?
You miss the overall point. Don’t you ?
Apparently I do, since it’s not obvious that you have one.
Sure did. We know the fine print. Apply and wait. The most IMMINENT ptoblem, debris removal, and other critical safety measures are on a “cost sharing basis”. Mercifully, cost of temporary shelter is 100%! covered. Let’s hope there is no fine print there.
Taking other disasters as a an example of FEMA work, I an not optimistic.
Does this sound like a priority? With practically daily call for increased funding? Tired old FEMA formula,
Right. Let us see how things play out in the short term compared to the long term. Guaranteed come January, if the world is still intact, another $8bn will be delivered to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Floridians will still be suffering and no more FEMA just NATO
Right. Fool
Florida attracts billionaires because it has no income tax. If they’re not willing to pay for their streets & sewers, why should non-Floridians pay?
We do pay for our streets and sewers, with sales and property taxes. Florida’s per capita tax burden is in the middle of the pack as states go.
Those taxes only pay for local infrastructure, “streets & sewers” is shorthand. Changing your residence to Florida, though you’ve acquired your wealth and pension from another state, to avoid paying income tax on it to that state , not the climate, accounts for the residence of vastly the greatest percent of the aggregate wealth of the state.
Economics and tax policy aren’t strong suits of yours, are they?
Ad hominem is the recourse of the false.
No money to stop the chaos at the US southern border, but plenty for Ukraine’s. The US govt. has outdone itself this time by fighting a two front war. One against Russia and the other against its own citizens.
Well said Sertorius!
The thing is, one of these days, someone is going to fight back!
Indeed, someone will, Donna, and I hope it starts here.
Yes, but at what cost?
The “chaos” started in earnest with NAFTA. NAFTA, one of Bill Clinton’s marvelous pieces of legislation, killed off the incomes of over 1 million farmers in Mexico. What happened? They headed Norte.
NAFTA was proposed by Ronald Reagan and negotiated and sent to the Senate for ratification by George H.W. Bush.
You go that right and the mess was continued by Geo. W. Bush with CAFTA. The only winners were big agra.
War is and has always been primarily a racket.
ALL Dems including all progressive Dems voted YES.
Dems the leading party of war right now.
https://original.antiwar.com/john-v-walsh/2022/09/26/the-democratic-party-now-the-leading-party-of-war/
Well said!
Do a little history, and you’ll find the Dems were involved in every major U.S. wars. Starting with with WW1.
During those years what we needed was another Grover Cleveland. Make no mistake, Republicans were all in for war and profits from war. So it goes.
Just more pork barrel for the MIC. Will have zero effect on the war. So who cares? Business as usual for the corrupt US government and the corporations that control it.
Don’t worry. When DeSantis is President in 2024, 100% of republicans will be for the war, and 10 or so democrats will oppose it for the token opposition.
Yes, the Complex thrives above mere political parties, regardless of the (D) or (R) in the White House. The “no” voters for war funding only do it because they know their vote is/will be inconsequential. The vast majority of our media is 100% pro war because America is Good!!!
Hey man, Lewis C. liked your comment. I have never seen this guy here therefore, YOU must be a Bot.
Am I wrong to reverse apply your analogy?
Or is it that only I am the bot and your are the righteous Putin lover here?
Wasn’t an “analogy” by me, but your comment is an analogy by you. Lewis who? And stop plagiarizing my logic.
I just joined this forum because I noticed very little back and forth BS on a personal level, but I plan on remaining hopeful.
Perhaps it’s with the spelling of Louis/Lewis?
That is why American citizens a de-franchised and many have no valid party to vote for.
All this is to keep the mad Ukrainians fighting to weaken Russia. They cannot see that they are lemmings being led over the cliff to appease Dr.Strangelove ( or mad dog Blinken and Biden). Lord help us all
And here I thought taxpayers would save 50 billion annually for pulling out of Afghanistan. The MIC just got a big raise from Uncle Sham.
Won’t you tell me if you can
Is life so hard to understand
Why the Rich Man’s busy dancing
While the Poor Man pays the band
Lord they’re billing me
For killing me!
“The US wants to support Kiev with a $1.5 billion allowance every month
throughout its conflict with Russia while urging EU countries to follow
suit, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.”
Bizaroland is the new name for America or perhaps it’s an obamanation!
$16 billion. The amount of money agriculture contributes to Arkansas’ economy in a year.