The White Home has requested the extension be included in a seamless decision Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has proposed. The cash faces a use-it-or-lose-it deadline on the finish of this month.
“We have now $5.9 billion left in Ukraine Presidential Drawdown Authority; all however $100 million of which can expire on the finish of the fiscal yr,” stated Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, in an electronic mail to The Hill.
“The Division will proceed to offer drawdown packages within the close to future and is working with Congress to hunt an extension of PDA authorities past the tip of the fiscal yr.”
The Biden administration has used the drawdown authority to ship weapons shortly to Ukraine immediately via Division of Protection shares. The funds appropriated by Congress relate to the valuation of the navy gear donated to Ukraine and the {dollars} used to backfill U.S. provides.
The measure permits the Pentagon to ship out older navy gear and refill shares with newer gear. However help to Ukraine is usually doled out in batches of a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to keep away from emptying Pentagon shares and account for the time to backfill.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced $250 million in navy help for Ukraine through the use of the authority — offering air protection missiles and help, munitions for rocket programs and artillery, anti-tank weapons, Bradley Infantry Combating Autos and different armored autos, amongst different objects.
Getting Congress to increase the PDA for the $5.8 billion will permit the White Home to proceed dispatching to Ukraine navy help in small batches just a few occasions a month.
A congressional aide informed The Hill that absent the extension, the Biden administration might announce it’s offering $5.8 billion in navy help to Ukraine earlier than Oct. 1, after which use the remainder of the yr to ship over the gear — however that that is a much less enticing possibility.
There could also be some authorized challenges to allocating the $5.8 billion without delay, the aide defined, with legal professionals for the administration involved that there will not be an authority to allow transfers of munitions that aren’t presently in inventory, or thought of in surplus.
Learn the complete report at TheHill.com.