WASHINGTON — The Protection Division’s No. 2 civilian official mentioned Tuesday the Biden administration plans to ask Congress for cash to pay for U.S. troop deployments in Japanese Europe — on the identical day Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., floated the potential of further Ukraine funding.
Requested in regards to the potential for extra funding to answer the disaster, Deputy Protection Secretary Kathleen Hicks mentioned the Pentagon is working with Congress to backfill the price of U.S. forces surged to Japanese Europe. These forces weren’t included within the FY23 finances request, she mentioned.
“Congress on a bipartisan foundation has been very ahead leaning when it comes to its curiosity in ensuring they can assist us be complete towards these necessities,” she mentioned at a roundtable with reporters. “As we’re in a position to sort of abrogate these prices, numerous that’s Army price, when it comes to Army motion. We make certain to seize these prices, and we’re working with Congress.”
McConnell on Tuesday famous Congress could must go a further funding invoice to answer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We could must do one other supplemental,” McConnell mentioned throughout remarks in his house state of Kentucky. “That is critically essential that we win, that the Russians be defeated, that we do all the things we will to punish them each on the financial facet and army facet.”
Congress finalized a $1.5 trillion spending invoice final month that gives $13.6 billion in new help for the Ukraine disaster. The cash was largely to revive army shares of kit already transferred to Ukrainian army items by means of the president’s drawdown authority, whereas $3.1 billion was to cowl “deployment, operational, and intelligence prices” for U.S. forces deployed to Europe in response to the Russian actions.
Laws supporting Ukraine and punishing Russia has change into straightforward fodder in current weeks for an in any other case bitterly partisan Congress to go into legislation.
President Joe Biden signed into legislation final week two separate payments penalizing Russia, which each the Senate and the Home shortly handed earlier than adjourning for a two-week recess.
The Senate handed each items of laws — one invoice banning Russian power imports and one other suspending regular commerce relations with Moscow — by a 100-0 vote.
Individually, the Senate unanimously handed one other invoice final week supposed to expedite army help to Ukraine by easing statutory necessities beneath the president’s authority to lease or mortgage protection articles to Kyiv.
Nonetheless, the Home didn’t take motion on the Ukraine invoice earlier than recessing.
Hicks mentioned the Biden administration is in a “persevering with dialogue” with Ukrainian officers over the kinds of weapons it plans to ship, and that presidential selections on the matter are pending.
“Sure, we’ll proceed to take a look at the kind of capabilities that the Ukrainians are asking for when it comes to give them extra vary and distance,” Hicks mentioned.
Washington is debating a rise to U.S. army deployments in Japanese Europe, which grew after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. That might symbolize one other added expense.
However any main adjustments in pressure posture will in all probability have to attend for the early July NATO summit in Madrid, Hicks mentioned.
“Provided that we’re within the midst of operations now, these operations could proceed for a while as they’re,” she mentioned. “I wouldn’t anticipate drastic adjustments in U.S. posture, and positively not earlier than there’s a summit the place there’s a normal understanding of what allied posture goes to be.”
Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Protection News. He has lined the intersection of U.S. overseas coverage and nationwide safety in Washington since 2014. He beforehand wrote for Overseas Coverage, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.
Joe Gould is senior Pentagon reporter for Protection News, masking the intersection of nationwide safety coverage, politics and the protection trade.
