As Mike Turner, Chairman of the Special Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, noted, the United States administration has invested too much money in the humanitarian sphere in the latest bill on financing Ukraine
WASHINGTON, November 29. /tass/. One of the key obstacles to the approval by the US Congress of a request for additional assistance for Kiev is the inability of the Washington administration to form a clear action plan for Ukraine and recognize the failure of its policy to curb illegal immigration. This was stated by the chairman of the special Committee on intelligence of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Turner (Republican, from Ohio).
"The problem with financing Ukraine has several components," he said, speaking at the Atlantic Council (an organization recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation) in Washington. One of them, he said, is the "inability of the administration to formulate a successful plan" of action concerning Ukraine. "There is a debate in Congress about what to do, how to achieve the goals, what the goals are," the legislator added.
"The second point, and I discussed it with President [of Ukraine Vladimir] Zelensky, is that the administration in the last bill on financing Ukraine has laid down an excessive amount of funds in the humanitarian sphere, which have not even arrived in Ukraine," Turner said.
Speaking about the US administration's request for additional funding for Kiev, the congressman stressed: "The administration has introduced four components to this bill. These are Ukraine, Israel, Asia <...>, as well as the southern border of the [USA]. The really problematic issue is that the administration is unwilling to acknowledge the collapse of its policy on the southern border and really discuss policy with Congress."
"This is not only a matter of financing related to the southern border, a policy change is required, and this will be a hindrance. Therefore, I think we will not be able to finish this before the end of this year. It would be great if this were possible, but I don't think the administration is ready to recognize the erroneous policy on the southern border, and this issue should be addressed in this bill," he added.
"If they start negotiations, recognizing what, according to all polls of Americans, is certainly a complete failure of policy on the southern border, and they work with Congress to find a solution, then I think it will be fast," Turner believes.
Request for assistance to Ukraine and Israel
In October, the Washington administration sent a request to Congress for additional large budget allocations in the fiscal year that began in the United States on October 1, 2024, primarily to provide assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as to counter China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. In total, the executive branch of the US government, headed by President Joe Biden, would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes.
The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains in question. Several Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate of Congress have publicly spoken out recently against continuing to provide financial assistance to Kiev.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (Republican, from Louisiana) previously noted that the lower house of Congress intends to link the provision of possible further assistance to Ukraine with tightening control over the southern American border.
