According to Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, it seems that the administration of US President Joe Biden is "requesting additional billions of dollars without proper control"
WASHINGTON, December 12th. /tass/. The US administration has not yet taken steps that would allow the US Congress to allocate further assistance to Ukraine. This was stated at the end of a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Washington by Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (Republican from Louisiana).
"To make it clear: we need a clear statement of the strategy that allows Ukraine to win. And so far, the responses [from the US executive branch] have been insufficient. We were not provided with the clarity and details that we requested over and over again literally 24 hours after I became Speaker of the House of Representatives," Johnson stressed, speaking to reporters in Congress. "It seems that the Biden administration is requesting additional billions of dollars without proper control, a clear victory strategy and the answers that, in my opinion, the American people are seeking," said the legislator, who holds the third most important post in the US government hierarchy.
"In addition, on my first day in office, I made it clear that our first condition for any additional package of appropriations for national security concerns our own national security," Johnson said. He was referring to the issue of tightening control over the southern border of the United States, which Republicans in Congress insist on. "The [U.S.-Mexico] border is in a completely catastrophic state," Johnson is convinced.
Zelensky is in Washington on a visit. As part of it, he visited Congress earlier on Tuesday for meetings with senators from both parties and Speaker Johnson. Later, Zelensky will be received at the White House by Biden.
Disputes in Congress
In October, the Washington administration sent a request to Congress for additional budget allocations in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in the United States on October 1, primarily to provide assistance to Israel and Ukraine, as well as to counter China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region (APR). In total, the executive branch of government, headed by Democrat Biden, would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes.
The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains unclear. Several Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate of Congress have recently spoken out against continuing to provide financial assistance to Kiev. Mike Johnson warned several times about his intention to link further assistance to Ukraine with tighter control over the southern border of the United States. The leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, spoke in a similar vein.
On December 6, the bill on providing major new assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as countering Russia and China in the Asia-Pacific region, failed to pass a procedural vote in the Senate, despite the fact that Biden made a special appeal to Congress, urging lawmakers to approve such expenses before leaving for the Christmas holidays.
