With government funding set to expire on September 30, the U.S. Congress is currently undergoing several concurrent negotiations around budget reconciliation, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 appropriations and raising the debt ceiling. Legislative Presentations, Reports & Toolkits.
Policy Committees, Caucuses & Initiatives. Committees, State Associations & Affiliates. With reporting by Megan Eckstein and Stephen Losey. The Army won about $300 million more than requested for Stryker and Abrams upgrades and $500 million more for aircraft, chiefly to add more UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks and Gray Eagle drones. Lawmakers added 12 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to the Navy’s budget, keeping the Boeing’s production line going, and they added five ships ― including one more Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer than the administration requested. Amid testing failures, the Air Force’s planned hypersonic missile, the the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, is facing a $161 million cut. The budget’s defense procurement allotment exceeds the budget request by about $12 billion, with lawmakers adding $7 billion more for research and development.Īmong notable moves for the Air Force, it would buy 20 more C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, made by Lockheed Martin, primarily for the Air National Guard to modernize two operational wings at an additional cost of $1.8 billion. The increased defense top line is a boon to Pentagon’s weapons programs and the defense industry. The bill provides $650 million for military support and “an expansion of existing authorities to bolster the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian military and regional allies.” The State Department will receive about $4 billion for “the rapidly expanding humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.” Officials say more than 12 million people in the region are in need of food, shelter and other basic necessities because of shortages caused by the fighting. The bill also funds the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative - an account to help train and equip the Ukrainian military - at $300 million. Nearly 15,000 American service members have been deployed to the region in support of NATO allies in recent weeks, but none have been sent into Ukraine itself. forces deployed to Europe in response to the Russian actions. “That has been a big priority and Congress has been very supportive of that.”Īnother $3.1 billion will cover “deployment, operational, and intelligence costs” for U.S. “He has been admonishing us that at every daily meeting, and we do have daily meetings on this, to focus on helping Ukrainians with our drawdown authorities as fast as we can, as long as we’re able to safely,” McCord said. The added funding in this budget, he said, dovetails with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s pressure on his staff to do as much as possible for Ukraine. Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord told a defense industry audience this week Ukraine will force increases to future defense budgets. Though on the second day of the war the White House proposed spending $6.4 billion, the special fund grew steadily over the last two weeks amid Ukraine’s battlefield gains against Russia and pressure from lawmakers. 
The new compromise budget solves that problem, and also provides a large aid package for Ukrainian officials fighting back against Russian forces that invaded their country last month.Ībout half of the $13.6 billion will go to the Department of Defense, in large part to restore military stocks of equipment already transferred to Ukrainian military units through the president’s drawdown authority. Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors have largely failed due to attacks by Russian forces. Authorities announced a new ceasefire on Wednesday to allow civilians to escape from towns around the capital, Kyiv, as well as the southern cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar and Volnovakha, Izyum in the east and Sumy in the northeast. Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces members train to use an NLAW anti-tank weapon on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022.
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