Presidential authority to ship arms to Kiev is ready to run out on the finish of September, with the cash left untapped
US President Joe Biden has weeks left to faucet $5.8 billion in Congressionally-approved navy help for Ukraine earlier than the fiscal yr ends, US officers have informed the Related Press on situation of anonymity.
The cash is at Biden’s disposal underneath presidential drawdown authority (PDA), a mechanism meant to offer the chief department a fast method to ship arms to different nations in response to an emergency. It permits the president to make use of the stockpiles of the Pentagon.
Sources stated the White Home had requested Congress to increase the PDA to the subsequent fiscal yr in no matter spending invoice lawmakers approve to proceed funding the federal authorities past this month, the information company reported on Thursday.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress repeatedly conflict over spending priorities, and the difficulty of Ukraine help arose earlier this yr. Some GOP representatives refused for months to allocate further cash for Kiev except the safety scenario on the US southern border was addressed first.
A compromise was reached in April, when lawmakers permitted $61 billion for Ukraine in a supplemental invoice, a few of it meant to reimburse the Pentagon for weapons it had despatched to Kiev previously.
When requested about PDA throughout a briefing on Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder stated protection officers had been “persevering with to work with Congress to see about getting these authorities prolonged.”
“You’re going to proceed to see drawdown packages, however we’ll have rather more to supply on that within the close to future,” he added, earlier than declining to substantiate that the leftover sum was near $6 billion.
AP sources stated that along with the $5.8 billion, Biden has the authority to spend $100 million underneath PDA past the top of September. There’s additionally separate funding amounting to just a little greater than $4 billion which can be utilized to pay weapons producers for long-term contracts. It would final till the top of FY 2025, officers stated.
The US Division of Protection has a poor report of monitoring and reporting its belongings. Final November, the Pentagon failed its sixth annual audit in a row. On Thursday, Inspector Normal Robert Storch reported that the navy “didn’t successfully and effectively implement accountability controls” for PDA delivered to Taiwan from November 2023 by March 2024.
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