Jean-Pierre Resists Calls To Decouple Ukraine, Disaster Funding
As Republicans in Congress become increasingly wary about the seemingly endless supply of U.S. money and weapons to Ukraine, the Biden administration is looking for new ways to approve such expenditures.
One controversial plan involves attaching new Ukrainian aid to legislation meant to provide relief to victims of domestic disasters including the wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui and Hurricane Idalia in Florida.
Critics of the proposal have called on the White House to separate the two budget items, allowing disaster relief to help Americans while providing an opportunity to further debate the Ukraine issue. In remarks last week, however, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre signaled that the president is unwilling to consider such a proposal.
“Look, we see them both as incredibly important,” she said. “I just laid out at the top what we saw happen in Ukraine: 16 civilians died.”
At the time of her statement, Biden was preparing for an appearance at the Group of 20 summit in India, where she said he would be “talking about our commitment for Ukraine and making sure that the people of Ukraine — who are bravely fighting for their sovereignty, for their democracy — has [sic] what they need to fight against Russia’s aggression.”
Jean-Pierre went on to insist, despite the opposition of a majority of the country, that America’s ongoing support of Ukraine was “important to help a country continue to fight for their democracy.”
She refused to “get into hypotheticals” about whether Ukraine funding might be decoupled from the domestic disaster relief spending, but asserted: “These are vital, important government programs that need to be done.”
In the wake of Hurricane Idalia’s impact on their state, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Federal Disaster Responsibility Act in hopes of increasing the flow of federal cash to areas of the U.S. in dire need.
Both senators released statements touting the perceived importance of their proposed legislation.
“Funding for Ukraine should NEVER be paired with disaster relief for American families,” Scott said. “Congress has passed all of the provisions in this bill before, and it needs to do its job and get that done again.”
Rubio echoed his sentiment, declaring that disaster relief is among “the most basic functions” of the federal government, but the “Biden administration intentionally withheld a budget request for the Disaster Relief Fund for months after acknowledging a funding shortfall to leverage it in exchange for unrelated spending.”
