(CNS News) – Congress’ recently passed “continuing resolution” (CR) to keep the government funded includes $12.3 billion in aid to Ukraine and grants President Joe Biden the ability to drawdown up to $3.7 billion worth of U.S. military equipment to send to Ukraine.
Congress passed the CR to keep funding the government through December 16. The CR passed the Senate on Sept. 29 (72 to 25,) and passed the House on Sept. 30 (230 to 201).
Within the CR is the “Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023” and the “Division B-Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023,” which outline the allocation of $12.3 billion in various forms of aid and support for Ukraine.
According to the bill, “the following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2023.”
The first part of the Ukraine part of the bill allocates funding for each branch of the military for “Military Personnel,” and “Operation and Maintenance,” for each branch “to respond to the situation in Ukraine and for related expenses.”
The allocated funds for these two categories are “to remain available until September 30, 2023.” The following amounts of money are being allocated for the following branches and reasons:
$110,107,000 to the Army for “Military Personnel”
$462,000 to the Navy for “Military Personnel”
$600,000 to the Marine Corps for “Military Personnel”
$11,582,000 to the Air Force for “Military Personnel”
$654,696,000 to the Army for “Operation and Maintenance”
$433,035,000 to the Navy for “Operation and Maintenance”
$34,984,000 to the Marine Corps for “Operation and Maintenance”
$267,084,000 to the Air Force for “Operation and Maintenance”
$1,771,000 to the Space Force for “Operation and Maintenance”
Additionally, the legislation sets aside $4,713,544,000 until September 30, 2023, for “Operation and Maintenance” to be available “Defense-Wide” -- $3,000,000,000 of this will remain available under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) until Sept. 30, 2024. One billion, five-hundred million dollars will remain available until Sept. 30, 2024 and may be used to fund “Operation and Maintenance” and “Procurement” initiatives in order to re-supply the DOD’s defense stocks in storage or reimburse the DOD for its defense services.
The “Procurement” section in the legislation outlines the following amounts of money that will be made available for certain military branches until Sept. 30, 2025:
$450,000,000 to the Army for “Missile Procurement”
$540,000,000 to the Army for “Procurement of Ammunition”
$3,890,000 to the Army for “Other Procurement”
$2,170,000 to the Navy for “Other Procurement”
$437,991,000 to the Air Force for “Other Procurement”
$9,770,000 to be made available Defense-Wide for “Procurement”
The “Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation,” section allocates the following dollar amounts to be made available until Sept. 30, 2024:
$3,300,000 to the Army for “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation”
$2,077,000 to the Navy for “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation”
$99,704,000 to the Air Force for “Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation”
And there are the following allocations:
-- $31,230,000 to be made available Defense-Wide for “Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation”
-- $2,000,000 will be made available until Sept. 30, 2023 for the Office of the Inspector General to “carry out reviews of the activities of the Department of Defense to execute funds appropriated in this title, including assistance provided to Ukraine.” The DOD’s Inspector General is to provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees “not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act.”
-- $500,000 will be made available until Sept. 30, 2023 for the “Intelligence Community Management Account.”
-- $35,000,000 will be made available “until expended” for “Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.”
-- $4,500,000,000 will be made available until Sept. 30, 2024 for the “Economic Support Fund.”
Finally, the Ukraine-aid section calls for section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2318(a)(1)) to be changed by replacing “$100,000,000” with “$3,700,000,000.”
Section 506 of the 1961 bill grants the president the authority to “direct […] the drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense, defense services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, of an aggregate value of not to exceed $100,000,000 in any fiscal year.”
The 1961 legislation only grants the president such authority in the case of “an unforeseen emergency […] which requires immediate military assistance to a foreign country or international organization.”
Therefore, the legislation is extending the president’s capabilities of drawing down up to $3.7 billion of U.S. equipment as opposed to the usual cap of $100 million. This is a 3,600% increase of the president’s defense drawdown capabilities for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2023.
As noted in Section 1401 of the CR, “each amount appropriated or made available by this Act is in addition to amounts otherwise appropriated for the fiscal year involved.”
Additionally, Section 1402 makes clear that the aid allocated is only available for Fiscal Year 2023 unless otherwise stated.
In total, the “Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023,” allocates $12,345,497,000 in potential aid to Ukraine. When combined with the bill’s allocation of up to $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown capacity, this legislation grants our government the means to provide up to $16,045,497,000 worth of aid in various forms to Ukraine.