To many observers on Capitol Hill and in foreign aid circles, Sen. Rand Paul’s lonely opposition to swift passage of a $40 billion package of military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine is nothing new. The Kentucky Republican has a well-known penchant for spending hawkishness mixed with dovishness when it comes to global interventions.
But the drama surrounding Paul’s procedural roadblock, which he’s admitted is doomed to failure, masks an important policy divide as lawmakers try to navigate and account for what’s already become one of the largest foreign aid commitments in U.S. history.
The dispute, at least in part, appears to revolve around the man Paul would like to become the new government watchdog for Ukraine spending: John F. Sopko, who for a decade has played a similar role for the U.S. financial commitment in Afghanistan.
