A group of conservative House Republicans said Thursday they would oppose any further funding for Ukraine and foreshadowed a looming fight for the Biden administration to keep supporting Kyiv when Republicans control the House next term.
Flanked by four lawmakers and one incoming freshman, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters at the Capitol that she introduced a resolution of inquiry that would ask the Biden administration to provide a full accounting of how U.S. aid to Ukraine is being spent.
“What this will do is it will hold our government accountable for all of the funding for Ukraine,” Taylor Greene said. “The American people, the taxpayers of this country, deserve to know where their money is going and how it’s being spent.”
Members of the group, which includes Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, Alabama Rep. Barry Moore, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and incoming freshman Cory Mills of Florida, said they would oppose any further aid for Ukraine.
“I’m here as a member of the House Armed Services Committee to say that the days of endless cash and military materiel to Ukraine are numbered,” said Gaetz.
The group’s message foreshadows what could become an uphill battle for the Biden administration to continue sending money to Ukraine next year when Republicans control the House and the White House has fewer Democratic votes to work with.
California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who won the Republican nomination for speaker of the House on Tuesday, has said future White House requests for Ukraine money would not face as easy a path through Congress.
Greene said the ranks of Republicans who oppose additional Ukraine spending are growing.
“There’s been a change within our conference. There’s just a few of us who voted no from the beginning, but each spending bill that came through our numbers grew,” she said.
The announcement follows the Biden administration’s Tuesday proposal of an additional $37.7 billion in security aid and other assistance for Ukraine to augment U.S. support for Ukraine’s resistance to a nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion.
The United States has already allocated some $66 billion for Ukraine, including for weapons, humanitarian assistance and funds to keep Kyiv’s government functioning.
That total includes almost $28 billion in security assistance, such as newly procured weapons or previously purchased U.S. weapons being diverted to Ukraine, according to the Congressional Research Service. Of the security assistance, just over $18 billion has been spent, the Pentagon said this month.
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