Bipartisan Lawmakers Urge Leadership Against Linking Ukraine Aid, COVID Supplemental

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of military veterans today called on the House leadership to ensure passage of a comprehensive aid package to Ukraine. In the letter, the lawmakers urged leadership not to combine Ukraine aid and COVID-19 relief funding.

“We believe it is not in the best interests of U.S. national security to link further foreign and military aid to Ukraine to unrelated COVID-19 supplemental funding legislation,” the lawmakers wrote. “Ukrainians on the front lines of the war against Russia are counting on expedient, reliable assistance from the U.S. Indeed, timely delivery of weapons and supplies has been essential for Ukrainian success thus far in the war. Attaching unrelated COVID-19 legislation— legislation that is currently tied up in a debate about related public health policies—adds uncertainty and precious time to the process of passing this crucial aid. Those debates should happen on their own merits, not with Ukraine’s sovereignty and tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainian lives hanging in the balance.”

The letter was led by Representatives Jared Golden (D-Maine), Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), Jimmy Panetta (D-California), and Kaialiʻi Kahele (D-Hawaii).

Full text of the letter is below and can also be found HERE.

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The Honorable Nancy Pelosi                                      The Honorable Kevin McCarthy

U.S. House of Representatives                                   U.S. House of Representatives

H-232, U.S. Capitol                                                    H-204, U.S. Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515                                            Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy,

We write you as a bipartisan group of military veterans in Congress determined to help the Ukrainian people successfully defend their country against Russia’s invasion. With delivery of the nearly $14 billion aid package approved by Congress in March close to complete, we are heartened that the administration has quickly begun preparing a request to Congress for additional military assistance. 

We are concerned, however, about both the substance and process of the proposal currently under consideration. We urge you to consider funding for Ukraine in two important respects. 

First, we believe that the administration must significantly ramp up the size and scope of U.S. assistance to Ukraine. We have strongly supported previous aid packages and applauded the administration’s decisions to increase Ukrainian artillery and missile defense capabilities, among other items. Russia, however, is employing significant firepower in eastern Ukraine and will continue to indiscriminately level cities throughout the country unless the U.S. and NATO become more serious about the military aid we are willing to provide–to include more offensive equipment that can target Russian artillery positions. With this in mind, we must provide a comprehensive aid package of military supplies, economic assistance, and traditional foreign aid that is intended to demonstrate our sustained commitment to Ukraine, rather than funding assistance in a piecemeal approach every several weeks. We need to show Vladimir Putin that the United States and our allies are willing and able to support the Ukrainians for the duration of the conflict. Russia should be under no illusions that they can wait out the U.S. and our allies to prevail in this conflict.  

Second, we believe it is not in the best interests of U.S. national security to link further foreign and military aid to Ukraine to unrelated COVID-19 supplemental funding legislation. Ukrainians on the front lines of the war against Russia are counting on expedient, reliable assistance from the U.S. Indeed, timely delivery of weapons and supplies has been essential for Ukrainian success thus far in the war. Attaching unrelated COVID-19 legislation — legislation that is currently tied up in a debate about related public health policies — adds uncertainty and precious time to the process of passing this crucial aid. Those debates should happen on their own merits, not with Ukraine’s sovereignty and tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainian lives hanging in the balance. 

We stand ready to work with you to develop this package and to help pass it through the House. The support of Congress and the American people for Ukrainians’ fight for freedom shows that politics can stop at the water’s edge and that the American people can still come together to confront evils of aggression and authoritarianism. As Americans who have served in the armed forces and defended our own country, we share a deep conviction that we must now help Ukrainians defend theirs. 

Respectfully,