Credit: (Edwin J. Torres/New Jersey Governor's Office)Washington – Officials from U.S. allies in Europe are so focused on military aid to Ukraine that they will monitor the vote in the House and decide whether House Democrats will use too much aid in the coming weeks, according to Representative Mikie Sherrill. They say they are discussing ambiguous parliamentary procedures, including unconventional tactics.
Sherrill (D-No. 11), who returned last week from a security conference trip in Germany that included visits to Egypt, Jordan and Israel, said the chances of passing legislation to support Ukraine in its war effort against Russian forces are closed. He said that it is becoming more and more common.
Sherrill, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said that without further U.S. military aid, Ukraine could lose the war with Russia.
“It's hard to see how Ukraine is going to be able to win at some point without our support,” Sherrill told reporters during a phone call Friday. “We're running out of time.”
As Russia's war with Ukraine enters its third year, support for U.S. military aid to Ukraine is growing in Congress, with House Democrats planning to force a vote to send money to the war-torn country. We are considering.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Sunday that some 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the Russian invasion.
Trump's swing
On February 13, the Senate passed a bill (HR 815) by a vote of 70-29 that would provide approximately $95 billion in foreign aid, including $60 billion to Ukraine. Much of it would later be used to buy arms from US companies that provided Ukraine with $60 billion. Used in battle. Israel and Taiwan will also receive billions of dollars in funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, who leads the House of Representatives, criticized the bill before it passed, and as an rank-and-file member of the House, he voted against funding for Ukraine.
Twenty-two Republicans voted in favor of the Senate bill, but Republican support in the House, where former President Donald Trump has influence over the speaker, has been muted.
Democrats are strategizing how to overcome the House deadlock, including possibly forcing a vote through an unusual tactic known as a “removal petition.”
A dismissal petition allows House members to advance a bill to the full chamber after it has been in committee for at least 30 days, with the signatures of 218 people, a simple majority of the 435-seat House.
“At some point, it’s hard to see how Ukraine can win without our help.” — Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th)
Since the mid-1990s, termination petitions have reached the required signature count twice, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. One is the 2002 Campaign Finance Act, and the other is the 2015 bill reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, a quasi-independent federal government. agency.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th) said last week that Democrats would introduce a waiver petition for Ukraine aid, but he did not say when or what type of bill would be used.
meeting at the white house
President Joe Biden met with Congressional leaders from both parties, including Johnson, on Tuesday to discuss aid to Ukraine and urge the House to pass the Senate bill. “The consequences of daily inaction in Ukraine are dire,” Biden said, according to a White House pool report.
Sherrill said she would support anything that could become law. But with the presidential election looming and Congress having other goals to accomplish, including the federal budget, he said the Senate bill seemed the most viable option.
“I don't think there's any other way forward,” Cheryl says. “As we get closer to the election, things aren't going to get any easier.”
Sherrill said European leaders were following the House of Commons' approach and also referred to the difficult expulsion petition at the Munich Security Council.
“They are concerned about our ability to pass additional legislation in the House,” she said. “They track a lot of what happens in the House of Representatives very closely.”
This Congress's vote for aid to Ukraine has secured a majority in the House, with most Democrats and dozens of traditional Republicans voting yes. “We know that traditionally in the House of Representatives there are about 300 votes on support for Ukraine,” Sherrill said.
But the discharge petition organized by Democrats is likely to draw Trump's ire against Republican lawmakers who support the measure.
At the White House, Trump was a vocal critic of NATO, the transatlantic military alliance that has countered the Russian threat and helped keep peace since World War II.
Anti-NATO tone
Trump, a former candidate for office, is running on a similar anti-NATO platform. At a campaign rally in South Carolina this month, President Trump said the United States would not defend NATO members if they did not contribute sufficient funds to the alliance.
“Look, if they don't pay, we're not going to protect them. OK?” President Trump said he encouraged Russia to “do whatever they want.”
The number of confirmed civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has reached more than 10,200, including 575 children, said Edem Wosornou, UN Humanitarian Office Secretary. The Director-General made this statement at the United Nations Security Council in January.
The United States allocated more than $47 billion to Ukraine from 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, a region in southeastern Ukraine, to the end of 2023, according to the State Department.
Military funding for Ukraine makes up a significant but relatively small portion of the Pentagon's budget.
Congress approved approximately $859 billion for the Department of Defense in the most recent available fiscal year and requested $886 billion for the current budget year.
