Yellen Says House Impasse on $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package ‘Nothing Short of a Gift’ to Putin

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a joint press conference with Chile's Minister of Treasury Mario Marcel (not in picture) at the ministry's headquarters in Santiago, Chile, on March 1, 2024. Rodrigo Arangua/AFP via Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen castigated House Republicans on Thursday for not approving a new round of funding to bolster Ukrainian forces in their war with Russia, casting Republican opposition as “nothing short of a gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other adversaries of the United States and its allies.

In remarks shared with the press ahead of her meeting with German economy minister Robert Habeck in Washington on Thursday, Ms. Yellen reiterated the Biden administration’s calls for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to schedule a vote on a $95 billion supplemental aid request that includes approximately $61 billion in new Ukraine-related spending, and tens of billions more to support Israel’s war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and bolster alliances and partnerships throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

“As the House continues to stall, Russia is gaining ground and Ukraine is being forced to ration ammunition and supplies,” Ms. Yellen said. “The House must act and show the strength of the U.S support for Ukraine in the face of Putin’s aggression. Congressional inaction is nothing short of a gift to Putin, Iran and other adversaries that stand against America and its allies.”

The $95 billion supplemental spending package passed with some Republican support in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate in February but has seen no new progress in the Republican-controlled House in the weeks since.

Ms. Yellen’s characterization of the delay in Ukraine-related funding as a “gift” to the Russian side is similar to arguments other Biden administration officials have made in recent weeks.

“Our allies are troubled by the message that we’re sending in a failure to support Ukraine and certainly it has impacted the morale of the Ukrainian troops,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week. “If we continue down this path, it'll be a gift to Putin and we certainly don’t want that to happen.”

Impasse

Mr. Johnson was isolated and pressured on the Ukraine aid dilemma during a Feb. 27 White House meeting with President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Despite this pressure, the Republican House speaker said dealing with current U.S. border crisis should be the “first priority” for which the president should take immediate action.

“There was a discussion about the supplemental spending package and I was very clear with the President and all those in the room that the House is actively pursuing and investigating all the various options on that and we will address that in a timely manner. But again, the first priority of the country is our border and making sure it’s secure,” Mr. Johnson said following the White House meeting. “I believe the President can take executive authority right now today to change that. And I told him that again today in person is, as I’ve said to him many times, publicly and privately over the last several weeks.”

An earlier proposal for the supplemental spending package entailed a $118 billion deal that included some border security provisions, but with some caveats. That deal described some authorities to close down border crossings, but only if daily border encounters reached certain thresholds for a week, and included measures to speed up asylum processing, but not to keep them from coming in. Republicans rejected that deal, arguing the border security language didn’t go far enough. Many Republicans sought a restoration of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum applicants to wait outside the United States while their asylum claims were being adjudicated, rather than being released into the country to potentially skip their immigration cases and remain at large.

Other Proposals to Fund Ukraine

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has pitched a scaled-down counteroffer to the $95 billion spending supplemental. His bill, cosponsored by eight House Republicans and six House Democrats, comes in at about $66.3 billion, including 47.7 billion in Ukraine-related aid, $10.4 billion to fund Israeli air-defense systems like the Iron Dome missile interceptor and Iron Beam laser interceptor systems, $4.9 billion for Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships, and $2.4 billion to address expenditures from ongoing U.S. military operations in the Red Sea.

Mr. Fitzpatrick’s deal, which he dubbed the “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act” also includes provisions reimplementing the “Remain in Mexico” policy for one year, and requiring the secretary of homeland security to suspend the entry of inadmissible aliens at U.S. land or maritime borders if he determines such action is necessary to achieve operational control of the border point.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is also working on an alternative Ukraine aid pitch. Details of the deal are not yet clear, but Mr. McCaul indicated the plan would likely take shape after Congress reaches a deal to fund the government.

“I think, first, the speaker wants to get through the normal appropriations process, which is not easy,” Mr. McCaul told CNN last week. “And then after that is done, then we tackle the supplemental. We are currently working on a draft.”

Ms. Yellen has also thrown her support behind another proposal that would liquidate about $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Ukraine going forward.

“Our coalition, representing more than half of the global economy, took action to mobilize $285 billion in Russian sovereign assets and jointly affirm this money will remain frozen until Russia pays for the immense damage it’s caused,” Ms. Yellen said in remarks at a G20 finance ministers conference in Brazil on Feb. 27. “My European colleagues have now taken an important first step to harness windfall proceeds from Russian sovereign actions. That’s an action I fully endorse. I also believe it’s necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilized assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction.”

Reuters contributed to this article.

From NTD News