WASHINGTON – Today, Heritage Action, a conservative grassroots organization with two million grassroots activists, released a statement from Executive Director Jessica Anderson ahead of the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on a $40 billion Ukraine aid package.
This proposed Ukraine aid package takes money away from the priorities of the American people and recklessly sends our taxpayer dollars to a foreign nation without any accountability. America is struggling with record-setting inflation, debt, a porous border, crime and energy depletion yet progressives in Washington are prioritizing a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine – more than the entire annual budget of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The American people are counting on their elected representatives to seriously consider the size, scope and funding accounts of this package rather than blindly supporting it with less than six hours of scrutiny.
Conservatives are sympathetic to the dire situation in Ukraine and double our calls for allies in the region to help and for Russia’s regime to be staved off.
Background:
This evening, the U.S. House is expected to vote on a $39.8 billion aid package in Ukraine. For reference, that is a higher cost than the Department of Justice’s annual budget, and is even greater than the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor, and Department of Commerce combined.
The legislation does not include several important measures – there are no spending offsets, no accountability for where each dollar will be spent, and no guarantees for equal contributions from European neighbors. Additionally, the aid package only lasts through September of this year, meaning Congress will be expected to reconsider the legislation after only about three months.
Earlier this year, Congress already approved over $13 billion in emergency spending for Ukraine, which included traditional foreign aid, military supplies, U.S. military deployments and intelligence, and money to enforce sanctions.
The Biden administration’s efforts to send additional resources to the Ukraine border also comes at a time when the administration and Democrats in Congress refused to send even a fraction of that amount to solve the serious problems along the U.S. southern border.
The legislation also comes amid record-setting inflation, with March’s inflation rate coming in at over 8%.