WASHINGTON − Senators want more funding for Ukraine and safeguards against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meddling with Ukraine aid after the Pentagon temporarily shut down some weapons deliveries to the war-torn country earlier this month.
Senators on the Armed Services Committee want to send $500 million on military aid to Ukraine every year through 2028 – a $200 million increase from years past, according to a summary of their request for the annual defense policy bill released on July 11. Congressional authorization for funding to Ukraine expires this year.
The bill “reaffirms that it is the policy of the United States to assist Ukraine” with its defense against Russia and to “bolster” its military for that purpose.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat on the committee from New Hampshire, said she added language to the bill to prevent “diversion of military equipment obligated for Ukraine after the Pentagon’s misguided decision.” The provisions “put guardrails on Secretary Hegseth’s harmful policies…to make sure promised military assistance continues to flow to Ukraine,” she said in a statement.
The bill easily cleared the committee on July 9, with just one senator voting against.
Hegseth shut down weapons deliveries to Ukraine in early July, saying it was part of a broad “review” to make sure Pentagon stockpiles hadn’t dwindled too low. Among the weapons held up in the pause were Patriot missiles and other key air defense weapons. Russian drone and missile attacks have increased in recent days to levels unprecedented in the more-than-three-year conflict.
Less than a week after Hegseth suspended them, deliveries abruptly started up again after President Donald Trump said Ukraine needed weapons to defend itself and lashed out at Vladimir Putin with the harshest language he’s yet directed at the Russian leader.
Senators also want to require Hegseth to continue the Pentagon’s intelligence sharing with Ukraine, according to a summary of the approved bill. The Trump administration temporarily paused all Ukraine aid, including intelligence sharing, after and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s contentious exchange in the Oval Office in late February.
Trump has not requested or designated any new funds for Ukraine, but he is reportedly considering another aid package, according to Reuters and other outlets. Of the money allotted by former President Joe Biden, $3.86 billion remains, which is separate from the funds allocated by Congress.
House bill bars Trump from diverting Ukraine funds without ‘declaration’
Meanwhile, a “mark-up” of the House version of the defense bill by Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Armed Services Committee chair, renews funding to Ukraine, but without the Senate’s $200 million increase.
But that version would also bar Trump from spending or reallocating funds for Ukraine without handing Congress a “written determination that doing so is in the national interest of the United States.”
It would require Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit regular reports on “allied and partner support to Ukraine.”
Rogers said in a statement after the pause on weapons deliveries ended that “President Trump is right that now is not the time to pause U.S. military aid to support Ukraine’s defense.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate ups Ukraine funding, hems in Hegseth in new defense bill
