To date, the US has committed about $114 billion in Ukraine‐related emergency funding, equivalent to the combined 2023 budget for the Department of Homeland Security and NASA. Should Congress decide to pass additional emergency funding, Ukraine aid plus interest could top $240 billion. With the US running excessively high deficits of 5.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year (FY) 2024 as debt projections are on track to exceed historic highs, Congress should fully offset new spending to avoid contributing to our nation’s deteriorating fiscal health.
Proposing offsets for Ukraine aid is not a tacit endorsement of spending on the war in Ukraine. Cato foreign policy scholars have been clear that Congress should reject the administration’s request for more Ukraine aid. Identifying possible offsets, even for ill‐advised spending, puts the fiscal cost into perspective and confronts Congress with the inevitable tradeoffs. Congress should offset new spending, including when designating such spending as emergency appropriations in response to domestic and foreign issues.
With annual appropriations finally out of the way, Congressional attention is turning back to Ukraine aid. In February, the Senate approved a $95 billion foreign aid bill, which included about $60 billion for Ukraine. Recent reporting suggests House Speaker Johnson might pitch additional Ukraine funding as a loan. While there is a historical precedent for such war‐related loans, the proposal should invite skepticism. More on that below.
Tracking US Aid to Ukraine
Based on an appropriations deep dive by Elizabeth Hoffman, Jaehyun Han, and Shivani Vakharia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, four supplemental bills account for $113 billion in humanitarian, financial, and war‐related emergency funding for Ukraine.
Most of the funding provided thus far has been military‐related, with the Department of Defense receiving $62 billion. The remaining funds are distributed across multiple agencies, with the second and third largest sums going to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State.
Additionally, the latest round of discretionary appropriations provides a further $1.3 billion in emergency designations that the administration could use to respond to Ukraine or to support US allies in the region.
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