The approximately $5.8 billion in presidential drawdown authority (PDA), a method for the U.S. to quickly send weapons to Ukraine, would be announced as a series of large military aid packages that would then be delivered over the course of several months.
The plan is a workaround after Congress didn’t include an extension for the funds in its stopgap measure to keep the government open past Sept. 30, which would have allowed the administration to spread out the drawdowns, as it has with past Ukraine aid.
Asked Wednesday about the administration’s intentions for the remaining dollars, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said she had no announcements but that the U.S. is “committed to making sure Ukraine gets the resources Congress approved by the end of the president’s term . . . and we are working with the interagency to do just that.”
Assistance to Ukraine is often released in batches of hundreds of millions of dollars, with the equipment then shipped within days or weeks, a method to avoid emptying Pentagon stocks and account for the time to backfill.
In obligating the nearly $6 billion to Ukraine before it expires in less than a week, the U.S. would ensure that it can spend the money and eventually deliver specific weapons from dwindling U.S. stockpiles.
But that method of allocation was plan B after the House left out language in its continuing resolution bill that would have extended the PDA into the next fiscal year so that it would not expire.
House Republicans, who are divided over funding for Ukraine, reportedly pressed congressional leaders to leave out that language from the legislation that the chamber passed Wednesday.
A congressional aide told The Hill last week that there may be some legal challenges to allocating the $5.8 billion at once.
Lawyers for the administration were concerned that there may not be an authority to permit transfers of munitions that are not currently in stock, or considered surplus, they said.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
