On the night of October 1, the US Congress approved the country's temporary budget, which will be valid for 45 days. Previously, parliamentarians did not support the allocation of $6.1 billion to Ukraine, but this issue is expected to be reconsidered.
About this24 Channelsaid political scientist Igor Reiterovich. In his opinion, the US Congress will soon be able to reach an agreement on providing Ukraine with funds to strengthen its defense capabilities.
What does the US interim budget mean
The fiscal year in the United States traditionally begins on October 1. Accordingly, before this time, American congressmen must adopt a budget for the next age. If the budget is not adopted, the country's governance system becomes practically paralyzed.
As Reiterovich notes, this is not the first time that American congressmen have adopted a temporary budget in order to get more time to reach a compromise on spending. As a rule, such “shutdowns” (emergency stop of work – Channel 24) occur on the eve of elections. Accordingly, the opposition Republican Party uses this technique to gain electoral sympathy.
“Russia is trying to promote this topic and present it as a decrease in support for Ukraine in the United States. Although everyone who understands the basics of American politics understands perfectly well that (problems with the adoption of the budget – Channel 24) are an internal American story,” the political scientist assured. .
How will this affect aid to Ukraine
According to Reiterovich, in the future the US Congress will definitely will adopt a separate law on support for Ukraine.
“Ukraine has the support of both Republicans and Democrats.Of course, in the Republican Party there are 20 crazy Trumpists who constantly manipulate this issue. But I think that it will be possible to find a common language with themor simply block them attempts to disrupt the allocation of assistance to Ukraine,” the political scientist suggested.
At the same time, it is very important that assistance to Ukraine arrives in appropriate amounts and is considered separately from other domestic American issues. In particularthe amount of funds that will flow to Ukraine will directly depend on the audit of military assistancewhich is carried out by the US Department of Defense.
“I am convinced that (audit results – Channel 24) will be normal , because until now there has not been a single fact known when American assistance was used by Ukraine for other purposes,” noted Reiterovich.
Accordingly, when Joseph Biden has official data, confirmed by an audit, this will become a very significant argument in favor of continued support for Ukraine and will knock out from the hands of the Trumpists arguments that Ukraine is allegedly abusing the assistance of the United States.
Why the Republicans succeeded exclude support for Ukraine from the interim budget
Opposition Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives (the lower house of the American parliament – Channel 24). Thanks to this, it was the opposition that had the decisive vote on the issue of approval or disapproval of the budget.
As Pavel Klimkin explained, now 80% of Republican voters support candidates who are skeptical about supporting Ukraine. Accordingly, more and more congressmen should take this trend into account when voting.
Adoption of the US interim budget and support for Ukraine
- On September 21, Vladimir Zelensky, during his visit to the UN General Assembly, met with the leadership of the American Congress. Among other things, at this meeting, the President of Ukraine said that without help from the United States, Ukraine would not be able to win the war.
- At that time, Congress was trying to find votes to allocate $24 billion to Ukraine. This money should be used to strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities in the first quarter of 2024, but no decision has been made on this yet.
- Realizing that it would not be possible to pass a budget for 2024, a short-term budget bill was introduced in the United States Senate resolutions. It envisaged providing Ukraine with $6.1 billion, of which $4.5 billion was to be spent on defense.
- However, on September 29, the House of Representatives, the majority of which belongs to the Republicans, rejected this bill, the stumbling block in which was including assistance to Ukraine. Instead, a new decision was made in which support for Ukraine was not provided for the next 45 days.
- At the same time, Joseph Biden said that he hoped that the Republicans would keep their word and the House of Representatives would approve assistance to Ukraine in a separate decision .
