Approval of Biden Ukraine aid request likely after Pelosi Kyiv visit, says McCaul | US Congress

Joe Biden’s $33 billion request to Congress for additional aid to Ukraine should receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican official, as House speaker, said on Sunday. Nancy Pelosimade a surprise visit to this war-torn country.

The president had on Thursday asked for money for military and humanitarian support to Ukraine as it struggles to repel the Russian invasion now in its third month.

Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas and a high-ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and said he expected the chamber to look into favorably the request in the weeks to come.

McCaul’s comments came as Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Speaker of the House promised on behalf of the United States: “We are here until victory is won”.

McCaul was asked if he thinks Congress will quickly pass Biden’s requested package, which includes $20 billion in military aid, $8.5 billion in economic aid to Kyiv and $3 billion in humanitarian aid.

“Yes, I do,” McCaul said. ” Hurry up. The next two to three weeks are going to be very pivotal and very decisive in this war. And I don’t think we have much time to waste. I wish we had [Biden’s request] a little earlier, but we have it now.

McCaul added that he believed Republicanswho backed the Democratic president’s previous financial demands for Ukraine, might have moved faster if they held a majority in the House.

The chamber does not sit for the coming week as members attend to district business, delaying debate and voting on the aid package.

“If I were a speaker for a day, I would call Congress back in session, back to work,” he said.

“Every day we don’t send them more weapons is a day more people will be killed and a day they could lose this war. I think they can win. But we have to give them the tools to do it.

Meanwhile, Bob Menendez, the Democratic senator from New Jersey who chairs the upper house Foreign Relations Committee, echoed Pelosi’s pledge that the United States would continue to support Ukraine financially.

“We will do whatever it takes to see Ukraine win because it’s not just about Ukraine, it’s about the international order,” he said on Meet the Press. on NBC.

“If Ukraine does not win, if [Russia’s president Vladimir] Putin can ultimately not only succeed in the Donbass but then be emboldened to go further, if it hits a country under our treaty obligations with NATO, then we would be directly engaged.

“So preventing Russia from getting to this point is of crucial interest to us, as well as to the world, so that we don’t have to send our sons and daughters into battle. This ability to not have to sending our sons and daughters into battle is priceless.

Menendez said the United States and its allies must “keep an eye on the ball” for a possible displacement of Russia in the breakaway region of Moldova in Transnistriawhere explosions have been heard in recent days.

“I think the Ukrainians care about what will happen in Transnistria, because it is another point of attack against Ukraine,” he said.

“We have to keep an eye on the ball. And it’s about helping Ukraine and the Ukrainians finally be able to defeat the butcher of Moscow. If we do, the world will be safer. The international order will be preserved, and those watching what is happening in Ukraine will have to think twice.

Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), stressed the urgent need for Congress to approve the package during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.

“There are large swaths of Ukraine that were recently liberated by Ukrainian forces, where there is a desperate need, from mine clearance to trauma kits to food aid, because the markets are not operational again,” she said, noting that previously approved levies “help is flowing in.”

But she said 40 million people could be pushed into poverty and demands for help would only increase.

“We are already spending some of this money, but the burnout rate is very, very high as prices are skyrocketing inside and outside Ukraine,” Power said. “That’s why this supplement is so important. This involves $3 billion in humanitarian assistance to meet these global needs, which are acute malnutrition needs at the famine level.

“And that includes very important direct budget support for the Ukrainian government, because we want to make sure the government can continue to deliver services to its people.”

“Putin would love nothing more if the Ukrainian government went bankrupt and was unable to meet the needs of the people. We cannot let that happen.