Presidential authority to send arms to Kiev is set to expire at the end of September and the money is still untapped
US President Joe Biden has weeks left to tap $5.8 billion in Congressionally-approved military assistance for Ukraine before the fiscal year ends, US officials have told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The money is at Biden’s disposal under presidential drawdown authority (PDA), a mechanism meant to give the executive branch a quick way to deliver arms to other nations in response to an emergency. It allows the president to use the stockpiles of the Pentagon.
Sources said the White House had asked Congress to extend the PDA to the next fiscal year in whatever spending bill lawmakers approve to continue funding the federal government beyond this month, the news agency reported on Thursday.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress regularly clash over spending priorities, and the issue of Ukraine aid arose earlier this year. Some GOP representatives refused for months to allocate additional money for Kiev unless the security situation on the US southern border was addressed first.
A compromise was reached in April, when lawmakers approved $61 billion for Ukraine in a supplemental bill, some of it meant to reimburse the Pentagon for weapons it had sent to Kiev in the past.
When asked about PDA during a briefing on Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said defense officials were “continuing to work with Congress to see about getting those authorities extended.”
“You’re going to continue to see drawdown packages, but we’ll have much more to provide on that in the near future,” he added, before declining to confirm that the leftover sum was close to $6 billion.
AP sources said that in addition to the $5.8 billion, Biden has the authority to spend $100 million under PDA beyond the end of September. There is also separate funding amounting to a little more than $4 billion which can be used to pay weapons manufacturers for long-term contracts. It will last until the end of FY 2025, officials said.
The US Department of Defense has a poor record of tracking and reporting its assets. Last November, the Pentagon failed its sixth annual audit in a row. On Thursday, Inspector General Robert Storch reported that the military “did not effectively and efficiently implement accountability controls” for PDA delivered to Taiwan from November 2023 through March 2024.
