Washington, DC – By passing a 45-day stopgap bill, Congress narrowly avoided an unnecessary and costly government shutdown. The House leadership’s decision to end this crisis by finally acknowledging the bipartisan majority in favor of keeping our government open averted the harmful impact that a government shutdown would have had on our military, federal civil servants, and the American people.
FP4A is deeply concerned that the bill did not include additional military and economic assistance for Ukraine, which by all measures appeared to have overwhelming support in both chambers of Congress. The failure to include this funding puts politics over national security and hampers the efforts of the Ukrainian people, who are at the front line of defending the rules-based international order. Further, this delay in funding could erroneously signal a wavering American commitment to Ukraine. FP4A calls on Congress to immediately pass supplemental appropriations to support Ukraine’s fight and recovery.
Congress must also turn to completing its work to pass year-long appropriations that meet our foreign policy needs by fully funding our diplomatic and development programs. With so many global challenges facing the United States, we damage our national security each day the government operates under a continuing resolution, which funds agencies at prior year’s levels and prevents long-term strategic planning by our policymakers.
“American assistance to Ukraine has been vital in denying Russia a victory,” said Thomas Countryman, a former career diplomat and current member of FP4A’s Board of Directors. “We cannot allow an extreme minority to use our national security for political gamesmanship. Congress should waste no time in acting on President Biden’s request for additional funding.”
FP4A urges congressional leaders to move quickly, consistent with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress, to provide aid to Ukraine and fund our government.
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