Biden administration is rushing to find a way to save billions of dollars slated for Ukraine, soon to expire because of the end of fiscal year in the United States. Out of $7.8 billion allocated for deliveries of weapons and equipment from the Pentagon's stocks under the PDA program, about $6 billion might go down as soon as September 30, so the White House is currently looking for a mechanism allowing it to use those funds before the deadline, sources told Reuters.
There are two options in discussion with the Congress, one being to extend the deadline of the funding program into a Continuing Resolution — a different kind of spending bill for emergency situations; and another is to compile a large-scale security assistance package with as much equipment as possible with the remaining money and sign off on the shipment by the end of this month.
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For a brief reminder, the PDA, Presidential Drawdown Authority, is one of the two bureaucratic mechanisms used for sending military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces who are fighting back against the russian invasion. It allows President Joe Biden to streamline arms transfers from the arsenals of the U.S. Armed Forces without needing Congress's approval each time. The Pentagon's stockpiles are then replenished with fresh-made weapons through awarding defense contracts to companies in the U.S.
As explained by the NGO Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the U.S. Congress "sets the limit on how much support the President can provide through PDA in a given fiscal year." In the Ukraine supplemental announced this April, Congress approved $7.8 billion in PDA for FY 2024.
The counterpart is the USAI program which is a slower method when American industries are tasked to produce armament for Ukraine. The goods are shipped upon being ready off the production lines. The said deadline for spending does not affect USAI provisions, as they are financed separately.
Considering the concerns about U.S. own stocks being already depleted by regular handovers and domestic manufacturers not keeping up replenishing them, the big drawdown package remains a Plan B, while introducing aid as a Continuing Resolution will help buy some time. In order to do that, the Biden administration will need to pass the corresponding decision in Congress by September 30. Reuters' sources are positive about the prospects, given the strong support for assisting Ukraine in the parliament.
"Bipartisan support for Ukraine is critical to American interests, and we will do whatever we can in 2024 to build on these successes and secure additional future military aid necessary to maintain the momentum," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement shortly after visiting Ukraine in August.
On the part of Defense Express, we should note that the PDA funding pool of $7.8 billion outlined by the emergency supplemental appropriations approved on April 24th, comes from a massive $61 billion multi-year package announced just a few days prior. This package was marred by substantial delays stemming from disputes inside the U.S. government. As a result, the military aid funds came almost half a year later, leaving Ukraine without PDA provisions in the meantime and American executives with less time to re-establish the logistical chains and use the money they were delegated.
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