US drops Ukraine funding to avert government shutdown

Officials in Washington have etched out a compromise that narrowly avoided what could have been one the most consequential U.S. government shutdown in years but the deal came with one big casualty. Support for Ukraine was excluded from the final funding bill. 

The Senate voted 88-9 on September 30th to pass a short-term funding bill that averted a government shutdown and NBC News reported the showdown came down to the wire with just three hours remaining before the government would be forced to shut down. 

House representatives passed the new spending bill with a bipartisan margin of 335-91 and Joe Biden signed the legislation that will keep the government funded at its current, with the additional authorization of more disaster relief money, until November 17th.

"It has been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief: There will be no government shutdown tonight,” explained Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who placed the blame for the shutdown risk on MAGA Republicans. 

"After trying to take our government hostage,” Schumer noted, “MAGA Republicans won nothing… It is good Speaker McCarthy finally—finally—heeded our message that bipartisanship was and is the only way. He could have made this decision weeks ago."

Congress will have more time to work on an agreement to fund the government for a full year but there will likely be challenges ahead. A small faction of Republicans have been working hard to ensure federal funding in support of Ukraine is stripped from the budget. 

The current spending deal cut support to Ukraine in order to keep the government open, a situation that the vast majority of representatives did not agree with. Just before voting began, Schumer issued a bipartisan statement with several high-ranking senate members. 

“We welcome today’s agreement to avoid a harmful and unnecessary shutdown of the federal government,” the statement explained. “Nevertheless, this agreement leaves a number of urgent priorities outstanding.”

The statement went on to assure that the Senate would work to ensure the government would continue to provide Ukraine with the critical and sustained economic support that Ukraine needed to help fight off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brazen aggression.” 

“We support Ukraine’s efforts to defend its sovereignty…and we join a strong bipartisan majority of our colleagues in this essential work,” the statement continued. 

“With the eyes of our partners, allies, and adversaries upon us, we keenly understand the importance of American leadership and are committed to strengthening it from Europe to the Indo-Pacific,” the statement from the senators added. 

In addition to Chuck Schumer, Senate Republicans Mitch McConnell, Susan Collin, and Lindsey Graham signed onto the statement as well as Senate Democrats Patty Murray and Chris Coons. But where does this leave funding for Ukraine now?

Support has been turned off for the moment but the first order of business will be to get funding to Ukraine renewed according to the Wall Street Journal. This will likely happen through a separate vote, something Biden has pledged already to do, Reuters reported. 

Biden told reporters at the White House that the United States could not allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. “I fully expect the speaker to keep his commitment to secure the passage and support needed to help Ukraine as they defend themselves.”

When Biden was asked by reporters if he thought he could trust McCarthy to honor his deals, the president said: “We just made one about Ukraine, so we’ll find out." However, officials in Ukraine have indicated that they’re not worried about the funding decision. 

​​“All key partners of Ukraine are determined to support our country until its victory in this war,” the Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Andriy Yermak explained in a post on his Telegram channel according to a translation from the New York Times.