Move follows president’s prime-time address to nation but faces uncertain future with House of Representatives still paralysed
The Biden administration on Friday submitted a $106bn request to Congress for military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine and humanitarian assistance for Gaza, insisting lawmakers had an obligation to support US allies standing up to tyranny and aggression worldwide.
White House officials spelled out the urgency of the request at a morning press briefing, reinforcing Joe Biden’s assertion in a televised address to the nation on Thursday night from the Oval Office that there were links between the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October.
Early approval of the money, however, is highly unlikely amid ongoing paralysis in the House of Representatives. The lower chamber of the US Congress remained without a speaker on Friday morning because of further infighting among the Republican majority – and it cannot conduct business until the crisis is resolved.
Shalanda Young, the Biden administration’s budget director, urged politicians to “act swiftly” on Friday as she and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, laid out details of the supplemental funding request, which includes $61.4bn for Ukraine, incorporating replenishment of US weapons stocks, $14.3bn for Israel and $9.15bn for unspecified humanitarian assistance in both countries and the blockaded Gaza Strip Palestinian territory.
Most of the remainder of the money would be allocated for “security assistance” in the Indo-Pacific region, and strengthening the US-Mexico border with 1,300 additional border patrol agents and other resources, the administration said.
