House passes funding measure as government shutdown looms

6:20 p.m. ET, September 30, 2023

Senate Dems reiterate support for Ukraine as they prepare to vote on spending bill without funding for country

From CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Haley Talbot

Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaks during a senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in February.

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Reuters

Senate Democrats reiterated their support for Ukraine Saturday evening ahead of an expected vote on the House-passed stopgap spending bill, which doesn’t include aid for the war-torn country.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said “uninterrupted aid” will be their “number-one goal” once a shutdown is averted.

“All these (lawmakers) go and have their picture with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky and stand there, and believe they’re with Ukraine. I believe they’re with Ukraine, I believe there’s a bunch of Republicans who are with Ukraine,” she said. “And so the big test, the big thing that matters is going to be what happens with the supplemental, and what happens in the next few weeks,” she said.

Sen. Chris Coons added, “I think there is a broad and strong commitment in my caucus and the other caucus to ensure continued support for Ukraine.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal said “we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that aid Ukraine is uninterrupted. And I think that’s more than possible to do.”

“I am absolutely passionately determined that we will not fail Ukraine. We’ve looked President Zelensky in the eye, when he’s told us they will be defeated if we do not provide this aid. We need to keep faith and keep our commitments for the sake of our own national security,” he continued.

More context: The stopgap bill originally included $6.2 billion in aid to Ukraine to help fight the full-scale invasion from Russia, but the funds were dropped after some conservatives raised objections during negotiations.

So far, Congress has approved about $113 billion in aid to Ukraine, according to calculations by the US State Department Office of Inspector General and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Multiple recent surveys suggest Republicans would like to see the US scale back its support of Ukraine.

Much of the public overall continues to favor actions such as sanctions against Russia and help with Ukrainian intelligence gathering.

A CNN poll released earlier this summer charted growing Republican opposition to aid in Ukraine, and found 55% of the full public opposed to Congress authorizing more funding to support Ukraine, rising to 71% among Republicans. A majority of the public overall did favor some specific forms of aid, such as help with intelligence gathering (63% support) and military training (53% support).

Read More:House passes funding measure as government shutdown looms

2023-09-30 22:11:00

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