Recently, U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), JD Vance (R-OH), and fifteen colleagues from the House and Senate sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young demanding answers on American aid to Ukraine after new data revealed previous OMB totals vastly undercounted the price tag of Ukraine aid.
The lawmakers wrote:
In January 2023, based on the information then available to us, we had estimated US spending in connection with the Ukraine conflict at a minimum of $114 billion. This figure was higher than the $111 billion in the OMB table sent on September 11, 2023—not to mention the much lower amount cited by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan later that month. We now have confirmation from OMB that the total Ukraine spending figure is significantly higher than the administration has ever admitted. OMB’s latest transmission reveals that there is at least another $684 million in appropriated Ukraine spending that the administration had previously failed to report. There is also an additional $900 million in DOD assistance that should be added to the total Ukraine aid figure. And OMB’s new spreadsheet confirms that the administration has more than $4 billion in authority remaining to transfer weapons from US stocks to Ukraine—authority that has been used as recently as this March and the administration’s use of which has forced them to admit they need another $10 billion to replenish US stocks depleted by Ukraine weapons transfers. Together, these figures bring the total amount of assistance the administration has given to Ukraine to more than $125 billion, and the amount it could give Ukraine to more than $129 billion.
Read the lawmakers’ full letter here. Read more from The American Conservative.
