(Washington) The American Congress adopted Thursday a new federal budget which includes a colossal envelope of nearly 14 billion dollars for the Ukrainian crisis.
Posted at 10:25 p.m.
Updated at 10:35 p.m.
The text voted by senators from both camps in the evening includes an economic and humanitarian component, but also arms and ammunition for Kyiv. It had been approved the day before by the House of Representatives and must now be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
These funds are, among other things, supposed to allow Ukraine to protect its electricity network, fight cyberattacks and equip itself with defensive weapons. The package also includes more than $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid and more than $1 billion to support refugees fleeing the war-torn country.
“Food, Medicine, Shelter”
The envelope “will provide food, medicine, shelter, support for the more than two million refugees and resources for the Ukrainian economy which is in ruins”, detailed the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.
PHOTO J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer
“It will also allow transfers of weapons such as the Javelin and Stinger (missile launchers), it will reassure and strengthen NATO,” he added.
The United States also devotes a large part of this aid to Ukraine’s macroeconomic needs in order to ensure “the continuity of government”, as have the IMF and the World Bank also done.
Nearly half of these funds will however be allocated to the American army, which will use them in particular to finance the deployment of troops in the region. Several million dollars will also be used to finance the American economic response against Moscow, starting with sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
This large envelope for Ukraine was attached to the American federal budget for the year 2022, 1500 billion dollars of expenditure that the senators had to adopt at all costs before Friday evening, to avoid a drying up of state finances.
US President Joe Biden had urged Congress to pass this budget without delay.
“A dangerous place”
A rare fact in a Congress so accustomed to political quarrels: Democrats and Republicans alike support the Ukrainian measures. Many of them spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last weekend, after which they called on the Biden administration to step up its aid to Kyiv and beef up its response against Moscow.
PHOTO ALEX BRANDON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
“The world is a dangerous place. It becomes more and more dangerous every day, ”leaded conservative tenor Mitch McConnell on Thursday, announcing his support for this budget. “We absolutely must quickly fund the urgent aid that Ukraine and our allies on NATO’s eastern flank need now,” he said.
Within the large US federal budget of 1.5 trillion dollars are also provided funds to finance Joe Biden’s initiative against cancer, which aims to reduce by at least 50% the mortality rate linked to this disease during of the next 25 years.
This budget also frees up funds to finance America’s dilapidated bridges and roads, which the president has promised to rebuild, and reactivates a law against domestic violence.