US Congress considers increasing assistance to Ukraine by $70 million
The Appropriations Committee of the US House of Representatives has proposed to increase its estimated fund allocation in the 2019 US federal budget reserved for Department of State and Department of Defense programs to support Ukraine, reports the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States.
The Appropriations Committee of the US House of Representatives has proposed allocating $250 million to help Ukraine in the field of security, including for lethal weapons of a defensive nature. This amount is $50 million higher than the approved budget allocation for 2018.
In addition, “the draft Fiscal Year 2019 State and Foreign Operations Bill presented [by the Appropriations Committee] estimates the cost of assistance to Ukraine by the United States Department of State and related agencies to be in the amount of $441 million, which exceeds the corresponding allocations in [fiscal year] 2018 by $20 million,” the Embassy’s statement said.
Thus, the total amount of funds that may be allocated to support Ukraine in the 2019 fiscal year is $691 million, more than $70 million higher than is provided for in the current year, the embassy stressed.
For entry into force, the above bills must be passed by the House of Representatives, supported by the Senate, and signed by the President of the United States.