An Ohio Republican is demanding President Biden “explicitly” say what the U.S. is “trying to achieve” in Ukraine after the White House’s latest funding request.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, led a letter with 11 of his colleagues to Biden calling on the president to be transparent on what the $13 billion appropriations request in Ukraine will be going toward.
“We are writing to express our strong opposition to your most recent supplemental appropriations request of $40 billion, including $24 billion for Ukraine,” Davidson and the Republicans wrote. “This request exacerbates your administration’s out-of-control deficit spending and circumvents the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement.”
“Americans are tired of funding endless wars and want policies that not only help restore fiscal sanity in Washington, but also put America and American citizens first,” they continued.
Davidson and the Republicans wrote that before “Congress can responsibly finance the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine,” the Biden administration “has an obligation to explain, explicitly and officially, what the U.S. is trying to achieve in Ukraine.”
The lawmakers called on the president to “withdraw” his multibillion-dollar appropriations request until he provides “Congress with a comprehensive strategy and mission for U.S. involvement in Ukraine.”
They also warned that without “a defined mission, there is no way to develop clear objectives, allocate the proper resources, conduct rigorous oversight, or hold officials accountable for success or failure.”
“By requesting a supplemental appropriations package, you are putting [the] U.S. on a path toward a government shutdown by violating the debt ceiling agreement,” the lawmakers wrote. “On June 3, 2023, you signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which suspended the debt ceiling through January 1, 2025.”
“In addition, this law established new discretionary spending limits for the next two fiscal years. For FY2024, these spending caps were set at $886 billion for national defense and $704 billion for non-defense programs,” they continued.
“You cannot bypass the law you just signed,” the lawmakers wrote. “This request should have been included in the President’s FY24 Budget Request and put through the traditional appropriations process.”
Davidson and his GOP colleagues called on Biden to “rescind” his multi-billion-dollar request “and adhere to the spending limitations established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
An administration official told Fox News Digital there was an understanding that the spending caps did not preclude emergency legislation and referred to Biden’s request as emergency legislation.
The official also said there was nothing unusual or surprising the administration would request emergency funding alongside the regular order process for appropriations.
The GOP lawmakers’ letter comes a day after Biden made his new spending request to Congress.
The Biden administration is requesting Congress spend six times more on supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia than on the border and fentanyl crisis plaguing the nation, according to a new emergency spending request submitted Thursday.
In the request sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden specifically called for $24 billion in aide to Ukraine, split between $13 billion for defense related spending and $11 billion in economic and humanitarian assistance.
However, Biden only requested $4 billion in spending on the border and immigration, as well as combating fentanyl flowing into the United States from foreign origins. The total combined amount of the request reached roughly $40 billion.
The additional spending request comes after Congress approved $48 billion in funding for Ukraine in December, prior to Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives.
Approval of the funding is expected to be an uphill battle in the House, where McCarthy has promised he would not bring a supplemental Ukraine funding bill to the floor. Many conservatives have been vocally opposed to giving Ukraine more money without more accountability.