McConnell lays into Pentagon for sitting on $400M in Ukraine aid
Key takeaways
- And he is putting the spotlight on Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, as the most likely obstacle to sending the aid that Republican lawmakers supported last year.
- Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for each of the next two years.
- Yet the Ukraine aid we passed months ago is now collecting dust at the Pentagon, he added.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
And he is putting the spotlight on Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, as the most likely obstacle to sending the aid that Republican lawmakers supported last year.
Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for each of the next two years. Appropriators fully funded that authorization for fiscal 2026 with overwhelming support, McConnell wrote in an op-ed published in The Washington Post.
Yet the Ukraine aid we passed months ago is now collecting dust at the Pentagon, he added. When Senate appropriators have sought an explanation from the department s policy shop, led by Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, they ve been stonewalled.