Six months after the Biden Administration’s initial request, the House and Senate agreed on an emergency security supplemental spending bill. The package, H.R. 815 National Security and Border Act, 2024, will direct more than $95 billion to defense and non-defense accounts to respond to conflicts and threats in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region.
The package was approved over two months after a nearly identical version was adopted in the Senate, only to falter in the House. In order to address criticisms from members of his caucus unsupportive of continued assistance for Ukraine’s defense, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) chose to divide the supplemental into three separate packages: one in response to the conflict in Ukraine, a second focused on Israel, and a third aimed at the Indo-Pacific (countering China and supporting Taiwan). The House debated a fourth, related bill addressing increased sanctions on Russia, banning TikTok unless it cuts ties with the Chinese government and several other security-related measures. After separate debates and votes in the House, all four bills were re-combined and considered as one package in the Senate.
Despite the machinations, the spending approved in H.R. 815 is nearly identical in amounts and accounts to the Senate-passed bill from February.
| Ukraine (Defense) | $48,432,217,000 |
|---|---|
| Non-Ukraine (Defense) | $18,910,242,000 |
| Israel | $13,040,000,000 |
| Countering China | $2,442,400,000 |
| U.S. Submarine Industrial Base | $3,427,842,000 |
| Total Defense | $67,342,459,000 |
| Ukraine (Non-Defense) | $21,646,455,000 |
|---|---|
| Non-Ukraine (Non-Defense) | $6,290,000,000 |
| Israel | $3,792,000,000 |
| Countering China | $2,000,000,000 |
| Domestic Needs/Border | $498,000,000 |
| Total Defense | $27,936,455,000 |
For details of the spending by account, see our spreadsheet here.
Looking at all defense-account spending in support of Ukraine since March 2022, this latest package brings the total to $110.6 billion. An additional $72.7 billion in diplomatic and humanitarian spending has been approved through the emergency budgeting process in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A detailed accounting of previous supplemental spending in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine can be downloaded here.
Troublingly, the bill includes spending on various issues that do not qualify as true emergencies. For example, it included $542 million to fund unspecified line items from the Indo-Pacific Command’s FY24 unfunded priority list and $3.4 billion for the U.S. submarine industrial base. As we wrote in a recent op-ed in Inkstick, emergency spending should be reserved for true emergencies rather than used to address long-standing concerns that could have been addressed in the President’s base budget request.
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