The draft Fiscal Year 2022 Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the United States Government running past the start of Fiscal Year 2023 includes the “Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2023”. And that includes $7.8 billion of supplemental funds for Ukraine just in programs under the purview of the Pentagon.

Check out our chart that compares the Biden Administration’s request, versus what the supplemental appropriations act provides.

(Click the image to view/download)

In some cases, the accounts and the amounts are not very surprising. But some are…odd. The document available to the public is unclassified, of course, and so we can’t know all the details and justification behind this appropriation. But a few odd things do jump out at us:

Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) balances for the three military departments and the “Defense-wide” account (typically Special Forces, but there are some other cats and dogs in there) all receive increases to, “respond to the situation in Ukraine and for related expenses.” The Army and Navy get modest amounts in the range of $2 million to $3 million. But look at the amounts for the Air Force and Defense-wide accounts: $99.7 million and $31.2 million, respectively. That’s real money in RDT&E. So, what are the Air Force and, presumably, Special Forces developing or testing to, “respond to the situation in Ukraine”?

That makes us go “Hmmm” and things that make you go, “Hmmm” are catnip to budget watchdogs like Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Two procurement accounts take healthy increases. Other Procurement, Air Force receives $437.9 million. That’s $170 million more than what the Biden Administration requested. The bill language accompanying this increase is the same boilerplate, “to respond to the situation in Ukraine and for other expenses.”

But then look at the big jump for Procurement of Ammunition, Army. The Biden Administration requested $13 million “for anti-vehicle munitions required for the European theater of operations.” What the draft Continuing Resolution gives them is a whopping-great $540 million for, “expansion of public and private plants, including the land necessary therefor, and procurement and installation of equipment, appliances, and machine tools in such plants, for the purpose of increasing production of critical munitions to replace defense articles provided to the Government of Ukraine or foreign countries that have provided support to Ukraine at the request of the United States.”

Seriously? The taxpayers will now be paying for the costs of expanding plants producing ammunition, even if the plant is owned by a government contractor? Could we just offer them loans, like the Small Business Administration does for the little guys?

The biggest tranche of money in the Pentagon part of the CR is $4.7 billion for “Operation and Maintenance, Defense-wide”. Of this total, $3 billion is for the so-called Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative that has been funded by Congress since at least FY16. Another $1.5 billion may be used by the Pentagon to make whole O&M and Procurement accounts including, “replacement of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense, and for reimbursement for defense services of the Department of Defense and military education and training, provided to the government of Ukraine or to foreign countries that have provided support to Ukraine at the request of the United States…”.

We’re big believers in helping Ukraine beat back Russian aggression. And we’re glad to see Congress adding $2 million to the DoD Inspector General account to affect more oversight of aid to Ukraine. But between the $1.5 billion that will be used, in part, to replace defense articles taken from DoD stockpiles and more than half a billion dollars to help government contractors improve or expand their privately owned plants, let’s call this what it is: corporate welfare for defense contractors.