Dems Set for House Approval of Ukraine Aid, Drop COVID Funds
Pelosi said she talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for 45 minutes Wednesday. She said they discussed the weapons and other assistance his country needs and “the crimes against humanity that Putin is committing,” including a Russian airstrike that destroyed a maternity hospital. “This is the beast that Putin is,” Pelosi said.
In a remarkable and widespread rank-and-file rebellion, Democratic lawmakers froze the House into inactivity for most of Wednesday. Their demand: a refusal to accept Republicans' insistence that the new COVID-19 spending be paid for with cuts in previously enacted pandemic aid to 30 states. The $1.5 trillion measure and its 2,741 pages would keep agencies functioning through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Since it began Oct. 1, the government has functioned on short-term measures that prevented federal shutdowns but held programs to levels agreed to under President Donald Trump.
Since then, Russia's pummeling of Ukraine made it impossible for Democrats to resist defense increases. And the relentless pandemic, families' growing costs from inflation and collapse of Biden's huge social and environment bill made it harder to stop Democrats' domestic boosts. The measure retains strict decades-old curbs against using federal money for nearly all abortions. It has $300 million in military assistance for Ukraine and $300 million to help nearby countries like the Baltic nations and Poland. Service members would get 2.7% pay raises, and Navy shipbuilding would get a boost in a counter to China.
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