This amount is likely to reduce Congress’s need to pass an additional aid package before the end of the fiscal year in September, according to what several congressional officials and the Biden administration told CNN.
The error, which was briefed by lawmakers and congressional staff on Thursday, has frustrated Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, who believe it underestimated the amount of US support for Ukraine to prepare for the counterattack.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers wrote in a statement Thursday, “The disclosure of a $3 billion accounting error that was discovered two months ago and only shared today (Thursday) with Congress, represents A big problem to say the least, this money could have been used for additional supplies and weapons to fund the next counterattack, rather than rationing the funding to continue for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Before this new information emerged, the Pentagon said there was just over $2.3 billion available for the Ukraine aid agency. Now, because of this error, there are still about $5.3 billion available, which is far more than the largest single package to Ukraine.
The briefing to Congress comes after the White House told CNN that it does not currently plan to ask Congress for new funding for Ukraine before the end of the fiscal year at the end of next September, which has angered administration officials against some lawmakers and congressional staffers, who are concerned that the money may run out. By the middle of summer.
But now that more funding is available, congressional sources said they are less concerned about the urgent need for a new funding package for Ukraine.
Defense officials explained that the computational error occurred because when the United States provided weapons to Ukraine, they calculated the replacement value of the weapon rather than the value of the actual weapon, which drove up the cost of each package, because new weapons cost more than old weapons, and led to the erroneous assumption that More funding has been used.
McCaul and Rogers said the administration should “make up for this precious time lost by using these funds to provide Ukraine with the artillery and surface-to-surface missile munitions Ukraine needs to fuel the counteroffensive and win the war.”
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