Image courtesy of Freepik

The Washington Times recently published an Op-ed by The Hon. David M. Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and Co-Founder and Board Member of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.

Congress must scrutinize Biden’s $40 billion supplemental funding request

 

When Congress returns to Washington after its summer break, one of its top priorities needs to be resolving pending funding issues. The two biggest decisions relate to President Biden’s supplemental funding request for FY’23 and the FY’24 annual appropriations.

 

Mr. Biden has submitted an over $40 billion supplemental funding request for disaster assistance, in Ukraine, and the border. Clearly, additional funding for disaster assistance is justified, especially considering the tragic loss of life and property associated with the recent fires in Maui. However, the other two funding requests are highly suspect and need to be treated differently.

 

The U.S. has already provided over $120 billion in military and economic assistance to Ukraine before this supplemental request. This is multiple times what European countries have provided even though the conflict is on their continent and represents a greater threat to their security than ours.

 

 

We need to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression but there is a limit regarding what we should do. We have rising deficits and escalating debt burdens that need to be addressed. In addition, the U.S. has done much more than our NATO allies in connection with defense spending for far too long. The U.S. must not write a blank check for Ukraine’s assistance and needs to provide incentives for European counties to do more for Ukraine. Therefore, any future funding assistance for Ukraine should be based on a matching approach. Specifically, the U.S. should match future aid provided by European countries rather than providing unrestricted advance funding. The days of the U.S. acting as “Uncle Sugar” need to end.

 

The situation at our southern border is outrageous and unacceptable. The border is not secure and the current handling of the material that was purchased for the border wall is shameful and fiscally irresponsible. While some additional funding may be needed, any such funding should be restricted to border security needs. Most current border funding is for processing and distributing illegal immigrants. This is contrary to the rule of law and is causing significant disruption and hardship in many areas around the country. This must stop! Therefore, any additional funding should not be able to be used to support status quo border and immigration policies.