Republicans who voted on Sunday to advance a $95 billion emergency-aid bill for Ukraine and Israel are refuting Senator J.D. Vance’s claim that the measure includes an “impeachment time bomb” that could impact Donald Trump if he wins in November.
Vance sent a memo to Senate Republicans on Monday claiming the package includes a provision that could tie Trump’s hands if he wins the 2024 election and decides to pause funding to Ukraine as part of negotiations to end the war. Some of the funding expires nine months into the next presidency, which Vance claims would prevent a future president from making his own decisions on Ukraine spending.
“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration. All Republicans should oppose its passage,” reads the memo by Vance’s office, which was distributed ahead of a scheduled vote to end debate on the plan.
Trump was previously impeached by the Democrat-controlled House in 2019 over his decision to withhold funding earmarked for Ukraine and to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden. The Senate later acquitted Trump.
Vance argues Trump could be impeached again if the bill passes and he becomes president and decides to “withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion.”
But a senior GOP aide disputes Vance’s characterization.
“This bill is about forcing the current president to get the Ukrainians the weapons and aid they need to make it through 2024,” the aide told National Review. “A standard period of availability for appropriations is not an impeachment kill switch for a future president or whatever conspiracy theory is being floated at the last minute.”
Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting to advance the measure on Sunday, which would set aside $60.1 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian assistance for civilians in conflict zones, while addressing threats to the Indo-Pacific region.
Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine), who was among the Republicans who voted to advance the bill, put out her own memo refuting Vance’s talking points.
“This is false. Nothing in this bill is designed to tie the hands of a future President,” the memo from Collins’ office says of Vance’s claim.
The amount of Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding in the bill would provide “sufficient funding” through the end of this calendar year. Keeping with the DOD’s USAI funding rate of about $1.4 billion per month, USAI would be fully committed by the end of the calendar year.
The funding is to be used to procure weapons and munitions, which supporters of the bill say requires time to allow the government to negotiate contracts and to ensure full payments are not made to suppliers and vendors until the weapons or munitions are actually delivered. For this reason, USAI has typically had two-year periods of availability.
And for the funds for countries affected by the situation in Ukraine, the period of availability “is intended to address all the same factors that affect defense procurement plus the added time needed to work through Department of State and Pentagon bureaucracy associated with foreign military sales.”
Period of availability of funds beyond a fiscal year is standard language in an appropriations bill, the supporters say. Department of Defense procurement funding can be obligated over three years.
Meanwhile, a House-passed bill that includes funding only for Israel, which Vance supports, makes those funds available through September 30, 2025.