House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) turned down Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to publicly address both chambers of Congress during the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“Zelensky asked for a joint session, we just didn’t have time. He’s already given a joint session,” McCarthy told reporters, referring to the congressional joint session Zelensky gave in December. “This is a little busy week. We’re dealing with the funding issue. I don’t know he we can slip that in at such a short time.”
Zelensky’s visit comes at a stressful time for Congress when the House is trying to pass the federal budget for the next fiscal year before the September 30 deadline. The annual defense appropriations bill has so far been shot down twice by a minority of House Republicans, failing to reach the necessary majority vote before it moves on to the Senate and the president’s desk.
McCarthy did note, however, that the Ukrainian leader would be privately meeting with bipartisan lawmakers this week to discuss the ongoing war with Russia and address Congress’s concerns regarding providing more U.S. aid to Ukraine. Zelensky also planned to meet with President Joe Biden and Pentagon officials.
This marks Zelensky’s second diplomatic trip to the U.S. since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022. While in D.C., he requested additional financial and military aid one month after Biden asked Congress for an additional $24 billion in Ukraine funding.
After meeting with Zelensky on Thursday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) summed up his request in one sentence: “Mr. Zelensky said, ‘If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war.'” Schumer declined to comment on whether Republicans pushed back on further aid during the private meeting.
Ahead of the discussions with D.C. leadership, Russia attacked Ukraine with “another mass missile” strike on Thursday, Zelensky posted to X as he landed in the nation’s capital. “We must work together to fully deprive Russia of its terrorist potential. At my meetings, air defense will be among top priorities,” he wrote.
Nearly 30 Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to billions more in Ukraine aid in a letter sent to the Biden administration on Thursday. The group asked what the White House’s current strategy is to end the Ukraine war, considering the U.S. has already provided over $114 billion in funding toward Ukraine.
“The vast majority of Congress remains unaware of how much the United States has spent to date in total on this conflict, information which is necessary for Congress to prudently exercise its appropriations power,” the letter read. “It is difficult to envision a benign explanation for this lack of clarity.”
Earlier this week, Zelensky spoke at the United Nations headquarters in New York, calling for the unity of world leaders in his country’s fight against Russia.
“While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation,” he said. “We must be united to make it, and we will do it.”