A handful of Senate Republicans are looking for answers concerning a multi-billion-dollar accounting mistake involving United States military aid to Ukraine.
In late June, the Department of Defense announced it had overestimated the value of the military aid it had provided to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the last two fiscal years. While the mistake does allow for that excess money to be used to send other weapons to Ukraine, it has raised concerns about the department's ability to track its own equipment overseas.
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The department had unintentionally been tallying the equipment provided to Ukraine as much more expensive than it should've been because officials were referencing the cost of the more sophisticated weapons they were getting to replace the cheaper weapons they had been providing to Ukraine.
Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and J.D. Vance (R-OH) wrote a letter about the miscalculation to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin dated Tuesday, arguing that "the true cost to American taxpayers for supporting Ukraine is therefore the replacement cost, not the net book value.
"While accounting consistency is certainly in the interest of good governance — especially given DOD’s habitual inability to pass a financial audit — this is a transparent attempt to bypass Congress for additional funds, while continuing to prioritize Ukraine over more vital U.S. interests, including deterring China in the Pacific," they added. "This is yet another example of why we do not support further appropriations to Ukraine. By using creative accounting to conceal the actual cost of supporting Ukraine, you appear to be circumventing the American people’s elected representatives. Congress, not DOD, possesses the power of the purse."
The lawmakers asked a series of questions about the department's intent to replace the weapons provided to Ukraine and how they're calculating this data and set a deadline of August 10 for a response.
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Last week, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, sent a similar letter to Austin, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, requesting more information and a briefing on how these accounting errors occurred and on “how (Department of Defense) is ensuring stockpiles vital for our national security are being properly replenished.”
Comer said the accounting errors raise “more concerns about DOD’s ability to protect taxpayer funds” and that ensuring the department's ability to account for its assets “is vital to ensuring military readiness and effectiveness, not only for our Ukrainian allies, but for our own services.”