House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reversed his stance on stripping Ukraine aid from the Pentagon spending bill and putting it to a vote as a standalone measure.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Saturday backtracked on his earlier pledge to remove Ukraine aid from the Pentagon funding bill, citing difficulty in removing money earmarked for Kyiv from a different bill—and so opting to keep it in both measures.
Mr. McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill that he made the decision to keep the $300 million of Ukraine aid in the Pentagon spending package after realizing that another measure that funds State Department and Foreign Operations also includes money meant for Kyiv, per The Hill.
“That’s not solving it because one of the others has some Ukraine things,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters, referring to an appropriations bill that funds State Department and Foreign Operations, in context of his earlier promise to remove $300 million in Ukraine aid from the Pentagon appropriations bill.
“So it became too difficult to do that so we’re leaving it in,” he added.
Mr. McCarthy’s remarks on Saturday represent a major reversal from his pledge a day earlier to strip Ukraine funding from the Pentagon spending bill and