On Thursday, the US Congress approved the North American defense budget for 2024, a proposal worth $886 billion (820 billion euros) that has been frozen for a few months, due to the demands of the more extreme wing of the Republican Party. .
This is not the extraordinary support package for Ukraine and Israel that the Biden administration requested from Congress in September, which remains blocked by disagreements between the Democratic and Republican parties over immigration policies on the border with Mexico.
Unlike the budget approved by the House on Thursday — which has already been approved by the Senate, with only President Biden ensuring an announcement — the new funding proposal for the Ukrainian military is in danger of not being approved in 2019. In the near future, even after At the beginning of December, the White House warned that the funds still available would run out at the end of the year.
Although many Republican members of Congress oppose renewed support for Ukraine, the annual budget proposal — approved by votes from many of the same Republicans — provides for extending the mechanism through which the White House directs money to Ukraine through 2027. Ukrainian military.
The annual US military budget, which until a few years ago was approved without much opposition by both major North American parties – for fear of being held politically responsible for interruptions in soldiers’ pay, for example – was eliminated last summer. . To the center of the culture wars that have characterized American politics for the past decade.
Encouraged by their party’s slim majority in the House of Representatives, a group of Republican members of Congress who enjoy great popularity on the far right – such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; Matt Gaetz, from Florida; Chip Roy, R-Texas, called for a package of measures to be included in the 2024 proposal that would appeal to conservative voters who complain about the growing influence of “wokism“In North American society.
To give “yes” to the 2024 budget, these Republicans, for example, demanded that the Pentagon rescind the measure approved by the Biden administration in 2022 following the US Supreme Court’s decision that put an end to the right to abortion in the United States. nation. . The measure in question consists of financial support from the Pentagon for American soldiers who wish to have an abortion in safe conditions, but serve in states where this right is prohibited by law.
If this and other similar measures — especially those related to policies that promote inclusion of the LGBTQI+ community — are not reversed by the Biden administration, Republicans on the more extreme wing have threatened to block approval of the 2024 military budget.
That blockade was undone on Thursday, after extremist members of Congress were left alone in their seats, with a majority of Republicans voting in favor of the final proposal (310-118). The Senate approved the proposal on Wednesday by a vote of 87 to 13.
Republican Congressman Mike Rogers from Alabama said: “Negotiation is necessary to pass legislation in a divided government,” pointing out that both houses of Congress have majorities from different parties, and that the president is from the Democratic Party.
“Hardcore alcohol maven. Hipster-friendly analyst. Introvert. Devoted social media advocate.”
