This Week in Congress: Ukraine Aid, Pentagon Promotions, Impeachment Inquiry

A handful of showdowns are coming into view in Congress as the year comes to a close, with action expected this week on a national security supplemental funding package, a possible end to one senator’s 10-month long blockade on military promotions and movement toward opening a formal impeachment inquiry into the president.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to bring a $106 billion White House supplemental funding package, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel, among other things, to the floor as soon as this week. But its passage hangs in the balance as Senate Republicans have pledged to block the package unless a deal is reached on border security.

The White House added urgency to the talks on Monday, writing in a letter to congressional leaders that by year’s end, the U.S. will run out of resources for Ukraine.

“There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young wrote. “We are out of money – and nearly out of time.”

The White House outlined how cutting the flow of resources to Ukraine puts at risk the gains Ukraine has made in its fight against Russia and increases the likelihood of Russian victories, calling U.S. support “critical,” while it seemed to seek to address concerns among some Republicans in Congress about transparency around aid to Ukraine.

Even so, House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote in a response to the letter on social media that the White House had failed to “substantively address” his conference’s concerns about “the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers.”

Indeed, the House will likely pose an even greater challenge than the Senate for the supplemental’s approval, as House Republicans have made a House-passed measure known as H.R. 2 that alienates Democrats central to the GOP immigration pitch. And the House already approved a funding package for Israel, though it’s tied to IRS funding cuts that are a nonstarter for Democrats, leaving the two chambers starkly opposed on key components of the supplemental package.

Meanwhile, House Republican leadership appears to be eyeing a floor vote, which could come as soon as this week, to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

At the former House speaker’s direction, three House committees have been investigating whether the president benefited from any of his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business activities, as well as probing other allegations of wrongdoing. But White House counsel has questioned the committees’ legal standing and stymied their path forward as they’ve sought to subpoena the Biden family and others without a chamber-wide vote to formally open the inquiry.

“We’re being stonewalled by the White House,” Johnson told Fox News on Saturday. “So a formal impeachment inquiry vote on the floor will allow us to take it to the next necessary step, and I think it’s something we have to do at this juncture.”

In the interim, two IRS whistleblowers are set to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, after the committee announced that it would convene an executive session behind closed doors to consider “additional evidence” about what they call the Biden family’s “influence peddling scheme,” among other things.

And back in the Senate, a standoff over the Pentagon’s abortion policy that has resulted in hundreds of blocked military promotions over 10 months may finally come to a close this week, as Senate Republicans anticipate that a resolution is near for Sen. Tommy Tuberville.

With pressure to reach a solution before Senate leadership brings up a measure that would allow the chamber to bypass Tuberville’s holds to the floor, Senate Republicans say Tuberville appears on the precipice of relinquishing his position.

Tuberville, like many of his GOP colleagues, staunchly opposes the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which allows servicewomen stationed in states where abortion is restricted to take time off and be reimbursed for travel expenses for the procedure. But senators on both sides of the aisle have grown agitated in recent months over his tactic, which they say threatens military readiness and unfairly punishes service members.

It remained unclear which path forward Tuberville would agree to to end his hold. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are eager to get things moving once again.