Biden Signs Record US Defense Budget

How much money will Ukraine receive?

US President Joe Biden on Friday, December 23, signed the US Defense Policy Act, which provides a record $886 billion in annual military spending. The document also provides for the continuation of the assistance initiative to Ukraine until the end of 2026 and the allocation of $300 million.

This was reported by the White House press service, as well as the Reuters news agency. The US defense policy bill was passed by Congress last week.

“Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2670, the “National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024” (the “Act”). The Act authorizes fiscal year appropriations principally for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy national security programs, Department of State, and the Intelligence Community,” Biden stated.

The bill governs everything from pay raises for service members and purchases of ships and aircraft to policies such as support for foreign partners like Taiwan.

The act, nearly 3,100 pages long, called for a 5.2% pay raise for service members and increased the nation's total national security budget by about 3% to $886 billion. It also lists certain Chinese battery companies that it says are ineligible for the Pentagon procurement.

The bill also extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and the next one.

However, that figure is small compared to the $61 billion that Biden had asked Congress to approve to help Kyiv combat a Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Republicans had refused to approve assistance for Ukraine without Democrats agreeing to a significant toughening of immigration law.