The US is looking for alternatives and is preparing to allocate $200M from Pentagon reserves to Ukraine.

White House officials are discussing whether the Biden administration can use approximately $200M in Defense Ministry reserves for emergency aid to Kyiv. These funds can be used to pay for weapons, materials, and other equipment necessary for Ukraine’s war effort. But for now, the White House is focused on getting the House of Representatives to approve a $61B aid package.

As White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby noted, the US is looking for other ways to help Ukraine besides the $60B package. In other words, passage of the package depends entirely on Speaker Mike Johnson bringing it up for a vote. It appears that there is sufficient bipartisan support for this initiative.

At the same time, efforts to collect the necessary signatures to use a discharge petition in order to force a vote on the aid bill for Ukraine, bypassing the speaker, can begin on March 8 if Johnson himself does not put it to a vote by then.