Biden signs $1.7 trillion budget for 2023 that includes aid to Ukraine
Ukraine and NATO allies will receive $45 billion in emergency aid, the legislation passed a week before Republicans become the majority in the House of Representatives. Biden received the document on a routine commercial flight
U.S. President Joe Biden signed the budget bill for fiscal year 2023, which began in October, its amount is $1.7 trillion, according to the White House press office.
On Twitter, the U.S. president noted that the bill “crowns a year of historic progress.” The document provides funds for medical research, combating violence against women, critical aid to Ukraine and more, he recalled.
About $858 billion will be allocated for defense needs, Ukraine and NATO allies according to the document will receive emergency aid of about $45 billion. About $9 billion of this amount will be spent on various needs of the Armed Forces, including training, armament, salaries and logistical support. Nearly $12 billion will be spent to replenish U.S. equipment and hardware sent to Ukraine by the U.S. president from Pentagon stocks.
It will also provide $13 billion in economic support to the Ukrainian government. Other funds will be used to meet humanitarian and infrastructure needs, as well as to support European command operations.
The bill was the last opportunity for Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party to influence the U.S. budget before Republicans win the majority of seats in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections held in November, CNN recalls. The composition of the lower house of U.S. Congress will change in early January 2023.
Biden signed the bill while in the Virgin Islands, the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The White House told reporters that Congress sent the document late Wednesday evening, December 28, and it was then sent to the president by regular commercial flight.