House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Friday that he will strip funding for Ukraine from the defense appropriations bill after far-right members of the House Republican conference oppose it.
The Pentagon appropriations bill included a provision for $300 million to go toward training for Ukrainian soldiers.
McCarthy later confirmed that he will hold a separate vote on the measure, according to The Hill.
McCarthy’s announcement comes one day after far-right conservatives opposed a procedural vote for the Pentagon appropriations bill. Some members, including McCarthy ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) cited the provision as one of the reasons for opposing the bill.
“I just voted NO to the rule for the Defense bill because they refused to take the war money for Ukraine out and put it in a separate bill,” Greene wrote on social media.
After McCarthy’s comments on Friday, Greene told the Hill in a statement “this should have happened weeks ago.”
“I’ve made it loud and clear that I would not vote for a single penny of Ukraine funding. It’s frustrating to me things had to get to this level, that we had to waste an entire week when we could have been passing appropriations,” she said. “Our defense appropriations bill should never be going to fund a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, so this is a victory for common sense.”
“I’m proud to have made it happen,” she added.
