US Congress may postpone Ukraine aid vote again - Bloomberg
The agency's sources consider it unlikely that the vote will take place next week
The vote in the US House of Representatives on the allocation of aid to Ukraine will not take place at least until mid-April.
Source. Bloomberg writes about this with reference to sources in the Republican Party.
They do not rule out that we will have to wait even more than two weeks, as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is still looking for ways to soften the position of his party colleagues.
So far, his team has not shared a detailed plan for an aid package for Ukraine and what concessions it will demand from President Joe Biden in return. In this regard, the agency's interlocutors consider it unlikely that a vote will be held next week.
On 1 April, Johnson said in an interview with Fox News that he would put forward new conditions for providing aid to Ukraine. This could include a loan with a repayment obligation, confiscation of Russian assets, and cancellation of the White House's decision to freeze the issuance of new LNG export licences.
Johnson also said that he was going to hold a vote "immediately" after the MPs return from the Easter recess, which is due to end on 9 April. In turn, his spokesman, Taylor Halsey, said that this promise was not intended to set a specific timeframe and that the speaker was still "listening to the views of party members".
At the same time, two Republican leadership officials did not rule out that, from a technical standpoint, Johnson could approve the decision on the aid plan over the weekend and bring the bill to a vote next week. But such an accelerated regime threatens to fail the document.
The US has been unable to agree on a new aid package for Ukraine since last autumn. On 13 February, the Democrat-controlled Senate approved a bill with $60bn in aid for Kyiv, but Johnson refused to bring it to the floor, demanding that Democrats first support reforms to US immigration policy.
The speaker's team also began to develop its own project to help Ukraine. It provides for military aid to Kyiv in the form of loans.
Background. Meanwhile, it has become known that the US Congress will submit to Biden a project to help Ukraine confiscate Russian assets. It is noted that the bill will allow for the confiscation of $5-8 billion of Russian assets.
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