At the White House this afternoon, President Joe Biden signed into law U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-Holly) Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, which will cut through red tape and speed the delivery of weapons, munitions and other military equipment to Ukraine as Russia’s war rages on.
Slotkin’s bill received near-unanimous support in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
After the ceremony, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Slotkin’s legislation, writing on Twitter that it marked a “historic step,” and that the U.S. and Ukraine “will defend democracy in Ukraine.”
“This afternoon, U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz and I joined the president in the Oval Office as he signed into law our Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, a bill that’s going to cut through bureaucratic red tape, speed delivery of security assistance to Ukraine & quickly backfill NATO allies doing the same,” Slotkin said. “Lend-Lease programs have an important history in our country — Congress has given these authorities to the president during WWII when the U.S. sent billions of dollars worth of aid and military equipment abroad to help countries fight the Nazi regime.”
Slotkin said that the bipartisanship of the effort was apparent during the signing ceremony.
“Rep. Spartz talked to the president about her family back in Ukraine, and we all praised the passion and creativity of the Ukrainians as they fight back against Putin,” Slotkin said. “Passing this bill with almost unanimous support in Congress proves that Republicans and Democrats can still work together to address the key security challenges of the moment. The country needs to see that, as does the world.”
Slotkin, a former CIA officer and top Pentagon official, has led a suite of bipartisan legislation to address Putin’s war against Ukraine, including the DICTATOR Act, to investigate whether China is helping Russia evade U.S. sanctions, as well as the American Energy for Europe Act, which would leverage American manufacturing to help wean our European allies off Russian energy resources.
