US bill change indicates helping Ukraine more important than fighting COVID

In the US, a part of the spending bill meant to provide $15 billion to fight COVID has been cancelled, making way for a spending package that is more focused on providing aid to Ukraine, as it faces Russian invasion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to fellow Democrats. 

Further, Pelosi outlined that removing COVID funding from the $1.5 trillion spending package was “heartbreaking”, but it must move forward without the same, due to resistance from House members. 

Also Read | Elite Canadian sniper answers call to defend Ukraine against Russia

Notably, with COVID cases dipping around the world in terms of volume and severity, this decision shows that helping Ukraine is a greater priority for the US, as the former witnesses the third week of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. 

The spending bill faced the largest hurdle when Republicans questioned how the COVID relief would be paid for by the US government. Since they asked for “every cent requested by the Administration” to be offset, it meant that there’d be cost-cutting elsewhere. 

As per the Associated Press, the previously allocated COVID spending would allow for more vaccines, tests, and treatments. Speaking of the alteration, Pelosi said “we must continue to fight for urgently needed COVID assistance, but unfortunately that will not be included in this bill”. 

Also Read | Did NATO’s no-fly zone refusal dampen Ukraine’s membership wish?

Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans are willing to provide aid to Ukraine, and as per Newsweek reports, Congress is poised to greenlight $13.6 billion in financial aid to help the people of Ukraine. They plan to do so by providing humanitarian aid, defence equipment and personnel, economic support and support for the region’s journalists while enforcing sanctions on Russia.

Also Read | Will Ukraine get MiGs to fight Russia? NATO member Poland disagrees with US

While the US has been willing to extend a helping hand to Ukraine, the nation has been careful not to get involved in a direct conflict with the Russian army. To that end, they have denied repeated requests from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to impose a no-fly zone over the country.