Democrats won Tuesday’s midterms with affordability for American families at the centre of their pitch. Their first big spending plan since the win, the Financial Times reports, is a roughly $15 billion security assistance package for Ukraine, being prepared for the lame-duck session before the new Congress takes office on January 3.
The package is expected to be offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defence bill that must pass before the current Congress ends. Its priorities, according to the reporting, are energy support to help Ukraine through the winter as Russia attacks its power and heating systems — a Democratic committee aide told the Financial Times energy assistance “takes a really high place on our priority list” — more interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s air defences, continued intelligence sharing with Kyiv, tougher sanctions on Russia, and tighter oversight of the Starlink satellite service the Ukrainian military relies on.
The oversight piece follows a dispute over Starlink: senators from both parties have demanded answers after Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield was disrupted — a slowdown that reportedly restricted Ukrainian systems, interfered with drone-interception missions and forced some operations to be cancelled — and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has asked Elon Musk to preserve all documents related to the slowdown. Democrats are also preparing inquiries into the Trump administration’s diesel fuel deal with Russia, according to the reporting.
The plan is not law and may never be: its final size and contents are still under negotiation, nothing has been introduced, and even if both chambers pass it, President Trump could veto it — and Democrats do not have the two-thirds majorities in both chambers that overriding a veto would take.
For American households, the question is the live one. Voters were promised relief on the cost of living, and $15 billion is taxpayers’ money. Supporters of the package argue it is cheaper to stop Russia in Ukraine than to face a wider war later, and that the interceptors and energy help keep Ukrainian cities standing through the winter; opponents answer that a Congress elected on affordability should put American families’ bills first. Which argument wins will be settled in the lame-duck weeks ahead.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit:
https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Never miss a story — Join our Telegram channel
Breaking U.S. political news, live as it happens — plus the stories the big outlets sit on.
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram