WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican senator from North Carolina are asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio to release this year’s law enforcement aid for Ukraine before winter, and to explain why the State Department moved $50 million in last year’s Ukraine funds to the Western Hemisphere.
In a letter dated Oct. 29 and released Oct. 30, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee’s ranking member, and Sen. Thom Tillis urged Rubio to obligate fiscal 2026 International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement funds for Ukrainian mobile fire teams, police, border guards and first responders. “Delaying the obligation of FY 2026 funds risks leaving Ukrainian citizens and infrastructure more vulnerable at a critical moment,” the senators wrote.
The administration says its goal is to end the war through negotiation. President Trump “has said consistently from the very beginning – that the way this war needs to end is with a negotiated deal, and he wants to make one,” Rubio told reporters on Oct. 20, according to a State Department transcript, adding that “one of the reasons why this war needs to end is because Ukraine’s electric grid is being devastated.” Discussing air defense supplies, he said “there’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine” and that “there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine.”
In briefings to the Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs committees on a separate Western Hemisphere transfer of military aid this fall, State Department officials cited the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy and described “a refocused approach to the Western Hemisphere,” according to a Sept. 30 letter from Shaheen and Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on House Foreign Affairs. That $52.1 million transfer, to Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru, would help “combat narcoterrorism in our backyard,” the Associated Press reported.
What the senators are asking for
The letter ties the request to the toll of Russia’s air campaign. Russian attacks killed more than 150 civilians in Ukraine in October, seven of them children, according to United Nations figures cited in the senators’ release, and increased attacks on Kyiv’s energy infrastructure have caused severe electricity and water disruptions as winter approaches.
The senators note that Congress directed $80 million in law enforcement funds for the Europe and Eurasia region this year, and that it provided $300 million in supplemental funds in fiscal 2024 specifically for Ukraine and countries affected by Russia’s full-scale invasion. They wrote that during the department’s recent foreign assistance review, the programming “was approved to be continued—indicating that the Department found these programs to be beneficial to the interests of the United States.”
“Despite clear congressional intent to provide INCLE funds for Ukraine, the Department of State inexplicably reprogrammed $50 million in FY 2025 INCLE funds that Congress had directed for Ukraine to the Western Hemisphere,” the letter says. It asks the department to explain the rationale for that transfer and to prioritize Ukraine when it distributes this year’s regional funds.
The Washington Sun reported that State Department officials told congressional staff in late September that they had received White House guidance to stop future funding through the program, citing a Senate Democratic aide. Congress did not earmark the full $80 million for Ukraine, the paper noted.
A business and security argument
Shaheen and Tillis framed the aid as serving American interests as well as Ukrainian ones. The State Department’s law enforcement bureau “supports mobile fire teams, border guards and other law enforcement personnel who help protect Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure,” their release says, describing assistance that “can have an immediate, direct impact in saving lives.”
The letter also argues that the programs strengthen Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions and rule of law, making the country more stable for the roughly 120 U.S. companies that operate there, and that helping Ukrainians protect their infrastructure “strengthens a partner providing the United States with critical military insights,” according to the release. Washington Signal also reported on the letter.
The letter adds to a run of congressional pressure on Ukraine policy this fall. Shaheen led bipartisan letters last month that warned banks and port authorities about Russian diesel imports under a Treasury license, and lawmakers have pressed the Pentagon’s inspector general over Starshield service in Ukraine.
Tillis, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, is not seeking reelection and leaves the Senate in January. The State Department notified Congress of the separate military financing transfer on Sept. 15, according to the Meeks-Shaheen letter.
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