After hardline Republicans cave, lower house moves forward on a $9B Pentagon bill that includes $400M in guaranteed defense funds for Kyiv.

11 December 2025

In a show of bipartisan support on Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a measure to advance a vote on a National Defense Authorization Act that would ensure an elevated American troop presence in Europe and made sure that efforts to recover Ukrainian children who have been abducted by Russia would be supported by the US.

The measure initially was opposed by five Republicans and ultimately advanced by a vote of 215-211 after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) flipped some fence-sitters and abstaining votes, and Secretary of State Marco assured them that any support for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan would be ended going forward.

The vote represented a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s announced intentions of drawing down troop numbers in Europe and possibly hedging support for Kyiv.

The lower house’s $900 billion Pentagon-funding bill represented a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s announced intentions of drawing down troop numbers in Europe, gradually retreating from NATO leadership and possibly hedging support for Kyiv.

Specifically, it provides $400 million in security assistance to Ukraine as a baseline of support even if emergency funding stalls.

Johnson managed to squeeze a yes vote out of Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota, both of New York, and from Brian Fitzpatrick and Rob Bresnahan, both of the swing state of Pennsylvania, who had previously abstained from a vote at all. He also convinced Tim Burchett (R-TN), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) to change their leanings.

The House leader even mustered up a “yea” from Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a fervent anti-Ukraine isolationist who ironically has been in a public spat in recent days with Trump over other hot-button issues, and has said she would not seek re-election next year as a result.

The only Republican hold out was Thomas Massie (R-KY).

The vote came on the heels of the publication of a White House national security strategy that aimed to distance the US from Europe and widened the biggest transatlantic political rift in decades.

In its National Security Strategy document released last week, the Trump administration according to Washington analysts, offered no vision for Ukraine’s defense against the full-scale Russian invasion, but rather elevated a new antagonist to US security: “not Russia, not China, but liberal Europe itself.”

Nonetheless, Johnson framed Wednesday’s vote as a win for the conservatives, who have only recently begun to support Ukraine as a whole, and have begun to question Trump’s leadership on the Pentagon’s strikes on Venezuelan boats and other unpopular stances, such as his lack of transparency on the Espstein files, for example.

 “President Trump and congressional Republicans are restoring American strength, defending our homeland, standing with our allies, and ensuring the United States remains the most powerful and capable military force the world has ever known,” Johnson said ahead of the vote. 

The 2026 NDAA, which carries about $8 billion more than the funding Trump requested in May, now advances to the Senate. Specifically, it bars US troop levels on the European continent from falling below 76,000 for more than 45 days and blocks the removal of major equipment.

A group of conservative hardliners including Taylor-Greene initially planned to block the bill over its Ukraine aid provisions and the absence of a ban on a central bank digital currency.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/65994