Senators Shaheen And Murkowski Introduce $54.6B Aid Bill For Ukraine

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski jointly introduced legislation in the Senate last week proposing $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine across 2025 and 2026. The bill arrives amid intensified Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine.

“There is continued bipartisan resolve to sustain Ukraine’s valiant fight for freedom,” Shaheen said in a statement. She added that the United States must “help Ukraine obtain the air defense needed to protect its civilian population centers, including schools and hospitals, from Russia’s relentless drone and missile attacks.”

“This legislation ensures Ukraine can continue to resist Russia’s illegal and brutal war,” Murkowski added. She noted that the bipartisan bill will incorporate the use of “seized Russian assets to hold aggressors accountable, while [also]

strengthening America’s military preparedness by applying valuable battlefield insights from Ukraine’s fight.”

The Cost and Effectiveness of American Aid to Ukraine

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has provided over $175 billion in aid to Ukraine, which includes defense, medical, humanitarian, and financial assistance. This support, combined with aid from other countries, has helped the Ukrainians to defend themselves from Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Critics within the United States have argued that aid to Ukraine has been very costly. They believe that the U.S. should prioritize domestic programs rather than providing foreign assistance. Additionally, they claim that the U.S. should not involve itself in Ukraine’s defense.

But according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, when calculating the cost of this aid per U.S. citizen per month, the assistance equates to just two cups of coffee. In exchange, the Ukrainians have used this aid to successfully defend their homeland without the loss of a single American soldier.

For example, since the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainians have destroyed two-thirds of Russia’s pre-invasion tank force, and decimated nearly half of Russia’s naval fleet on the Black Sea. Multiple Western reports, independently verified by various governments, also found that the Russians have sustained over one million casualties during the war. Based on these results, U.S. assistance has been highly effective.

Current U.S. Aid Efforts to Ukraine and Bipartisan Support

The proposed legislation by Shaheen and Murkowski is also timely. On July 31, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2026. The proposed bill, which was advanced by the committee by a vote of 26-3, includes an additional $800 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Republican and Democratic members of the committee have also highlighted the importance of this assistance, suggesting that there is still bipartisan support for Ukraine.

“The Secretary of the Army rightly calls Ukraine the Silicon Valley of warfare,” stated Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell during last month’s Senate Appropriations Committee meeting. “Shutting off engagement with Ukraine would undermine our military’s efforts to prepare for the modern battlefield. Like our friends on the Armed Services Committee, we are restoring funding for the USAI and other security assistance programs that make America safer.”

“I would say support for Ukraine is a billion dollars,” added Delaware Senator Chris Coons while members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense spoke with reporters last week. “I think there’s broad enthusiasm for bringing [Russia’s] war to a just conclusion, but also broad awareness that that means not peace at any price,” he noted. Coons ended his statement by saying that the United States needs to strengthen “Ukraine so that it is able to defend itself.”

Even the White House has supported recent motions to send aid to Ukraine. On July 14, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would send additional defense assistance to Ukraine. The president also shared that the U.S. would sell weapons to NATO, which could then be provided to the Ukrainians.

Based on these developments, it appears that there is a shift in how some elected officials in the Senate and the White House view aid to Ukraine. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have made it clear that they view providing additional assistance to Ukraine as a priority.

Support from the House of Representatives, however, will be more challenging. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has previously stated that he “does not have an appetite for further Ukraine funding.” There are also some Republican House members who oppose future aid to Ukraine.

But if Senate Republicans and Democrats pass the newly proposed legislation by Shaheen and Murkowski, and if the White House continues with its shift toward providing additional aid to Ukraine, then Johnson may be persuaded. There are also hundreds of elected officials in the House who have previously supported Ukraine, suggesting that the new bill would have bipartisan support as well.

In other words, the new Ukraine aid bill may face some challenges. Nonetheless, Shaheen and Murkowski will speak with their colleagues to persuade them to support their aid bill for Ukraine. It remains to be seen how the Senate will proceed with the proposed legislation.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marktemnycky/2025/08/04/senators-shaheen-and-murkowski-introduce-546b-aid-bill-for-ukraine/