Chairman McCaul Opening Statement at Today’s Committee Markup

One year and one month ago today, Putin launched his full scale, unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine.

To date, at least 8,000 civilians have been killed. 65,000 war crimes have been reported, including the abduction of 14,000 Ukrainian children. These numbers do not include the staggering loss of life on the battlefield.

In response, Congress has provided a significant amount of assistance to Ukraine to ensure Putin’s aggression is stopped at Ukraine’s border – and to ensure NATO countries are not next.

I have supported this assistance, because a victory by Putin in Ukraine would further embolden America’s adversaries, from Chairman Xi in Beijing to the Ayatollah in Tehran to Kim Jong Un in North Korea.

As the chairman of this committee, it is also my constitutionally-guaranteed responsibility to pursue stringent oversight of the Department of State and USAID.

Every dollar counts. And the Biden administration should expect this committee to be vigilant in demanding transparency and accountability for U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

In fact, the committee is already in the process of conducting vigorous oversight of the assistance provided to Ukraine by the Department of State and USAID.

Our first committee event of this Congress was a classified briefing on oversight of assistance to Ukraine. Also, I led a congressional delegation to Kyiv last month to get a first-hand perspective of the safeguards and monitoring mechanisms in place for U.S. support.

Next week I am holding a public hearing with the Inspectors General from DoD, State and USAID to assess the administration’s oversight efforts to date. This will be the first time any of them have appeared before this committee since the full-scale invasion. But I can assure you, it will not be our last engagement with them on this issue.

It is unfortunate that some misunderstand strong oversight as somehow at odds with strong U.S. support for Ukraine’s self-defense against Putin’s brutal, illegal invasion.

This oversight is vital for continued U.S. support, and for ensuring such support is effective in protecting American security interests abroad.

This Resolution of Inquiry requests the administration to transmit relevant documents related to congressionally appropriated funds for Ukraine.

It is important Congress continues to closely examines the Biden administration’s failure of deterrence leading up to Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion. This will ensure that, in the future, such brutal wars of aggression can be deterred by American strength, not encouraged by American weakness.

The American taxpayer deserves to know how this money is spent and I am committed to exercising intense Congressional oversight on all our assistance to Ukraine.

So, I support this resolution as it is consistent with my oversight agenda of U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

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