MESQUITE, Texas — At a busy construction site outside Dallas, there are hopes that Congress can finally approve nearly $95 billion in foreign aid, including funding for Ukraine — because factory jobs in the United States depend on that money.
Aerospace and defense company General Dynamics’ new factory in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite is expected to initially employ 150 people to produce munitions. Construction is expected to open in June and is nearing completion. There are already newly planted trees and shrubs on the complex overlooking one of the area’s busiest highways.
“We want to increase our wages and increase our skill levels and employment opportunities,” said Kim Buttram, Mesquite’s economic development director, who added that the plant is expected to have more than 300 jobs when it is at full production.
As President Joe Biden pushes House Republicans to approve needed aid, he wants voters to understand that nearly two-thirds — or almost $40 billion — of the money for Ukraine would actually go to U.S. factories across the country , including plants in Lima, Ohio. and Scranton, Pennsylvania, as well as Mesquite.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has declined to bring the bill to a vote in the House of Representatives, saying it does not meet the needs of the American public.
The additional spending measure includes a total of $95 billion in foreign aid, including money for Ukraine, Israel and other countries. Of the $60.7 billion for Ukraine, $38.8 billion would go to U.S. factories that make missiles, munitions and other equipment, according to figures provided by the Biden administration to The Associated Press.
“While this bill sends military equipment to Ukraine,” Biden said Tuesday, “the money is being spent here in the United States of America, in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are being built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, where artillery shells are made.
The president’s argument counters criticism from some Republican lawmakers that the federal government should spend more money at home instead of supporting wars overseas.
In this case, most of the money goes to American companies and workers, who finance assembly lines to replenish depleted supplies of weapons and equipment that have already gone to Ukraine.
The Democratic president openly channels Franklin Delano Roosevelt, reviving the World War II concept that America is the “arsenal of democracy.” His sales pitch to the public is that his foreign policy is also about jobs for the American middle class.
But Biden faces opposition from former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who rose to the White House in 2016 on a promise to revive American manufacturing.
Trump opposes the US package to help Ukraine and has openly expressed his willingness to let Russia invade NATO allies that do not spend enough of their own budget on defense.
Many Republicans in Congress have followed Trump’s lead, with the party’s right flank increasingly questioning the value of U.S. interventions around the world and long-standing alliances built in the aftermath of World War II.
Johnson has refused to put the foreign aid bill to a vote because it also lacks provisions to secure the US southern border, where immigrants cross illegally. But he previously rejected a bipartisan bill in the Senate that provided funding to address immigration problems, saying the border measures would not solve the problem in the way he wanted.
“The Republican-led House will not be obstructed or coerced into passing a foreign aid bill that most Republican senators oppose,” Johnson said at a news conference last week. “It’s time for Washington to start showing some love to Americans.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, has repeatedly implored his colleagues to understand that the funds in the package are for historic investments “right here in America.”
“This is about rebuilding the arsenal of democracy,” McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a speech during the long days of debate, “and demonstrating to both our allies and adversaries that we are serious about exercising American strength.”
The Mesquite plant is located in Rep.’s congressional district. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, who told Fox Business News in a December interview that he couldn’t tell his voters he voted for money for Ukraine without also getting money to secure the U.S. southern border.
“I will never support any funding for Ukraine that does not include major security measures at our own southern border,” Gooden said. His office did not respond to emailed questions from The Associated Press for this story.
According to the Census Bureau, U.S. factories shipped nearly $162 billion worth of military goods last year. Shipments rose 8.1% from 2022. The additional financing could further boost factory production this year.
But defense production can be volatile. Spending fell between 2010 and 2015, then grew over the next four years, falling again in 2021 and then rising again after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The Biden administration has made increasing the production capacity of defense contractors a priority, with a plan to increase production of 155-millimeter artillery shells sixfold in three years.
The additional bill stalled in the House of Representatives would expand these efforts by making new investments in weapons production lines and revitalizing the industrial base for submarine production, the White House said.
But on Friday, following news of the death of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, Biden again urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to pass aid to Ukraine and take a stand against Russian leader Vladimir Putin . But on Thursday afternoon the House of Representatives had gone into recess.
‘It’s time for them to take action, don’t you think? – instead of going on vacation for two weeks,” Biden said. “What are they thinking? My God, this is bizarre.”
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AP chief congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Boek reported from Washington.
