Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
The Pentagon has yet to explain to Congress how it plans to spend $400 million that lawmakers earmarked for weapons for Ukraine after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised such a blueprint last week, a top Senate appropriator said Tuesday.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., asked the Army’s top leaders Tuesday if they had seen a spending plan for the funding package made law in January, which mandated the Pentagon spend money on U.S.-made arms to send to Ukraine. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the service’s acting chief of staff, who were testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel about their almost $253 billion fiscal 2027 budget request, said they could not provide the plan.
“The administration has lagged in spending funding appropriated on a bipartisan basis to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. A week ago, I asked Secretary Hegseth in this subcommittee for an update on the spending plan, was promised we would receive it within that week, and it hasn’t happened,” said Coons, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. “It is overdue. And in the context of this administration’s attacks on NATO, and with Russia’s heightened threats to our interests, these decisions make no sense to me.”
Hegseth last week told Coons his office had just recently released the money to U.S. European Command for decisions on how to spend it.
Other senators on Tuesday joined in the call to bolster Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russian forces, which attacked the country on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s command in 2022. Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, joined Coons and other Democrats, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire, to encourage the Army leaders to convince the Pentagon to provide the spend plan and quickly get new weapons to Ukraine.
Coons also took issue with President Donald Trump’s decision to remove 5,000 troops from Germany, and Hegseth’s decision last week to cancel a long-planned rotation of an armored brigade combat team to Poland. He said those issues could embolden Putin and leave American allies wondering if the U.S. military would defend them.
“I’m concerned that the lesson our allies are learning is that [German] Chancellor [Friedrich] Merz criticized our operations in Iran, and the president, in a fit of pique, announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops that had not previously been planned,” Coons said. “Please disabuse me of this notion and help reassure me that this is part of a long-planned change in rotation.”
Shaheen added that the last-minute removal of the rotational brigade appeared to be “a decision that was not thought through.”
The two Army leaders told Coons that they were not involved in making those decisions, but LaNeve said the U.S. military would maintain a powerful presence in Europe. He listed the German-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment, another rotational armored brigade combat team, a division headquarters and the Poland-based V Corps headquarters as likely to continue operating in Europe.
“I still think you’ll see … that forces there are actively participating inside of Poland with our allies,” the general said. “So, while one brigade is coming back, we still have a pretty big force presence from the United States Army in Europe.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Gen. Christopher C. LaNeve, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, testifies on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington during a Senate Appropriations committee hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget request for the Army. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes) (Eric Kayne)
Driscoll, who has spent much of his tenure as the Army’s top civilian preaching battlefield innovation, promised the Army was not turning its back on Europe or the Ukrainians. He promised to continue to work with Ukraine to improve U.S. defense functions.
“The Ukrainians have done an incredible job of innovating at speed; they’ve done an incredible job of getting their private industry and some of their smartest, most talented people to come help their armed forces and their army, and we are trying to mimic and model out how to do that with our industry, too,” Driscoll said.
Lawmakers told the Army leaders they should be working as closely as possible with Ukraine. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asserted to LaNeve that Ukraine in its yearslong repelling of Russian forces has proven itself the “most powerful” Army in Europe, aside from U.S. forces on the Continent.
“Don’t you find it breathtaking, General, what they’ve done?” Kennedy said. “They started with nothing.”
Kennedy encouraged the Army officials to convince the Trump administration to spend the money Congress asked it to and to find a way to funnel Russian money frozen under 2022 sanctions and held in Belgium since then to the Ukrainians.
“Why don’t they give that to Ukraine?” Kennedy asked. “They’ll use the money to buy some of our weapons. It’s just sitting there. If we want to win, why don’t we support taking the $200-plus billion and saying, ‘Here, Ukraine, here’s the money. Go whip their ass.’ ”
