![\"LaNeve](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260519_Senate_Appropriations_0041.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\tGen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army\u2019s acting chief of staff, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne\/Stars and Stripes)
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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.<\/p>\n
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., asked the Army\u2019s 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\u2019s acting chief of staff, who were testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee\u2019s defense subpanel about their almost $253 billion fiscal 2027 budget request<\/a>, said they could not provide the plan. <\/p>\n \u201cThe 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 spend plan, was promised we would receive it within that week, and it hasn\u2019t happened,\u201d said Coons, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. \u201cIt is overdue. And in the context of this administration\u2019s attacks on NATO, and with Russia\u2019s heightened threats to our interests, these decisions make no sense to me.\u201d
<\/p>\n 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.
<\/p>\n Other senators on Tuesday joined in the call to bolster Ukraine\u2019s efforts to repel Russian forces, which attacked the country on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Coons also took issue with President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to remove 5,000 troops from Germany<\/a>, and Hegseth\u2019s decision last week to cancel a long-planned rotation of an armored brigade combat team<\/a> to Poland. He said those issues could embolden Putin and leave American allies wondering if the U.S. military would defend them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d Coons said. \u201cPlease disabuse me of this notion and help reassure me that this is part of a long-planned change in rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaheen added that the last-minute removal of the rotational brigade appeared to be \u201ca decision that was not thought through.\u201d
<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI still think you\u2019ll see \u2026 that forces there are actively participating inside of Poland with our allies,\u201d the general said. \u201cSo, while one brigade is coming back, we still have a pretty big force presence from the United States Army in Europe.\u201d
<\/p>\n \t\t \n\t\t\t\tArmy Secretary Dan Driscoll testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington.\u00a0 (Eric Kayne\/Stars and Stripes) \t\t \n\t\t\t\tGen. 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\u2019s 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.
<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ukrainians have done an incredible job of innovating at speed; they\u2019ve 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,\u201d Driscoll said.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cmost powerful\u201d Army in Europe, aside from U.S. forces on the Continent.
<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you find it breathtaking, General, what they\u2019ve done?\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThey started with nothing.\u201d
<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t they give that to Ukraine?\u201d Kennedy asked. \u201cThey\u2019ll use the money to buy some of our weapons. It\u2019s just sitting there. If we want to win, why don\u2019t we support taking the $200-plus billion and saying, \u2018Here, Ukraine, here\u2019s the money. Go whip their ass.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army\u2019s acting chief of staff, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29189,29187,29188,29192,29186,4,29191,29190,29193],"class_list":["post-47403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-army-253-billion-fiscal-2027-budget-request","tag-army-budget-request","tag-army-fiscal-2027-budget","tag-army-secretary-dan-driscoll","tag-congress-army-budget-no-details","tag-europe","tag-gen-christopher-laneve","tag-senate-appropriations-committee","tag-ukraine-security-assistance-initiative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Driscoll](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260519_Senate_Appropriations_0012.jpg\")
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