Van Drew votes for amendment cutting off aid to Ukraine

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) cutting off all military assistance to Ukraine failed overwhelmingly today, but it picked up one vote from a New Jersey congressman: Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis).

“My concern is, we’ve spent over $100 billion tax dollars on Ukraine,” Van Drew told the New Jersey Globe about his vote. “There just isn’t a need at this point to spend even more. I think we’ve got to get this under control a little bit.”

The amendment, which says in one simple sentence that “no Federal funds may be made available to provide security assistance to Ukraine,” was authored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a famously right-wing Republican from Florida.

“I offer this amendment because the Biden administration is sleepwalking our great country into a world war,” Gaetz said on the House floor. “The American people did not sign up for this, and I believe Congress needs to have the solemnity to be able to stop this madness.”

The amendment failed on a vote of 70-358, and a related amendment striking Ukraine funding from the NDAA specifically failed on a similar vote of 89-341. In both cases, all of the no votes came from Republicans, and most of them from the rightmost side of the party like the House Freedom Caucus.

But while Van Drew does not necessarily belong to that wing of his party, he voted for both amendments anyways, differentiating himself from fellow New Jersey Republicans Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield). Van Drew said that though he empathized with the Ukrainian people, his focus was on American citizens instead.

“I believe in America First,” he said. “We have to take care of the United States. We have veterans that are homeless, we have an educational system that needs help, we’re hurting in our big cities. I just think that, at this point in time, we’ve really spent enough of the taxpayers’ money in Ukraine.”

Debate on amendments to the NDAA, a must-pass Department of Defense funding bill, is still ongoing. House Republicans have put up a number of conservative amendments relating to abortion, LGBT pride flags, and other hot-button social topics; some have failed, but others have succeeded, potentially harming the bill’s ultimate chance of passage.

This story was updated at 8:24 p.m. with comment from Van Drew.