Yahoo Finance Biden is sending $61 billion to Ukraine. Much of it will pass through the US economy first.
Washington is spending another $61 billion to help Ukraine. But most of the money will flow through the US economy first.
The new law will allow the Pentagon to send existing weapons — everything from bullets to missiles to tank parts — to Kyiv and then simultaneously backfill that inventory with new manufacturing efforts for US armories.
There are 117 production lines in about 71 US cities that are set to produce those weapons systems, according to research from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
President Joe Biden signed the bill Wednesday morning as part of a larger package that will provide additional aid to Israel and the Indo-Pacific as well as possibly ban TikTok in the US next year.
"We're sending Ukraine equipment from our own stockpiles, then we'll replenish those stockpiles with new products made by American companies here in America," the president explained just after signing the bill.
"We are helping Ukraine while at the same time investing in our own industrial base," he added, saying the money will be felt across 40 states.
AEI fellow Marc Thiessen and his colleagues cite a somewhat lower tally — 31 states — but agree with Biden that the effect will be substantial.
"Our military aid to Ukraine is revitalizing manufacturing communities across the United States," Thiessen wrote in a recent Washington Post essay.
AEI identified a host of areas — from Ohio to New Hampshire to Missouri to California — that are set to benefit most directly. Many of these states are notably represented by lawmakers who voted no on the bill this week.
In deep-red Missouri, as one example in the AEI data, Boeing (BA) and RTX (formerly Raytheon) Corporation (RTX) build things like glide bombs and tracking radars.
Likewise, in Alabama, where companies like BAE Systems (BAESY), General Dynamics (GD), and Lockheed Martin (LMT) operate to produce things like fighting vehicles, howitzer parts, and Javelin surface-to-air missiles.
RTX also operates in Alabama and recently broke ground on an expansion of its missile facility there.
Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics also reported quarterly earnings this week and used their releases to tout their relationship with the Pentagon and how defense contracts help their bottom lines.
The US has now sent well over $100 billion to Ukraine in a series of aid efforts that have followed a similar pattern, with a spur first to US manufacturing. Observers have also noted that the money allows the Pentagon to upgrade and modernize the US arsenal in a way that otherwise might not have been possible.
Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently wrote about how a cut-off in aid would have other effects, from underfunding existing US forces to undermining humanitarian relief efforts.
The aid measure passed this week also includes over $26 billion for Israel. Some of that money is denoted as military and weapons assistance and is likely to follow a similar pattern of benefiting US weapons makers (and their employees) first.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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