No Russia Pressure, No Pentagon Money: GOP Holdouts Put a Price on Hegseth's $350 Billion

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., in his official portrait for the 119th Congress, Jan. 14, 2025.

Pete Hegseth wants at least $350 billion in new military money once the midterms are over. Some of the Republicans whose votes he needs have sent back a condition: get tougher on Russia first.

A "growing chorus" of House Republicans is ready to block additional Pentagon funding unless the administration changes course on Moscow, The Hill reported Sunday. The threat has bite because of how Hegseth wants the money to move: through a party-line reconciliation package in the post-election lame-duck session, a bill that passes on Republican votes alone and can't spare many of them. The package is already stalled over how to pay for it, The Hill reported.

Two moves lit the fuse

The first was a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel to ease fuel prices, along with reports that the U.S. restricted Ukraine's use of strategic satellite systems, according to The Hill. Newsmax identified the system as Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink that Ukrainian forces use to guide drones. Who ordered the limits is disputed. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the government controls Starshield, and President Trump has insisted Washington is still sharing intelligence with Kyiv, Newsmax reported.

The second came late Friday, when Trump signed an executive order waiving most of the penalties in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, the law he signed on Sept. 18. Those penalties, including tariffs of up to 500% on Russian imports and mandatory sanctions on Russian banks and the "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, were due to take effect today. The waiver has no fixed expiration date, Newsmax noted. The Hoosier Enquirer's White House Post walked through the order line by line on Saturday.

The holdouts, in their own words

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a retiring Republican, warned this week that no part of Trump's lame-duck agenda will pass unless the administration takes steps to punish the Russian war machine rather than feed it, The Hill reported. In an X post cited by Raw Story and Newsmax, Bacon said the cutbacks in intelligence sharing and Starlink access "equates to aiding the invader."

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania went after the agencies behind the satellite limits, in remarks first carried by the Kyiv Post and cited by The Wall Street Journal:

"Agencies won't get funding if they're not doing their jobs."

The Senate has its own critics. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called it "unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator," ABC News reported. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers answered that enforcing the sanctions now would hinder U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace deal, according to Newsmax.

Why would rank-and-file Republicans risk a fight with their own president three weeks before an election? A House GOP aide, speaking to The Hill without being named, pointed to the calendar. Members who are retiring or who lose on Nov. 3 "are going to feel, maybe, unshackled from their responsibility to be in lock step with the president," the aide said.

A $350 billion ask with no settled way to pay for it

Set Ukraine aside for a moment, and the spending request still deserves a hard look. Hegseth has spent months pressing Congress to authorize a record $1.5 trillion defense budget request, which he calls a "one-time generational investment." On Wednesday he said the reconciliation bill would come in "at a minimum of $350 [billion], potentially more," The Hill reported. He has also said the push will go on "regardless of what happens in the midterms," according to Defense Daily, as cited by Newsmax.

That is the part taxpayers should watch whatever they think about Kyiv: hundreds of billions of dollars, moved on a party-line vote by a lame-duck Congress stocked with members who won't face voters again, while the funding source is still being argued over behind closed doors. The same session also has to keep the government open, since Congress faces a December deadline to avert a shutdown, Newsmax noted.

Where Indiana's delegation sits

Ten of Indiana's 11 members of Congress voted for the Graham Act. Sens. Todd Young and Jim Banks backed it when the Senate passed it 86–11 on Aug. 7, and eight of nine Indiana House members voted for final passage on Sept. 16, with Indianapolis Democrat André Carson the lone Hoosier no, according to the Hoosier Enquirer's earlier review of the roll calls.

When he voted for it, Young said "Russia's aggression cannot continue without consequences," while cautioning that tariffs "of this magnitude" could reach "American manufacturers, farmers, small businesses, and families." He pledged to keep "advocating for a transparent, disciplined approach to implementing these authorities," his office said.

The Hoosier Enquirer found no public statement from Young or Banks on Friday's waiver as of Sunday afternoon. None of Indiana's seven House Republicans is among the members The Hill and Newsmax named as threatening to hold up Pentagon money, which matches their record. All seven voted against the Fitzpatrick-Bacon Ukraine aid package in June. Rep. Victoria Spartz, who grew up in Ukraine, has split the difference, opposing that aid package while supporting the sanctions, our earlier review found.

Ten Hoosier lawmakers put their names on a sanctions law that is now on ice with no end date. If Hegseth's package reaches the floor, Indiana's Republicans will be asked to fund the Pentagon on a party-line vote as well. Hoosiers deserve to hear, before Nov. 3, how those two positions fit together.

Photo credit: Official portrait of Rep. Don Bacon by Brian Thorpe, House Creative Services, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.