Earlier this month, POLITICO reported that the European Commission would unfreeze €13 billion in EU funds in order to win Budapest’s backing to release funds for Ukraine that Hungary has been holding up.

While an EU official directly involved in the decision noted there were still “problems” with the rule of law in Hungary, the person who was granted anonymity to speak candidly said that releasing the funds was a “political decision” for leaders.

“What we hear from the Commission, they are thinking through how they can leverage that decision, of unfreezing a figure — whatever it would be — in order to create leverage of these veto threats by the Hungarians,” the person said.

The push, first previewed publicly in President Joe Biden’s Oval Office addresslast week, comes ahead of the election of a new House speaker, with the White House trying to invoke patriotism to help convince holdout Republicans not just to help Kyiv but to pass a major package that includes funds for Israel as well.
“As we replenish our stocks of weapons, we are partnering with the U.S. defense industry to increase our capacity and meet the needs of the U.S. and our allies both now and in the future,” according to a copy of the talking points obtained by POLITICO.

“This supplemental request invests over $50 billion in the American defense industrial base — ensuring our military continues to be the most ready, capable, and best equipped fighting force the world has ever seen — and expanding production lines, strengthening the American economy and creating new American jobs,” the document states.

The talking points are an implicit recognition that the administration has work to do in selling its $106 billion foreign aid supplemental request — and that talking about it squarely under the umbrella of national security interests hasn’t done the trick.

The White House’s pitch is an echo of one made by an influential figure on the other side of the aisle: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In a March 2022 Senate floor speech, McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that the defense industrial base had been caught “napping” as the Russian invasion entered its second month. In the early days, he repeatedly pushed Biden to use the Defense Production Act to ramp up weapons production.

And while some GOP support for Ukraine has eroded, the Senate minority leader took to the Sunday talk shows last weekend to push his Republicans against separating Israel’s cause from the war in Europe