[Stars & Stripes] At a recent town hall back home in Omaha, Republican Rep. Don Bacon was confronted by one of his constituents who, like a growing number of conservatives, was displeased with the vast sums of U.S. weaponry and money being given to Ukraine. Why, this man wanted to know, does the congressman believe that after 18 months it remains in America’s best interest to continue bankrolling the war?
Bacon, a retired Air Force general, was ready. Russia, he explained, launched its invasion because Ukraine was growing closer to the United States, becoming more democratic, and posing an existential threat to the authoritarian rule of President Vladimir Putin and his desire to reclaim the Kremlin’s lost empire.
"I told the town hall: ’When I was a kid, if you had a bully on the playground - that bully never stops unless he gets punched in the nose," Bacon said later in an interview. " ’And so we’ve got to stand up to Putin here.’ " But he said he included a caveat in that response too: "We shouldn’t give just a blank check to Biden. He’s got to justify why he needs this."
The exchange in Nebraska is emblematic of a growing tension throughout the Republican Party, and among a small number of Democrats, as Congress begins anew the contentious process of considering just how big of a check President Biden can have to sustain the flow of U.S. assistance - and for how long lawmakers will keep the spigot open. American attitudes toward Ukraine are shifting, Capitol Hill is feeling the pressure as the country heads into an election year, and Ukraine’s highly anticipated summer offensive has made only minor territorial gains thus far. So, with each subsequent ask for funding, securing congressional approval is likely to grow more challenging, lawmakers and analysts say.
The White House in August sent lawmakers a supplemental budget request seeking $40 billion, more than half of which would go toward aiding Ukraine and related efforts intended to shore up NATO allies’ defenses and provide a cushion for other vulnerable countries impacted by the war. The funding, if approved, would bring total U.S. investment to $135 billion, according to an analysis by Mark F. Cancian at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As the war struggles onward, though, questions like the one aired in Omaha reflect a larger dispute that’s tearing at the GOP, whose raucous right flank is waging an aggressive campaign to rally public support for slashing Ukraine aid. If some Republicans had their way, the price tag on future assistance would be zero. 
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