House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he plans to block any Senate-led efforts to approve additional funding to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia.

McCarthy told Punchbowl News on Monday that a supplemental spending package is “not going anywhere.” Any additional assistance for Ukraine, he said, would have to come as part of the annual congressional appropriations process within the $886 billion in discretionary spending for the Pentagon. 

That figure was agreed upon in the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act that led to the debt limit being suspended last week. Restricting the Defense Department to that pool of funding for Ukraine aid could mean cuts elsewhere in its budget.

A number of defense hawks in the Senate expressed concerns that $886 billion is inadequate, but facing a tight deadline before the U.S. would have defaulted on its debts, they voted for the Fiscal Responsibility Act without making changes rather than sending the bill back to the House.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., immediately issued a joint statement saying the “debt ceiling deal does nothing to limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities are sufficient to deter China, Russia, and our other adversaries.”

But McCarthy is dismissing that possibility, telling Punchbowl News, “I’m not going to pre-judge what some of them [in the Senate] do, but if they think they’re writing a supplemental because they want to go around an agreement we just made, it’s not going anywhere.”

The speaker said senators “are not paying attention to how the system works.”

In a separate interview Monday with CNN, McCarthy said he thinks the Pentagon can find “efficiencies” in its budget.

“You don’t think there’s waste?” he said. “They failed the last five audits. I consider myself a hawk, but I don’t want to waste money.”

Congress has appropriated more than $110 billion in aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

Schumer’s office has not responded to requests for comment in response to McCarthy’s remarks. In remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took umbrage with the defense spending cap, calling it "insufficient."

"Congress must commit ourselves to equipping the military with what it needs," McConnell said.

"If a supplemental is requested by the administration for Ukraine, I’m going to do everything I can to support it," Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said Tuesday, before referencing McConnell's speech earlier: "There’s conflict in the messaging coming from the two Republican leaders.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called McCarthy’s comments “a shame,” telling Punchbowl News he’s prepared to fight for the additional aid.

“We’re playing a dangerous game with our national security,” Graham said. “The bill [McCarthy] produced is inadequate to the threats we face.”

But for a supplemental spending package to pass, Senate Republicans would need to reach an agreement with GOP members in the House.

Asked if his opinion might change if he believes Ukraine needs more funding, McCarthy said: “You first have to show, what do you need money for? We’ve got an approps process. We’re just going to work through an approps process. They’re not going to circumvent what we’re doing here.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday “House Democrats stand united behind Ukraine” and that the next step would be the Biden administration informing Congress funds for Ukraine have been exhausted and asking for more money. 

“I read those comments from Speaker McCarthy [as] saying he is very mindful that the most extreme voices in his conference hold sway, just like they were able to get seats on the Rules Committee, just like they were able to get seats in the Appropriations Committee,” Aguilar said during a news conference. “He has a very strong anti-Ukraine faction within his conference that he's trying to navigate.”