Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Redistricting

Redistricting

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

Voter registration

The SAVE Act: Addressing a Non-Existent Problem at the Cost of Voter Access?

Donald Trump

Congress Bill Spotlight: Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act

A fictional, fanciful sign depicts the results of voter suppression through the unfair, partisan manipulation of district lines (gerrymandering).

The worst congressional gerrymanders of the 2020s

Does the foreign aid package include millions of dollars for pensions in Ukraine?

Man waving U.S. and Ukrainian flags

A man supporting Ukraine funding demonstrates outside the U.S. Capitol before the House passed the foreign aid package on April 20

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
By Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin WatchMay 10, 2024
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
See More Writings by author

This fact brief was originally published by Wisconsin Watch. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Does the April 2024 U.S. foreign aid package include millions of dollars for pensions in Ukraine?

No.

The $95 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan prohibits funds from being allocated to pensions in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden signed the package into law April 24, 2024.

Ukraine gets $61 billion for its war with Russia, including $14 billion for buying weapons.

Also included is $8 billion in economic support that “may include budget support,” none of which “may be made available for the reimbursement of pensions.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents most of northern Wisconsin, said on Wisconsin talk radio that the law includes “millions” for pensions in Ukraine.

His office, pointing to a U.S. State Department news release, told Wisconsin Watch that Tiffany meant to say that previous U.S. aid packages funded Ukrainian pensions.

A top Ukrainian official warned in December that Ukraine might have to stop making pension payments if foreign assistance wasn’t provided soon.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

US Congress Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

omny.fm Guest: Congressman Tom Tiffany - The Meg Ellefson Show 042524 - The Meg Ellefson Show

U.S. State Department The United States Funds Economic Survey of Ukraine for Sustainable Recovery

Financial Times Ukraine warns of pension and salary delays without western aid

Latest news

Project 2025’s Media Agenda: The Executive Order Threatens NPR and PBS
Media & Technology

Project 2025’s Media Agenda: The Executive Order Threatens NPR and PBS

Three diverse professionals in business attire smiling and posing in an office
Money & Politics

The Calculated Dismantling of Minority Business Opportunity in America

Read More

Remote control in hand to change channels​.

Remote control in hand to change channels.

Getty Images, Stefano Madrigali

Late-Night Comedy: How Satire Became America’s Most Trusted News Source

A close friend of mine recently confessed to having stopped watching cable news altogether because it was causing him and his wife anxiety and dread. They began watching Jimmy Kimmel instead, saying the nightly news felt like "psychological warfare" on their mental state. "We want to know what's going on but can't handle the relentless doom and gloom every night," he told me.

Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, seems to understand this shift. "A year ago, I would've said I'm hoping to show people who aren't paying attention to the news what's actually going on," he told Rolling Stone last month in an interview. "Now I see myself more as a place to scream."

Keep ReadingShow less
The Biggest Obstacle to Safer Roads Isn't Technology, It's Politics

A 3D generated image of modern vehicles with AI assistance.

Getty Images, gremlin

The Biggest Obstacle to Safer Roads Isn't Technology, It's Politics

Let’s be honest: does driving feel safe anymore? Ask anyone navigating the daily commute, especially in notoriously chaotic places like Miami, and you’ll likely hear a frustrated, perhaps even expletive-laden, "No!" That gut feeling isn't paranoia; it's backed by grim statistics. Over 200 people died on Travis County roads in 2023, according to Vision Zero ATX. Nationally, tens of thousands perish in preventable crashes. It's a relentless public health crisis we've somehow numbed ourselves to, with a staggering cost measured in shattered families and lost potential.

But imagine a different reality, one where that daily fear evaporates. What if I told you that the technology to dramatically reduce this carnage isn't science fiction but sitting right under our noses? Autonomous vehicles (AVs), or self-driving cars, are here and rapidly improving. Leveraging breakthroughs in AI, these vehicles are increasingly outperforming human drivers, proving to be significantly less likely to cause accidents, especially those resulting in injury. Studies suggest that replacing human drivers with AVs could drastically cut road fatalities. Even achieving just 10% AV penetration on our roads might improve traffic safety by as much as 50%, with those gains likely to grow exponentially as the technology becomes more sophisticated and widespread.

Keep ReadingShow less
Warning: Trump’s Tariffs Pose Obstacles for AI Development

Humans are using laptops and computers to interact with AI, helping them create, code, train AI, or analyze big data with fast, cutting-edge technology.

Getty Images/Wanan Yossingkum

Warning: Trump’s Tariffs Pose Obstacles for AI Development

Huiyan Li

WASHINGTON – During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on April 9, Democratic representatives repeatedly raised concerns that President Trump’s new tariffs and attempts to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act would harm U.S. competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI).

Keep ReadingShow less
Docuseries Highlights Need for Legal Protections for Kid Influencers

child holding smartphone

Getty Images/Keiko Iwabuchi

Docuseries Highlights Need for Legal Protections for Kid Influencers

A new Netflix docuseries explores the unseen complexities and dark possibilities of child influencing in our modern internet age, raising urgent questions and highlighting the critical need for legal protections for kid influencers once their internet presence turns into work—a full-time job that, at times, financially supports their families.

Released last week, “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” shares how Youtube star Piper Rockelle—who began posting videos at eight years old and garnered 12 million subscribers and about 1.87 billion views—and her “Squad” of fellow pre-teen social media influencers worked and lived in a toxic environment under Rockelle's "momager", Tiffany Smith, and Smith's boyfriend, Hunter Hill.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025