US Lawmakers Urge Biden to Get Congressional Approval Before Involving Troops in Ukraine Crisis

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced the movement of US troops and equipment to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The latest movement of US troops already in Europe comes in addition to the deployment and repositioning of some 6,000 service members to Germany, Poland and Romania.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers issued a memo on Tuesday to US President Joe Biden reminding the commander-in-chief that he had previously pledged to not send US troops into Ukraine, although he said the decision could change.

"I'm urging Pres Biden to follow the Constitution and the law and receive authorization from Congress before involving US forces in Russia-Ukraine conflict," said Rep. Peter DeFazio "The American people deserve to have a say before we become involved in yet another foreign conflict."

Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Cori Bush (D- MO) Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) are among the 43 lawmaker-signees.

At the moment, Biden has ruled out deploying US troops to Ukraine, although he has ordered some US forces to be repositioned to NATO's eastern flank. Ukraine is not a NATO member.

"Today, in response to Russia's admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of US forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," Biden said earlier Tuesday, amid Western assertions that Russian President Vladimir Putin would carry out a large-scale attack on Ukraine.

Per the reported order issued by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 800 US troops and 20 Boeing AH-64 Apache choppers already in Europe were to be moved to the Baltic region.

Biden noted that Washington would continue to provide defensive assistance to Kiev.