expressed unanimous support for resuming the funding as in the u.s. national security interest. at the july 26 meeting, there was a discussion of how ukrainian anticorruption efforts were making progress. dod reiterated what we had said in our earlier certification to congress, stating that sufficient progress in defense reform including anticorruption had occurred to justify the usai spending. i and others at the interagency meetings felt the matter was particularly urgent because it takes time to obligate that amount of money, and my understanding was that the money was legally required to be obligated by september 30, the end of the fiscal year. in the ensuing weeks, until the hold was released on september 11, i pursue three tracks. first, starting on july 31, and at interagency meetings, i made clear to interagency leadership my understanding that once dod