The Biden administration is warning senior Republicans in Congress that a multinational force to Haiti cannot deploy unless they lift their long-standing hold on the release of key U.S. funds, a potentially significant hurdle for the White House as it addresses a dire crisis in the Caribbean nation, McClatchy has learned.

The quiet, monthslong dispute between the White House and senior GOP leadership over the funding request became heated this week, as the prospect of Haiti’s government falling to gangs became a palpable fear across Washington.

Any delay in the deployment of the force, to be led by Kenyan police, could be fatal to Haiti’s government, which is now under broad assault by a united front of powerful gangs throughout the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Biden administration officials are accusing the staffs of the top Republican lawmakers on the foreign affairs committees in the House and Senate of ignoring their urgent requests for meetings in recent days. A senior administration official told McClatchy that they have provided 63 briefings and answered 35 written responses answering questions from the GOP offices.

But on Capitol Hill, aides to the two lawmakers, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, are accusing the administration of stonewalling critical questions on the size of the force.

A senior State Department official told McClatchy that the release of roughly $40 million in pledged funds “would in fact be needed for deployment,” to pay for training equipment, personnel kits and uniforms for the forces.

Two other senior administration officials said that a failure by Congress to provide the funds could imperil the commitments of allies, who have also pledged to contribute to the mission.

The dispute jeopardizes more than a year-and-a-half of efforts to establish a Multinational Security Support mission, referred to as an MSS, with international partners.

After a worldwide search for a country to lead it, Kenya stepped up, offering to deploy 1,000 police officers to the mission. The force will also include security personnel from other nations, five of which have officially notified the United Nations Security Council of their intentions.

Only 400 of them have been trained and properly vetted for past human rights violations, a requirement under U.S. law for the force to receive funding. While the nation of Benin has recently offered to contribute 2,000 additional forces, the vetting process for them will also take time.

U.S. officials said the initial deployment of 400 Kenyan forces was always part of the international plan to scale up their force posture.

Republicans have also expressed concerns about the overall cost of the mission, which was approved for one year in October by the U.N. Security Council. A senior Biden administration official previously told The Miami Herald that the latest estimate from the Office of Management and Budget has put the mission’s price tag at between $515 million and $600 million for two years.

The U.S. has pledged up to $200 million to fund the mission. Of that amount, the administration made an initial request for $50 million from Congress. Lawmakers partially released $10 million, sparking debate over the remaining funds.

Congressional Republicans argue that even if they were to release the funds immediately, the logistics aren’t in place for the mission to actually proceed.

“I appreciate the urgency of the situation, but even if there was a will to get things underway urgently, I think there are significant doubts that it is even possible,” one of the aides said. “Four hundred Kenyans are ready, but the base isn’t. (The Department of Defense) has to make the base ready. DoD needs 45 days to get it there.”

The Defense Department intends to construct a base for the MSS next to the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, where previous United Nations peacekeeping operations have been installed. The senior State Department official said that the Haiti National Police force remains in control of the airport, and that plans for the base are still feasible.

But all international flights have been canceled indefinitely due to gunfire around the airport, and gang forces have encircled the facility. A U.S. deportation flight to the airport last Thursday was canceled due to a firefight endangering the airspace.

“It’s not well-planned, and to be asking to all of the sudden airdrop 400 Kenyans onto a base that is at the international airport that is currently being attacked doesn’t seem like a wise choice,” one congressional aide said.

One U.S. official told McClatchy that the Pentagon was reevaluating the security requirements for the base to remain at the airport. The plan remains to keep the airport as the headquarters.

But more pointedly, the administration has accused congressional Republicans of using violence at the airport as a recent excuse for a hold they have otherwise put in place for 146 days – well before gang violence surged.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken technically has the authority to override the congressional hold – a move that most secretaries of state in the past have viewed as a nuclear option that could backfire on them, both politically in the short-term and when the balance of power shifts in Washington.

The senior State Department official would not speculate what threshold of crisis would have to be met in Haiti for Blinken to turn to that authority. For now, the official added, “it’s not necessary.” Another official said that the administration believes it is still possible to reach agreement on an issue that has historically earned bipartisan support.

“We have been in constant engagement with them on this for quite some time, have tried to be responsive of their concerns, and it’s something that we’re continuing to try to work with them on,” the State Department official said. “The notion that we think this mission is flawed – one, there is risk to anything. But two, we believe in this. We legitimately believe in this. And that’s why the secretary has spent so much time working on this.”

Even if the hold were to be lifted or overridden, the U.N. mechanism designed to distribute the funds is not fully set up yet, one of the congressional aides noted. One U.S. official said that the operations of the U.N. Trust Fund were being held up by a U.N. Human Rights Due Diligence Policy review, which is set to be finalized as early as this weekend.

On Wednesday, McClatchy reported on internal concerns within the U.S. government that the force size of the MSS and the late hour of its potential deployment might be too little and too late to meet the moment.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans remain skeptical about the exact length and contours of the MSS, which the U.N. Security Council authorized in October. Aides said that administration officials have yet to provide a precise timeline for the deployment or guidance on what an effective mission would look like.

“This right now is authorized for a year. It’s up in October and there’s no one there yet,” one of the congressional aides said. “How long is this mission going to be around? Is it always going to be a DoD enabled mission until there’s an election in Haiti?”

They also said the administration has yet to determine the logistics hub of the force, which could be anywhere from Puerto Rico or Miami to Washington, D.C.

“You’re asking us to do a mission that you don’t actually know what it’s going to look like,” the congressional aide added. “What are the benchmarks? What is success?”

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(Miami Herald Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles contributed to this story.)