[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 5, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2196-H2197]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Russians are invading Ukraine. I 
think a history lesson is in order.
  I take you back to 1938. Adolph Hitler annexes a neighbor, Austria. 
Just took them. Took them over. The West, the world, the freedom-loving 
people watched. He got away with that. He took them over because he 
wanted to, in his statement, unify the German-speaking peoples.
  That was in March of 1938. Then in October of 1938, Adolph Hitler 
just decided that he wanted part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, 
saying the same thing, that German-speaking people were being 
persecuted and that he wanted to help them, and he annexed the 
Sudetenland.
  The West really agreed to that. We have heard about the appeasement 
of Chamberlain. Agreed to it, waived his paper, peace in our time. Not 
long after that, Hitler decided he wanted more Czechoslovakia. Then he 
invaded Poland, and then World War II started, and he invaded other 
countries. That was in the beginning of 1938.
  Now take you to today. Vladimir Putin, Russia. He invades the 
Republic of Georgia, and he did so in August of 2008, and he took one-
third of the country.
  I happened to be in the Republic of Georgia shortly after the 
Russians invaded. I saw the Russian tanks on the horizon. Remember, Mr. 
Speaker, Putin invaded Georgia, took one-third of the land, and the 
Russians are still there. The world just moved on.
  The Georgians are trying to figure out some way to deal with Putin's 
imperialistic attitude, but the Russians were there, are there--no 
consequences for that action.
  Now that brings us to March of 2014. Of course, Georgia as we all 
know was a former Soviet Republic. Now Putin has his eyes on another 
former Soviet Republic, Ukraine. The Russian military, even though they 
went in with unmarked uniforms, just decided to move in and take over 
part of Ukraine--Crimea. That is the latest activity.
  This is similar to what Adolf Hitler did back in the thirties and the 
forties. So, yes, Putin is similar to Adolph Hitler in that he has this 
appetite for other people's land, and he tries to justify it some way 
and he just waits to see if anybody is going to do anything about it.
  This is a photograph taken by the Associated Press, Mr. Speaker, and 
it is some Ukrainian women that are holding up signs. Here is a 
photograph of Adolph Hitler over here on the far right. They are 
holding a sign. This is a Russian flag with a swastika in the middle. 
Here is another poster being held up showing the Russian flag, 
comparing Putin to Hitler and the Nazis' quest and their appetite to 
take other people's sovereign land.
  I think the analogy is in order. I think the world should understand 
that Putin has it somewhere in his brain that he can just, on his own, 
justify the taking of other people's sovereign land. I think it is 
important that we recognize the obvious. And what we will do about it, 
we shall see.
  When the Russians moved into Georgia, I personally don't think much 
happened to the world, other than the Georgians didn't complain too 
much. So the Russians understood that they could do it and get away 
with it, Putin did. Six years later, deja vu, it is all over again. He 
believes that he can get away with the invading of sovereign nations 
because of this reason: these nations, to some extent, depend on Russia 
for their energy, including, specifically, natural gas.
  The Kremlin is working to reestablish its empire by bullying 
countries like Ukraine, its neighbor who broke away from the Soviet 
Union years ago but never was quite able to get away from the influence 
and intimidation of Putin.
  Russia has used its competitive advantage to maintain a stronghold 
over Eastern Europe and the European states that were formerly aligned 
to the Soviet Union. This is my opinion: that Russia--Putin--has its 
goal to try to rebring in those former Soviet Republics under the 
sphere of influence of Russia under some new name. That is my opinion. 
It looks like they have already started this.
  Seventy percent of the gas that goes to Ukraine comes from Russia. 
Six nations in the European Union rely on Russia for 100 percent of 
their natural gas.

                              {time}  1830

  Much of Europe relies on the Kremlin for natural gas, although they 
don't get 100 percent of their gas from them.
  So you have got Europe, the former Soviet Republics, and Ukraine 
depending on energy, natural gas, from Russia. The Russians know that. 
Reliance on the Russian gas shapes the foreign policy of Eastern 
European countries, Western European countries, and especially the 
former Soviet Republics, and jeopardizes, I think, political and 
economic reforms.
  Russia understands the stranglehold and the monopoly. They can get 
away with the bullying because they are the source of natural gas. Two 
times in the last 10 years, for political reasons, they have been 
punished economically--that is, the Ukrainians--by the Russians turning 
off the gas.
  I happened to be in the Ukraine when the Russians turned off the gas 
one winter. Mr. Speaker, it gets cold in the Ukraine without heat. The 
Russians did that to make sure that the Ukrainians, I believe, come 
around and support Russian politics.
  This past weekend, the Russians warned that the Ukrainians were not 
going to be able to continue to get some kind of discounted rate unless 
they reinstated the former Ukrainian President. They are blackmailing 
the Ukrainians. They want a president different than the one the 
Russians support.
  So we can change that. People back home in Texas, like most 
Americans, don't think it is legal or right for the Russians to invade 
another country and just start moving in and taking over, but they ask 
this question: What are we going to do about it?
  Remember, back when Hitler was in charge, it took a while for the 
West to react--and finally had to react militarily. Maybe we should try 
to react sooner and not have to react militarily, and we should do it 
economically.
  The way to do that, I believe, is to give the Ukrainians, the former 
Soviet Republics, and Eastern and Western Europe an alternative to 
being held hostage by Putin because of their energy issues and the lack 
of natural gas and the lack of having an alternative.
  Where should they look? They should look to the United States, and 
the United States should look to helping out these countries. Also, it 
would help us economically. We should be ready and eager to export our 
abundant natural gas to our European friends.
  I think very few people in the energy industry would have believed 5 
years ago that the United States would have so much natural gas that we 
would be able to export it; that we can produce it in such an efficient 
and clean way that we can export it to foreign countries. This is an 
opportunity to do so, and we should do so.
  There is an ice cream company down in Texas that makes the best ice 
cream in the world. It is Blue Bell Ice Cream from Brenham, Texas. 
Their slogan is:


[[Page H2197]]


       We eat all we can and we sell the rest.

  That should be our slogan with natural gas. We use all we can in the 
United States and we sell the rest.
  Who should we sell it to? We could start with these Eastern European 
Nations that are being intimidated by the Russians. We should help them 
economically, but also help the United States, and we should start with 
the Ukrainians.
  An abundant and steady supply of natural gas exported from the United 
States would be beneficial to our allies, Eastern Europe, and let the 
world know that they are not going to be held hostage by the 
kleptocratic Kremlin any longer.
  We can export natural gas in several ways. That debate has already 
taken place here in the House of Representatives and in the Department 
of Energy about whether or not we should or could export natural gas, 
setting aside the Ukrainian issue.
  I think that we should. We have that opportunity. It is something 
that we can do to relieve the pressure of the intimidation by Putin and 
his attitude about moving in and taking over other people's property. 
The demand is there in Europe and the supply is overwhelming in the 
United States. The only thing that stands in the way is our own 
government.
  So what do we do about that?
  For the first time in our history, we can export natural gas to 
foreign countries. The United States has so much, we could not use all 
of it in our lifetime. It is beneficial to the United States to sell 
natural gas abroad. It will create jobs in the United States. It will 
create an income. It will make us--and we have heard this phrase since 
we were children--``energy independent'' by using natural gas, but also 
by selling it to our allies and our friends. The only thing that is 
stopping it, as I mentioned, is bureaucratic red tape.
  It is ironic we talked about the year 1938. In 1938, Congress passed 
a law that required that any company that wanted to export natural gas 
had to get approval from the Department of Energy. That is in addition 
to the other permitting requirements that are required by FERC.
  Over the last 70 years, this bureaucratic requirement that began in 
1938, ironically, was hardly noticed anywhere in the United States 
because we were importing natural gas into the United States. By 
exporting, the United States can now become the Saudi Arabia of natural 
gas.
  So technology has changed and we have an abundant amount of natural 
gas here in our own country. We can update the 1938 law and dismantle 
the bureaucratic roadblocks and take the Department of Energy out of 
the export license-granting process altogether. I think this country 
should be supporting and not stonewalling the development of this 
valuable resource. We can do that by legislation.
  I have introduced legislation today, in fact, that would have the 
Department of Energy expedite the approval process for exporting 
natural gas to the Ukraine, former Soviet Republics, and to Europe. 
Let's get on with it.
  Sure, it will take some time to get all of the logistics set up so we 
can actually send it to these countries, but we should help them. We 
should give them an alternative. We can do it on an economically good 
basis for these countries and for the United States. We can encourage 
folks to look to the West, as many of the Ukrainians already do, and 
give them an alternative.
  The second thing that we can do to let the Russians know that we 
don't really approve of Putin moving into other people's countries--
just like Hitler moved into other people's countries--is to look at it 
diplomatically, in the sense that until the Russians move out of 
somebody else's land--the Ukrainians--they shouldn't be getting any 
diplomatic visas into the United States. You stay out of the United 
States. You respect the international rule of law. Don't be an 
aggressor nation. Come into the world community of non-aggressing 
nations, like Russia says they are.
  So there should be some consequences for this activity of invading 
other countries. What are the consequences? No visas for Russian 
diplomats to come to the United States. That is a good place to start. 
Meanwhile, let's approve exporting natural gas to the former Soviet 
Republics.
  So I have introduced two bills that would do both of these things. 
They are something we can do immediately. Let the Ukrainians know that 
they have a friend in the United States, and we really do believe in 
supporting freedom and letting a nation itself figure out what they 
want to do, who they want to rule over them. Let them figure out that 
process.
  It is difficult, and they disagree, as I am speaking tonight, on what 
course they should take, but let them decide, not let the Russians 
force them into becoming another puppet of Putin.
  I hope we can move this legislation as fast as we possibly can.
  And that's just the way it is.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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