[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7865-S7867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ASIA REASSURANCE INITIATIVE ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the
Senate the message to accompany S. 2736.
The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message:
Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 2736) entitled
``An act to develop a long-term strategic vision and a
comprehensive, multifaceted, and principled United States
policy for the Indo-Pacific region, and for other
purposes.'', do pass with an amendment.
Motion to Concur
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment,
and I ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to and that the
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I rise to celebrate a momentous
bipartisan achievement--this bill that we just passed for our Nation's
foreign policy.
Shortly, we will send this legislation, now--after its passage--to
the President's desk: Gardner-Markey, also known as the Asia
Reassurance Initiative Act.
I first want to thank an incredible partner throughout this entire
effort,
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Senator Markey and his staff, for their incredibly hard work on this
bill and their efforts to get this bill over the finish line. I believe
we have set a strong example of how major foreign policy can be
accomplished in a very thorough and bipartisan fashion, and I look
forward to our next effort together.
I also want to thank Senators Cardin and Rubio and their staffs, as
well, for early and consistent support on this effort.
Thanks go to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator
Corker, the ranking member, Bob Menendez, and their staffs for helping
to shepherd this effort through the Foreign Relations Committee, where
ARIA passed unanimously on September 26, 2018.
I want to thank and extend my gratitude to the majority leader, Kevin
McCarthy, and his staff for their hard work to pass this bill through
the House of Representatives with only minimal changes, by voice vote,
last week.
Leader McConnell and his staff took an early interest in this effort,
and it could not have been done without their support.
I am grateful to Leader Steny Hoyer, the chairman and ranking member
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce and Eliot Engel, and
Representative Illeana Ros-Lehtinen for their support.
Nearly 2 years in the making, the Gardner-Markey ARIA Initiative will
establish a generational, multifaceted, and principled U.S. policy in
the Indo-Pacific region, a region that is vital for U.S. national
security and economic interests. ARIA is important because the Indo-
Pacific is home to half of the world's population, half of the world's
GDP, the world's largest standing armies, and six U.S. defense treaty
allies.
The security and economic future of the United States depends on
having the right policies to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Therefore, the Gardner-Markey ARIA establishes and provides new
resources for a long-term strategy to enhance security cooperation with
our allies and establishes the Asia-Pacific security initiative.
It promotes American businesses through trade opportunities, projects
American values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law
throughout the Indo-Pacific. It is a bill designed to drive U.S.
leadership as other powers turn to economic colonialism.
Starting in June 2017, Senator Markey and I have held over five
hearings at the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee to inform this
legislation. The hearings examined a range of national security,
economic, and rule of law challenges in the Indo-Pacific and culminated
in a final hearing with State Department and Department of Defense
officials to allow the administration to express its views on ARIA.
We introduced ARIA on April 24 of this year with a bipartisan group
that included Senators Rubio, Cardin, and Young. On June 21, we
received a letter signed by Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mattis
formally endorsing ARIA. The letter states:
[We] value the ARIA legislation's reaffirmation of the
United States' security commitments to our Indo-Pacific
allies and partners. Furthermore, ARIA's focus on promoting
stronger regional economic engagement--and its support for
democracy, the rule of law, and the development of civil
society--is especially welcome as part of a diplomatically-
led whole-of-government approach to the Indo-Pacific region.
The Gardner-Markey ARIA passed the Foreign Relations Committee
unanimously on September 26. It passed unanimously on the floor of the
Senate on December 4, and the House passed ARIA by voice vote, as I
mentioned, December 12.
This bill is a rare piece of bipartisan legislation that enjoys broad
support in the Congress and the White House but is also strongly
supported by the business community and policy experts.
On June 4, the Wall Street Journal editorial board endorsed ARIA,
stating:
Congress is trying to help with the bipartisan Asia
Reassurance Initiative Act. . . . The Senate bill affirms
core American alliances with Australia, Japan, and South
Korea, while calling for deeper military and economic ties
with India and Taiwan. It notably encourages regular weapons
sales to Taipei.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also endorsed ARIA, stating:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the ``Asia
Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018'' and thanks Senator
Gardner [and Markey] for [their] efforts to strengthen U.S.
strategic and economic relationships across the Indo-Pacific
region.
Particularly with regard to the legislation's economic
goals, we appreciate the bill's focus on closer trade ties,
stronger protections for intellectual property, and a renewed
focus on trade facilitation.
The Heritage Foundation wrote on December 6:
Don't look now, but a sweeping bill with bipartisan support
in Congress and the backing of the Trump administration is
one step closer to becoming reality. The Asia Reassurance
Initiative Act, introduced by Sen. Cory Gardner . . . along
with key cosponsors Ed Markey . . . and Marco Rubio . . .
passed the Senate on Wednesday. This was a welcome display of
leadership.
In these partisan times, the bill has garnered support from both
current and former administration officials and experts across the
political spectrum. As the Singapore-based Straits Times wrote on
December 13:
Under the Obama administration, there was a big rhetorical
commitment to the Asia Pacific or Indo-Pacific region, but
the US ``just flat out did not readjust our resources in a
way that actually backed that up,'' said Dr. Lindsey Ford,
Director of Political-Security Affairs for the Asia Society
Policy Institute.
The ARIA marks an important start to rectifying that, she
said.
``The ARIA . . . if passed, would be probably one of the
most consequential pieces of funding legislation that has to
do with Asia, that US Congress would have passed in years,''
Dr. Ford told Straits Times.
When you have the Heritage Foundation and former Obama administration
officials on the same page, you know we have done something right.
So again, I want to congratulate this body--truly the world's most
deliberative Chamber, as this bill has proved--for this bipartisan
victory, and I hope the President will sign this important bill into
law shortly.
Again, I want to thank my colleague, Senator Markey, for his
tremendous leadership on this.
I yield the floor to Senator Markey.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Colorado, and I
rise to echo the sentiments of the Senator from Colorado.
I first want to thank the Senator for all of his great work on this
bill, for all of the hearings that took place in the subcommittee, all
of the various interest groups who had to be worked with in order to
make sure that this bill came to pass.
So I just want to thank the Senator from Colorado and thank his staff
for the great work.
This bill is a historic bill. It is a very important bill. It could
not have happened without the Senator, and I thank him for all of his
incredible leadership on this issue.
I want to thank my own staff for all of their great work on this
issue as well.
We had an incredible bipartisan partnership that was created between
the Senator from Colorado and the Senator from Massachusetts, but our
staffs worked very closely together.
This bill, the Gardner-Markey Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, is a
very important bill, and I want to speak about this bill, but in doing
so, I am actually speaking about something that is broader, something
more important, something of more lasting consequence to international
peace and stability, and something more critical to the economic well-
being, security, and fundamental rights of Americans and millions of
others around the globe.
America has always had an important relationship with the Indo-
Pacific region, but the global landscape is changing, and today, more
than ever, the Indo-Pacific is the most consequential region, not only
for the United States but also for the rest of the world, and that is
what this bill is all about. It is how we in the U.S. Congress can
reaffirm that we, No. 1, are and will remain committed to the Indo-
Pacific; No. 2, recognize its shifting dynamics and the significance
these changes represent; and No. 3, stand ready to marshal the
leadership and resources necessary to address the challenges we face
and capitalize on the opportunities before us.
With that in mind, I again want to extend my gratitude to my partner
in this endeavor, Senator Gardner. He has been the best possible
partner in this effort, and I want to thank him for everything he has
done.
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I also want to thank Senators Corker and Menendez for their
assistance in advancing this bill through the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and a litany of saints who I think should all be mentioned:
Senator Rubio, Senator Cardin, Senator Young, Senator Sullivan, Senator
Perdue, Senator Graham, Senator Coons, Senator Kaine, Senator Peters,
Senator Wicker--all cosponsors of this bill, perfectly bipartisan.
I also want to thank Representatives McCarthy and Hoyer and Neal and
Royce and Castro and Yoho for their work as well. That list of Members
is not only indicative of the level of bipartisanship there is in
Congress but also on U.S.-Asia policy. This bill would not have been
possible without them, and it would not have been possible without,
again, the wonderful staffs we are blessed to have working on these
issues, who spent many long hours advocating for key American interests
and values in this legislation.
This bill represents a generational policy framework to enhance U.S.
leadership in the Indo-Pacific and is a demonstration of American
commitment to a free and open region, as well as the rules-based
international order.
Zach Hosford and Mark Appleton on my staff dedicated the last year to
working and partnering with the Senator. So I am pleased that the
Gardner-Markey Asia Reassurance Initiative will pass the Senate today,
and I look forward to its being sent on to the President's desk.
I again thank Senator Gardner for all of his incredible work.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
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