[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 218 (Friday, December 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S9283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, news from this morning that 50 so-called 
battalion tactical groups have been sent to the Ukraine border by 
President Vladimir Putin--reports in American newspapers suggest that 
over the last several days there has been an increased amount of 
movement in Russian military assets to the Ukraine border.
  This is a crisis that is deepening. There remains a diplomatic off-
ramp, but that off-ramp only exists if Vladimir Putin sees the United 
States and its allies, especially those in Europe, united in our desire 
to support Ukraine in its time of need with the kind of assets they 
will need to defend themselves, but also with a commitment to levy 
unprecedented sanctions on Russia, long-lasting, deep sanctions, if 
they go forward with an incursion deeper into Ukraine than Russia 
already is.
  But, right now, as we speak on the Senate floor, a small handful of 
Senate Republicans are blocking the key diplomatic personnel that would 
be able to unite U.S. policy with Europe around Russia's threatened 
invasion of Ukraine. And so I hear a lot of really strong-sounding 
press statements from many of my Republican colleagues, often the exact 
same Republican colleagues who are blocking these nominees, about how 
Joe Biden needs to stand strong for Ukraine, while, at the same time, 
they are down here on the floor denying President Biden the personnel 
that he needs in order to enact a policy that can save Ukraine from 
disaster--the Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, the 
U.S. Representative to the EU, the U.S. Representative to OECD, 
numerous Ambassadors to European countries, including our Ambassador to 
France, France being one of the key nations that will help orchestrate 
a policy of cohesion amongst European nations with respect to the 
crisis in Ukraine.
  And so everybody sees what is going on here. Not all of my Republican 
colleagues, but a small handful of my Republican colleagues, are 
setting the President up, raising expectations about what he should be 
able to do to save Ukraine but then denying him the personnel to get it 
done.
  And I understand that, you know, the refrain from my Republican 
colleagues is, well, you know, Senator Schumer should just file 
cloture. They know how this works. For cloture, because of our current 
rules, the whole process takes days. We have pages full of nominees 
that we have to do. We wouldn't be able to conduct any other business. 
The Senate has never run like this.
  When the Senate has had qualified nominees like Jack Markell, Mark 
Gitenstein, Denise Bauer in front of it, it has never required days of 
debate, cloture motions, in order to get key personnel, especially at 
times of need right now.
  I hope we get an agreement to move nominees, but, frankly, time is 
running short for Ukraine. Time is running short for the Ukrainian 
people, and my Republican colleagues--the handful that are blocking 
these nominees--better decide whether they are interested in scoring 
political points or whether they are interested in standing up for the 
security of the United States and the security of the Ukrainian people.