[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 55 (Tuesday, March 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1833-S1835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

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      By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, 
        Mr. Grassley, Ms. Stabenow, 
        Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. King, 
        Mr. Blunt, Ms. Baldwin, 
        Mr. Cassidy, Mrs. Feinstein, 
        Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, 
        Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Hassan, 
        Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Coons):
  S. 3950. A bill to establish the Baltic Security and Economic 
Enhancement Initiative for the purpose of increasing security and 
economic ties with the Baltic countries and to establish the Baltic 
Security Initiative for the purpose of deepening security cooperation 
with the Baltic countries, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on another matter, Senator Rob Portman of 
Ohio and I are cochairs of the bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus. 
Tomorrow, we are hosting a meeting for Senators with members of the 
Ukrainian Parliament. The Parliament there is known as the Rada. They 
are coming to Washington to discuss how we can help even more in 
assisting the valiant people of Ukraine defending against this barbaric 
invasion by Vladimir Putin. I hope our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle will join us to send a clear message to Ukraine that we stand 
united in their efforts.
  Putin's unprovoked and unconscionable war on Ukraine has revealed 
what he is really all about. He is a tyrant seething with resentment, 
driven by delusions of great mother Russia, willing to slaughter 
innocent men, women, and children to restore a lost Russian Empire.

[[Page S1834]]

  We know from his current ravings and his past actions, Putin's 
ruthless pursuit of Russia's lost empire didn't begin with this war, 
and if we don't do something about it, it won't end there either.
  In 2003, the people of Georgia--another Soviet Republic--waged a Rose 
Revolution to claim a place among the family of democratic nations. 
Putin's aggrieved response was to send troops into that country to 
occupy portions of it--South Ossetia and Abkhazia--to redraw Georgia's 
national boundaries by force. I traveled to that area in 2012 and saw 
firsthand what Putin's occupation of that tiny nation meant.
  In 2014, the people of Ukraine rose up to demand change as well--the 
Revolution of Dignity, they called it. They succeeded and threw out the 
deeply corrupt Russian-backed President. They ousted him from 
Parliament. When they did, he fled to Moscow, his real home. Putin's 
revenge months later was to send Russian troops to invade and annex the 
Crimean peninsula and the Donbas regions of eastern Ukraine by force. 
They have continued to wage that war.
  I have mentioned many times my concern for this region, and I guess 
it is attached to the fact that my mother was born in Lithuania and 
came here as a little girl. Her family fled from the oppression of 
czarist Russia, which then controlled the Baltic States and far beyond.
  During World War II, the Baltic States endured brutal Nazi 
occupation, and after the war, they were held captive behind the Iron 
Curtain by the USSR.
  In August 1989, 2 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 2 
million people in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia physically, literally, 
joined hands in a peaceful protest. They formed a human chain, declared 
that they wanted to join Europe and be part of the family of 
democracies.
  Two years later, the Baltics threw off Russian occupiers and 
reclaimed their independence. It was a festive day. I was honored to be 
a witness to part of it. They worked to achieve the reform fundamental 
to democracies, to weed out corruption, establish market economies, and 
encourage the growth of civil society.
  In 2004, in a historic moment, a live-or-die moment for the Baltics, 
they became part of NATO. It was the first time--the very first time 
that NATO had opened its doors to nations that had been part of the 
Soviet Union. Over the years, the Baltic States strengthened their 
militaries to prove they would be assets and not liabilities to the 
alliance.
  Today, the Baltics provide a home to activists and dissidents from 
Russia and Belarus and are a beacon of democracy. And I say that with 
personal pride to have any association with these great nations.
  In 2008, after Russia had annexed parts of Georgia, the President of 
Poland visited Georgia's capital of Tbilisi and warned of the threat 
posed by Russia to the entire region. He said:

       Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow--
     the Baltic States and, later, perhaps, time will come for 
     [his] country, Poland.

  Well, today, Senator Grassley and I are introducing a bill to 
discourage Russia from extending Putin's war into NATO territory and 
forcing the alliance to invoke its article 5 collective security 
commitment.
  Our bill is called the Baltic Defense and Deterrence Act. It directs 
the Department of State and the Department of Defense to establish and 
implement economic and security initiatives to deepen U.S. ties with 
the Baltic States. Our bill will strengthen our strong partnership. It 
will enhance the capability of the region's critical allies in NATO's 
eastern flank to respond to threats, including Russia's misinformation 
and disinformation, their cyber warfare, and, in Lithuania's case, 
growing economic pressure.
  Cosponsors come from both sides of the aisle: Senators Stabenow, 
King, Feinstein, Blunt, Blumenthal, Baldwin, Duckworth, Booker, and 
Senator Scott of Florida. Representatives Ruben Gallego and Don Bacon 
are cosponsoring a bipartisan companion bill in the House.
  In conclusion, in 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin offered the 
Baltic States unilateral security guarantees if they would give up 
aspirations to join NATO. They refused. They were determined to become 
their own sovereign states, their own democracy, and they have 
succeeded.
  Kurt Volker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former U.S. Special 
Representative to Ukraine, has said that, far from being a burden on 
NATO, the admission of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia has reinvigorated 
the alliance. In his words, the Baltic States turned out to be ``the 
best democratic and economic reformers, the ones most committed to 
build fresh new militaries, and the ones willing to support the U.S. in 
other fora.''
  They have sent troops on costly U.S. missions, and their troops have 
fought and died alongside NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 
securing America's economic and security partnerships with the Baltics, 
our bill will help deter Vladimir Putin from extending his barbaric war 
into NATO territory.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3950

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Baltic Defense and 
     Deterrence Act''.

     SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) supporting and strengthening the security of Estonia, 
     Latvia, and Lithuania (referred to in this Act as the 
     ``Baltic countries'') is in the national security interests 
     of the United States;
       (2) continuing to strengthen and update the United States-
     Baltics security cooperation roadmap is critical to achieving 
     strategic security priorities as the Baltic countries face 
     ongoing belligerence and threats from the Russian Federation, 
     including amid the Russian Federation's illegal and 
     unprovoked war in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022;
       (3) the United States should encourage advancement of the 
     Three Seas Initiative to strengthen transport, energy, and 
     digital infrastructures among Eastern European countries, 
     including the Baltic countries; and
       (4) improved economic ties between the United States and 
     the Baltic countries, including to counter economic pressure 
     by the People's Republic of China, offer an opportunity to 
     strengthen the United States-Baltic strategic partnership.

     SEC. 3. BALTIC SECURITY AND ECONOMIC ENHANCEMENT INITIATIVE.

       (a) Establishment.--The Secretary of State shall establish 
     and implement an initiative, to be known as the ``Baltic 
     Security and Economic Enhancement Initiative'', for the 
     purpose of increasing security and economic ties with the 
     Baltic countries.
       (b) Objectives.--The objectives of the Baltic Security and 
     Economic Enhancement Initiative shall be--
       (1) to ensure timely delivery of security assistance to the 
     Baltic countries, prioritizing assistance to bolster defenses 
     against hybrid warfare and improve interoperability with the 
     military forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization;
       (2) to mitigate the impact on the Baltic countries of 
     economic coercion by the Russian Federation and the People's 
     Republic of China;
       (3) to identify new opportunities for foreign direct 
     investment and United States business ties; and
       (4) to bolster United States support for the economic and 
     energy security needs of the Baltic countries, including by 
     convening an annual trade forum with the Baltic countries and 
     the United States International Development Finance 
     Corporation.
       (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized 
     to be appropriated for the Department of State, $60,000,000 
     for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to carry out the 
     initiative authorized under subsection (a).

     SEC. 4. BALTIC SECURITY INITIATIVE.

       (a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     establish and implement an initiative, to be known as the 
     ``Baltic Security Initiative'', for the purpose of deepening 
     security cooperation with the Baltic countries.
       (b) Objectives.--The objectives of the Baltic Security 
     Initiative shall be--
       (1) to achieve United States national security objectives, 
     including deterring aggression by the Russian Federation and 
     bolstering the long-term security of North Atlantic Treaty 
     Organization allies;
       (2) to enhance regional planning and cooperation among the 
     Baltic countries, particularly with respect to long-term 
     regional capability projects, including--
       (A) long-range precision fire systems and capabilities;
       (B) integrated air and missile defense;
       (C) maritime domain awareness;
       (D) land forces development, including stockpiling large 
     caliber ammunition;
       (E) command, control, communications, computers, 
     intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance;

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       (F) special operations forces development; and
       (G) coordination with and security enhancements for Poland, 
     which is a neighboring North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
     ally; and
       (3) to improve the Baltic countries' cyber defenses and 
     resilience to hybrid threats.
       (c) Strategy.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 
     submit to Congress a report setting forth the strategy of the 
     Department of Defense to achieve the objectives described in 
     subsection (b).
       (2) Considerations.--The strategy required by paragraph (1) 
     shall include a consideration of--
       (A) security assistance programs for the Baltic countries 
     managed by the Department of State;
       (B) the ongoing security threats to the North Atlantic 
     Treaty Organization's eastern flank posed by Russian 
     aggression, including as a result of the Russia Federation's 
     2022 invasion of Ukraine with support from Belarus; and
       (C) rising tensions with, and presence in the Baltic 
     countries of, the People's Republic of China, including 
     economic bullying of the Baltic countries by the People's 
     Republic of China.
       (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized 
     to be appropriated for the Department of Defense, 
     $250,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to 
     carry out the initiative authorized under subsection (a).

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