[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  NATO

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now on NATO, today the Senate will be 
voting on the resolution of ratification for the Finnish and Swedish 
applications to join NATO. This is a very important vote. The NATO vote 
is a very important vote for American security around the world.
  Finland's and Sweden's membership will strengthen NATO even further 
and is all the more urgent given Russian aggression, given Putin's 
immoral and unjustified war in Ukraine. Putin is strengthening the 
NATO alliance, and nothing shows it better than the vote we will have 
this afternoon. With the vote, the Senate will come together in a 
bipartisan manner and bolster the Western alliance in the face of 
growing authoritarianism.

  When Leader McConnell and I met with the Finnish President and the 
Swedish Prime Minister back in May, we made a commitment to get this 
done as quickly as possible before the August recess, and today we are 
keeping that commitment by working together.
  Despite the differences between both sides, I have always said that 
when the opportunity arises, Democrats would be willing to work with 
Republicans in a bipartisan way to get things done. In the past few 
weeks, we have seen an amazing string of bipartisan achievements--a 
bipartisanship that hasn't been seen--with the passage of so many 
important bipartisan bills in such a short time.
  Together, we secured a historic investment in American science and 
industry. We just passed the largest expansion of veterans' benefits in 
decades. We passed significant gun legislation. And, today, we will 
work together to bolster the NATO alliance.
  So, again, under Democratic leadership, we want to work in a 
bipartisan way whenever we can, but when we can't, we will move forward 
on issues like climate and prescription drugs that we feel are very 
important, which I will talk about in a minute.
  Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, I invited the Ambassadors and 
other diplomats from Finland and Sweden to join us in the Gallery 
during our debate and votes today. So let's get this done by this 
afternoon.

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