[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 162 (Tuesday, October 3, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4910-S4912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I don't expect this to be the best formed 
set of remarks that I have ever made on the floor of the U.S. Senate, 
and I would guess that they could be refined and improved--and maybe 
somebody will edit them and make them in a better form--but I didn't 
want to miss the opportunity to express my views in regard to several 
things that occurred in the U.S. Senate, in the Congress, in this 
country last week.
  I think our country faces perhaps the greatest challenges ever faced 
in my lifetime, certainly in my time as an elected official. It seems 
to me that the array of challenges from our adversaries are real, are 
increasing, and are threatening.
  I have always been an optimist. I expect us to be able to do the 
things necessary to change the course of history, to make sure that the 
United States remains the country that it is today.
  Perhaps my fears arise because Robba and I are now grandparents. 
Perhaps it is this love of another generation and the desire to see 
that they experience the things that I have been able to experience in 
my lifetime.
  I want to highlight a recent and important essay penned by a former 
Secretary of Defense. Robert Gates, a fellow Kansan, warns of our 
government dysfunction at a moment in history in which our Nation 
confronts graver threats to its security than it has in past decades--
perhaps ever.
  Our constituents, from time to time, pay attention to what we do 
here, but I want us to recognize that perhaps even more intently, our 
adversaries pay attention to what we do or don't do here.
  What we do and how we do it either strengthens or harms the future of 
the United States. It can increase the trust placed in us by our allies 
or it can embolden our adversaries because if I am right, our future is 
in the balance, and we need to work to increase those who decide to be 
on the side of freedom and liberty, of stability, of a better life for 
all people. We need to be the leader of a coalition that understands 
the values and the American ideals and how they alter lives, and we 
need to make certain that those who should be on the side of right are 
not sitting on the fence.
  During my time in the U.S. Senate, I have never been more angry or 
more sullen than those few days that week or so in which our country 
left Afghanistan. Our unprepared actions and void of leadership 
resulted in the deaths of Americans, American servicemembers, and it 
stranded thousands of Afghans--Afghan allies--behind enemy lines. I 
raise this because I want to tie it to what may now be happening here. 
Those few days may have been among the most costly in emboldening those 
who seek our country's demise, and I fear today that we are about to 
again demonstrate to the world our feckless ambivalence to lead. I 
don't want us to lead as a superior or to be in the face of our allies, 
but I want people who care, countries that believe in peace and 
prosperity and freedom around the globe to be part of an alliance that 
the United States is an important component of.
  Normally, when we think about the challenges we face from adversaries 
abroad, we would think: Well, it is time to increase defense spending. 
We need more assets. We need to make our military stronger. My view--
and I believe the correct view--is that is true. But of equal 
importance, we need to demonstrate resolve, resolve in the support of 
allies and resolve in the resistance to enemies.
  When I say that I fear today we are failing, I speak of the 
ambivalence of our commitment to support the efforts to repeal, 
repulse, remove the Putin invasion across the borders of Ukraine. 
Should we fail to live up to the necessary deeds and actions that need 
to be taken, in my view, we are once again replicating the message that 
we sent in our chaotic and unfortunate manner in which we withdrew from 
Afghanistan. To my colleagues who might criticize one but look the 
other way to the other, I think it is a view that cannot be 
sustained. Failure to do right, to do things right, is the same, and 
the consequences are the same. Leadership depends upon reliability.

  Today, Americans cannot go it alone. We are not the only power in the 
world. The burdens of today's challenges are too immense to carry 
alone. Our allies are force multipliers, and failing to lead in Ukraine 
lets those most in danger--those in the neighborhood of Ukraine--change 
course and look elsewhere for a path forward.
  It is always easier to duck responsibilities, but almost never is it 
the right course of action.
  Our European allies and those elsewhere in the world continue to look 
to the United States of America for leadership. The end of American 
support to Ukraine would be another indication--just as I believe it 
was in our withdrawal from Afghanistan--that we are not the leaders 
that are necessary in today's dangerous world. Never do we want to be 
seen by those waiting to pick a side--we would never want them to reach 
the conclusion that the United States cannot be relied upon.
  Another Cabinet Secretary just like Robert Gates--this one is from 
Wichita, KS, as well--former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and I 
penned a joint opinion piece. We made the case of helping Ukraine. 
While I pointed out how it matters to the world, what we pointed out is 
how it matters to America, to the American citizens and to the future 
of our country, and that we benefit, the United States, by the 
Ukrainians' success in their country.
  All of this discussion last week about whether Ukraine should 
continue to receive funding was surrounded by another development in 
our body politic--in the way that we do business in this Congress and 
in the way that we make decisions about the right course forward. So 
let me tie to the concerns I have about the decision that was made in 
regard to Ukraine to the difficulties we had in what should be 
straightforward: funding the government into the future.
  Every county commission, every school board, every city council in 
Kansas can come up with a budget and make decisions about the funding 
of their business, the funding of their purpose into the future, and we 
turned what should be routine decisions--I say ``routine,'' but they 
are decisions made with care and thought. There is no question that the 
spending path we are on is not sustainable. We are on a different path. 
Even the appropriations bills--the 13 that have passed the U.S. 
Committee on Appropriations--are on a different path than what we have 
been on in increasing spending.
  Those are important decisions, but we don't need to manufacture a 
crisis to make a point. The crisis doesn't solve the spending problem. 
Yet, in so many instances, we look for the highlight, the television 
time, the social media responses that sometimes seem to reward the 
behavior that is the most disruptive and the least effective.
  The challenges we face require setting aside unnecessary disagreement 
and disunion. Last week demonstrated our system as creating disunion 
when we need unity and common ground in a dangerous world. Of all the 
times that I would expect Americans and their elected officials to come 
together would be when we see the actions, when we know the dangerous 
nature of our world: when we see what China is doing and what its 
intentions seem to be; when we know what is taking place in Iran and 
their efforts around the globe; when Russia invades a neighboring 
country's borders; when North Korea fires missiles.
  We have united as a nation numerous times in our history, and we need 
to return to those circumstances. When things are so different, 
Americans need to pull together, and that can happen if there is 
leadership here in Congress to do so.

[[Page S4911]]

  Again, one would think--if you believe those challenges are real, as 
I do, and if you care about the next generation of your own family and 
Americans whom you will never meet, it seems to me that now would be 
the time to lower the temperature and to find that common ground that 
puts us in a position that we can be optimistic about our Nation's 
future. It doesn't mean that we don't face challenges, and it doesn't 
mean that we don't have disagreement. It does mean that there is value 
in finding a solution as compared to accentuating the differences on 
the evening news. It means explaining to our constituents why, yes, we 
disagree with a colleague from another State, why we disagree with the 
Democrats and we disagree with the Republicans and we think we are 
right. It doesn't mean giving up what you believe in or what you know 
to be right, but it means, isn't there a path by which we can turn down 
the fire and pull people together?
  So last week--I am giving these remarks because I spent the weekend 
rethinking what transpired last Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and really 
what has transpired over a much longer period of time. I concluded 
that, at the first opportunity, I wanted to make the case that our 
future is bright, but it is only bright when we work together.
  I would say that it is incumbent upon us to send a message--but it is 
more than that--send a message that we are a reliable partner, to 
encourage allies around the world to be helpful to Ukraine. The 
Europeans are now a little bit ahead of us in the support that they now 
envision now that they plan for support for Ukraine. We have asked for 
that. They have now moved in that direction, but it will disappear and 
disappear quickly if we don't demonstrate that we are going to do what 
we set out to accomplish.
  By the way, we had a conversation about our borders. Our borders need 
desperate attention, and it is another national security issue. As we 
work to right the cause for America's well-being, enhancing Ukraine's 
chance for success in defeating Putin, we should also resolutely move 
forward in ending the failure to protect our own country on our own 
border.
  We have work to do. We can look the other way or we can decide that 
we are going to do what, over the long period of time, is right. We can 
decide that it would be nice to be popular at the moment but that it 
would be better to be right in the long term.
  I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in the U.S. Senate, 
and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve with the 
colleagues I do. Last week was a discouraging moment in my time in 
public service, but I am an optimist. And this week and next week and 
the next week that follows--the next 47 days--can be times of good work 
for the American people and a safer and more secure United States and 
world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am grateful to follow my friend--and 
he is a friend--the Senator from Kansas, who stated very eloquently a 
number of challenges that lie ahead and the reasons we do have to come 
together on a bipartisan basis to make America and the world more 
secure.
  Like him, I found last week to be both frustrating and discouraging, 
but I have been heartened, first, by the overwhelming bipartisan votes 
in this Chamber in favor of aid to Ukraine--in fact, in support of a 
bipartisan compromise that included aid to Ukraine and provided a 
temporary extension of funding, which eventually became the core of the 
measure adopted by the House.
  I have been encouraged as well by the leadership of Senator Schumer 
and Senator McConnell in coming together with Senator Collins and 
Senator Murray to say that we will fulfill our obligation to Ukraine 
and that we will do it promptly.
  That is why I am on the floor of the Senate right now--to emphasize 
the urgency of making sure that we provide Ukraine with the tools, the 
financial support, the humanitarian assistance, and the arms that it 
needs to win. And it can win. It is making solid, steady progress. I 
have seen the maps. I have visited Ukraine four times in the last 18 
months. Ukraine can win, and it will win if we provide Ukraine with the 
tools it needs, but it must be done now.
  We owe it to the men and women who are in those trenches right now, 
bleeding and dying, and who are watching America.
  We owe it to the leadership of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy, who has 
asked me on each of those four visits: Will the United States stay by 
our side? And I have assured him that, yes, we will be solid.
  We owe it to our allies who are also watching--our allies and our 
adversaries. And, make no mistake, the Chinese have changed their view 
of whether they can count on the United States to fail and falter, 
because, so far, we have stood strong, sending a message to China about 
what we would do if China invades Taiwan.
  The world is watching, and history is watching.
  To my colleagues, there are few, if any, votes you will take or 
actions by which you will be measured more intently and importantly 
than what we do right now--not months away but days away--on what we 
must do in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
  I urge the administration to take whatever action is necessary--
again, not just in statements, not just in words, but in deeds.
  Ukraine is waiting for the longer range artillery, the ATACMS, that 
it needs to pound targets where the Russians gather intelligence, where 
they store supplies, where they conduct their leadership. Those ATACMS 
are necessary--not just the HIMARS but the longer range artillery. We 
need to train the pilots. That can be done under existing authority and 
financial support. They need to provide munitions--we are producing 
more, but Ukraine continues to use them at a rate of roughly 10 times 
or 15 what we are providing; drones, which have become the new fulcrum 
of the battlefield not only to gather intelligence but to deliver the 
kind of ordnance that we need to provide.
  These actions by the administration can be done with existing 
funding. But the fact of the matter is that, as of this week or just 
days afterward, the Pentagon may well run out of funding for new 
weapons platforms. Without an immediate replenishment, it cannot, over 
the longer term, provide Ukraine with critical systems, like the air 
defense platforms, that Ukraine needs to protect its civilians as well 
as its military targets. Winter is approaching, and Russia will 
continue to bombard its infrastructure unless it has that air defense. 
Those systems, the hospitals, the schools, the grid for electricity are 
now supremely susceptible to that kind of air bombardment.

  We know Patriot air defense works. I have seen it myself in the midst 
of air raids on Kyiv, where I went to the bunker and Kyiv's air defense 
successfully fended off those missiles and drones that were coming 
after it.
  We know the urgency of those ATACMS. We have heard it from the 
Ukrainians. We have heard it from our own military about how important 
they can be. I urge the administration to provide that longer range 
artillery as soon as it can do so.
  But we have a larger task ahead of us. The supplemental at $24 
billion is a necessary start right now. We can take advantage of the 
bipartisan agreement that we have expressed in this Chamber and in the 
House to make it happen, to move quickly and promptly.
  I recognize there is turmoil in the House of Representatives. I am 
clear-eyed about the possibility of growing fatigue among the American 
people. But it is on us in the U.S. Senate. It is on us as leaders to 
make the case and convince America that it is on us and in our interest 
because if we fail now to make this investment, the costs will be far 
greater when Putin wins.
  We will have the need not just to provide weapons platforms but 
troops on the ground because that will be our treaty obligation if 
Putin then goes against Romania, Poland, Moldova, Finland, and Sweden. 
He will pick one of them.
  We know he will be on the march if he wins in Ukraine, and we will 
have proved him right about our faltering and failing. It will 
encourage not only him but also China, and we will have a far greater 
cost. It is our national security on the line. Ukrainians are fighting 
for our future, not just theirs; for our independence and freedom, not 
just their own.

[[Page S4912]]

  We have a national security interest in this fight, and we need to 
make the American people understand it.
  Sometimes history is personal. Sometimes it is shaped by a leader who 
has the courage and strength to step forward and put his life on the 
line. That is what Volodymyr Zelenskyy has done. He has inspired the 
people of Ukraine and the people around the world by staying in Ukraine 
and providing that leadership that is so important.
  I once asked him how he thought it would end. He said: In the end, it 
will be fine. And if it is not fine, it is not the end. They are 
determined, as he told me, to fight with pitch forks, if necessary. But 
we can't let them fight with pitch forks. We need to give them what 
they need to be successful and to vindicate the losses they have 
suffered.
  I have seen them in Bucha, the mass grave sites, where women and 
children had hands tied behind their backs, shot in the head, hundreds 
of them--a repeat of Stalin and Hitler in their killing of innocent 
people in exactly those ``bloodlands,'' as Professor Snyder has called 
them.
  We have all seen images of cities leveled, literally destroyed, not 
just Bakhmut but Mariupol. We have heard about children kidnapped from 
areas that Russia has occupied. I have talked to the prosecutor general 
about those thousands of children--literally thousands--taken from 
their parents, supposedly orphans, but their parents were still alive 
and parents taken away from children to Belarus.
  There is a reason why the International Court of Criminal Justice has 
issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and why he would be 
judged a war criminal if he ever were brought to trial--because he has 
committed atrocities that have no match in recent history for their 
scale and scope and their brutality.
  We are dealing with someone who has no respect for human life--either 
Ukrainian life or Russian life--because he will continue to send his 
people into the maw like cannon fire.
  In the face of that evil, the Ukrainians are determined. But we need 
to match their courage and strength with the resources that they need 
and with the arms that they need.
  Sometimes history is personal in what it means to us. My own dad left 
Germany in 1935. He came to this country at the age of 17. He spoke 
virtually no English. He had not much more than the shirt on his back. 
He knew no one. He left Germany alone at the age of 17 because he saw 
what was coming. He succeeded in bringing over his parents and his 
siblings and lost the rest of his family to the kind of brutality and 
atrocity that we are witnessing right now at the hands of Vladimir 
Putin.
  History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes. Evil often does repeat, 
even if it is not by the same people against the same people. What we 
are seeing now is evil. There are very few places in the world or 
conflicts or circumstances where there is, in fact, no gray area--black 
and white, good and evil.
  The world is watching now to see how we will keep faith: keep faith 
with our allies that have invested along with us at our side, keep 
faith with the people of Ukraine, and maybe most important, keep faith 
with ourselves and with our values.
  We are being watched not just by the world but by history. And our 
values and our self-image, our ability to look ourselves in the mirror 
and say, ``Yes, we did our job,'' is now what is at stake.
  History will remember us either as paragons of liberty or ineffectual 
bystanders.
  We can't wait for 45 days. We need a supplemental now. The men and 
women in the trenches of Ukraine can't wait 45 days for bullets and 
bandages. The people in Kyiv facing this winter without, potentially, 
food and electricity can't wait 45 days to know that we will stand by 
them. They are fighting for their future, for the dreams of 
independence and democracy.
  We are the most powerful, wealthiest, and the greatest Nation in the 
world not simply because of the example of our power but the power of 
our example.

  There are a lot of folks--and I was one of them--who are discouraged 
and frustrated, as I said right at the start, about the ability of our 
democracy to work, given what we went through over these past days. But 
we can show our values and our democracy at its best if we help the 
Ukrainians at this moment of unparalleled crisis for them.
  If we delay and falter, we lose time, and the loss of time and delay 
essentially means defeat.
  I urge my colleagues to join me to find a way forward, a path to vote 
as soon as possible to make that aid available to Ukraine. It is our 
obligation and our opportunity, at this critical moment in our history, 
when the world is watching and when others, long from now, will look 
back and watch what we did or failed to do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.