[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 200 (Tuesday, December 5, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5719-S5720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, later today, President Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy will address Senators through a secured video at our 
classified briefing on the war in Ukraine. This will be at least the 
third time President Zelenskyy has addressed Senators since the 
beginning of the war. The last time he spoke to us, his message was 
direct and unsparing: Without more aid from Congress, Ukraine does not 
have the means to defeat Vladimir Putin.
  Without more aid from Congress, Ukraine may fall. Democracy in Europe 
will be in peril. And those who think Vladimir Putin will stop merely 
at Ukraine willfully ignore the clear and unmistakable warnings of 
history.
  It is, therefore, urgent for the Senate to pass a security 
supplemental. Last night, I filed cloture on a motion to proceed to a 
vehicle the Senate can use as a supplemental package. We will have our 
first vote on this vehicle Wednesday in the afternoon. I urge my 
colleagues to think about what is at stake in this moment in history. I 
implore them to do what is necessary to protect America's security.
  If we allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe, if we abandon 
Ukraine in its hour of need, it will make the world a more hostile 
place for democracy and Western values. It will send a message to the 
world that America is not up to the task of protecting democracy and 
Western values in this century. It will be a gift to the Chinese 
Communist Party, to the regime in Iran, to adversaries around the world 
who want nothing more than to see our demise.
  The Ukrainians are fighting valiantly. They haven't asked for 
American troops, with the concomitant casualties and pain that would 
cause. All they need is adequate weaponry. How can we turn them down? 
How can we turn them down?
  There is only one right answer. We must do what America has always 
done through her history: defend democracy, stand up to autocratic 
thugs like Putin, and put our adversaries on notice that America's 
resolve will not falter.

[[Page S5720]]

  Now, the Senate's supplemental package remains on hold because our 
Republican colleagues have insisted that they need an immigration 
proposal to pass. While immigration is important, it is a separate 
issue from foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to 
Gaza and the Indo-Pacific. It is a difficult issue we have debated and 
never come to a conclusion on for decades. It is extraneous to this 
debate.
  Some of our Republican leaders say: Well, that is what the public 
wants.
  Yes, the public wants border, but it is unrelated to Ukraine. Our 
Republican friends are saying they will defend democracy only at a 
price unacceptable to Democrats, and the price is forcing Congress to 
accept radical immigration policies that come straight from Donald 
Trump.
  One Republican Senator said yesterday--listen to this. He said:

       This is not a traditional negotiation, where we expect to 
     come up with a bipartisan compromise on the border. This is a 
     price that has to be paid in order to get the supplemental.

  No compromise--why are we sitting down and talking if there is never 
going to be a compromise? What that Republican Senator said, Mr. 
President, is the textbook definition of hostage-taking.
  I want to be clear. First, Democrats want to deal with the problems 
of immigration and the border. We have been trying for years. But--I 
also want to be clear--if Republicans had not brought up immigration, 
an important but separate and partisan issue that has been debated for 
decades, Ukraine funding would not be in danger right now.
  This mess was created entirely by hard-right Republicans, and, 
alarmingly, Republican leadership has gotten behind them. And most of 
those hard-right Republicans who say we must have border don't want to 
vote for aid for Ukraine, in any case.
  If funding for Ukraine fails, it will not be a bipartisan failure. It 
will be a failure solely caused by the Republican Party and the 
Republican leadership because it was a decision of that Republican 
leadership, pushed by the hard right, many of whom want Ukraine to 
fail, to make border a precondition to supporting Ukraine.
  Let me say that again because the logic is perfectly clear and 
irrefutable. If funding for Ukraine fails, the failure will solely be 
on the Republican Party because it was the decision of the Republican 
leadership, pushed by the hard right, many of whom want Ukraine to 
fail, to make border a precondition to supporting Ukraine.
  Now, even though we warned Republicans about the dangers of injecting 
partisan border issues which threaten to derail aid to Ukraine, we sat 
down at the negotiating table in good faith. We said from the get-go we 
would be willing to compromise. Everyone would like to come to a 
compromise on border--a bipartisan compromise, a real compromise, not 
one side demanding everything, as that one Republican Senator said.

  For 3 weeks, Democrats have tried to be reasonable with our 
Republican colleagues to see if we can find some common ground on 
immigration. Some days, these negotiations look promising. We have been 
more than willing to show compromise. But, sadly, each time we try to 
meet Republicans at the middle, they have been moving the goalposts 
back, proposing nasty policies like indefinite detention for asylum 
seekers and sweeping powers to shut down our entire immigration system, 
which has been a hallmark of America for centuries.
  After Speaker Johnson said last week that only policies along the 
lines of H.R. 2 can make it through the House, Republican negotiators 
here in the Senate gave up even pretending to show compromise. That is 
why the negotiations broke off Friday night. Republicans pulled the 
goalposts way back and proposed many items plucked directly from H.R. 2 
or very similar to it--the same H.R. 2 that got not a single Democratic 
vote here in the Senate, the same H.R. 2 that couldn't even pass on the 
House floor, when it is attached to Ukraine, because it needs 
Democratic votes to pass it because 30 Republican Congressmen won't 
vote for any Ukraine aid. So despite Democrats' best efforts, 
negotiations have been going in circles.
  Look, we want to find a way to solve immigration with our Republican 
colleagues. We know this is an important issue. We have many Members 
who represent border States and border communities. But if Republicans 
are holding up aid to Ukraine because they want us to work with them on 
border, the onus is on them to present to us a realistic, bipartisan 
proposal that can actually pass the Senate, with aid to Ukraine as 
well. And we need a bipartisan proposal that can get the broad support 
of Democrats, not just one or two while the rest of us are strongly in 
opposition.
  Again, if Republicans want to bring up immigration right now, right 
in the middle of trying to pass aid to Ukraine and other issues, the 
onus is on them to present serious bipartisan proposals that can get 
broad support from Democrats, not just one or two Democrats. And if 
Republicans are unable to produce a broadly bipartisan immigration 
proposal, they should not block aid to Ukraine in response.
  They should not be resorting to hostage-taking, as the Senator from 
Texas seems to be admitting. That would be madness--utter madness. It 
would be an insult to our Ukrainian friends, who are fighting for their 
lives against Russian autocracy, and it could go down as a major 
turning point where the West didn't live up to its responsibilities and 
things turned away from our democracies and our values and toward 
autocracy.
  Ronald Reagan would be rolling in his grave--rolling in his grave--if 
he saw his own party let Vladimir Putin roll through Europe.
  So, once again, I urge my Republican colleagues to think carefully 
about what is at stake with this week's vote. What we do now will 
reverberate across the world for years and decades to come, and 
history--history--will render harsh judgment on those who abandon 
democracy for Donald Trump's extreme immigration policies.