[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.