[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 3 (Monday, January 8, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S7]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Business Before the Senate

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I would like to begin by wishing our 
colleagues a very happy new year and welcoming everyone back to begin a 
new session.
  There is a tremendous amount on the Senate's plate, beginning with 
the unfinished business of the year that just ended.
  Yesterday, negotiators announced they had agreed on a path to 
completing full year appropriations for the fiscal year that began 3 
months ago. Delivering on this basic governing responsibility in a 
timely manner has proven a tough row to hoe, and building broad 
recognition of the most urgent priorities facing our Nation remains 
difficult.
  Here is the truth. Threats to U.S. national security are growing, and 
the Biden administration's habit of proposing real-dollar cuts to 
defense funding is a streak that must end at three. With its 
forthcoming budget request for fiscal year 2025, the administration 
needs to finally start taking the long-term needs of America's national 
security seriously.
  But Congress's most immediate opportunity to address urgent national 
security priorities will be supplemental legislation in the coming 
weeks. I was encouraged to see that Senator Lankford and our Democratic 
colleagues made progress toward an agreement to put meaningful border 
security policy at the heart of this supplemental.
  As negotiations continued over the holiday break, Customs and Border 
Protection reported that December set a new, alltime monthly tally for 
southern border apprehensions. The Biden administration's border crisis 
is not going to fix itself, and the status quo is unacceptable. The 
answer, as Republicans have been saying, literally for years, is to 
restore meaningful border enforcement and fix the broken policies that 
the cartels are exploiting to devastating effect. And I am grateful to 
Senator Lankford for continuing to insist on such commonsense steps at 
the negotiating table.
  The stakes here are quite high. We have an opportunity to make the 
most comprehensive headway on border security in a generation.
  But our national security challenges don't end at our own borders. 
The threats we face are intertwined, and the coming days will show the 
world whether America is willing to treat them accordingly. Allies and 
adversaries alike will be curious what we do with news that Russia is 
now attacking targets in Ukraine with ballistic missiles supplied by 
the rogue Kim regime in North Korea, following the suicide drones 
provided by Iran. Yet again, it is abundantly clear that authoritarians 
support authoritarians--as if our clear-eyed Pacific partners like 
Japan, South Korea, and Australia needed more evidence that what 
happens in Ukraine matters in their own neighborhood; as if we needed 
yet another reminder that facing down an expanded industrial base in 
Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea will require America and our 
allies and partners to invest more seriously in our own defense 
production capacity.
  Meanwhile, terrorists in Yemen are spelling out in painful detail 
just how wide the ripples of Iran's war machine extend. The world's 
most active state sponsor of terror isn't just a destabilizing force in 
the Middle East. Tehran isn't just sowing chaos for American-minded 
partners in the region. Tehran's bloody influence isn't even limited to 
helping to train the Hamas and PIJ terrorists who conducted the 
horrific massacre of Israeli Jews on October 7, or to building 
Hezbollah into a top-tier international terrorist organization, or to 
the repeated attacks its proxies have carried out against U.S. 
personnel in Iraq and Syria.
  The Houthis' campaign against civilian ships in the Red Sea is an 
assault on the global economy that the world has no choice but to 
address. Once more, an adversary's initiative has forced a reluctant 
administration to act.
  With fawning conciliation and half measures, the Biden administration 
has squandered deterrence against Iran. Russia is openly mocking the 
fickleness of Western support for Ukraine. And China, our single 
greatest strategic adversary, is watching closely to see if America can 
still manage to lead or sustain credible resistance to authoritarian 
violence.
  So these are the stakes after 3 years of the administration's foreign 
policy. The world is asking not when or how but whether the world's 
greatest superpower will start acting like one, which makes our work on 
the supplemental national security legislation even more urgent. 
Beginning at the southern border, we must demonstrate that America is 
up for the challenges we face. The Senate cannot afford to get this 
wrong.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.