[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 30 (Thursday, February 15, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRESS STANDS SILENT IN THIS HOUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, we leave today a day early. We essentially 
have 4-day weeks. That is, 25 percent of the work that we were planning 
to do, we are not going to do. We leave, I think, because we either 
can't do our work or we won't be allowed to do our work.
  Madam Speaker, I rise again, as I have so many times when we were 
leaving without doing the critical business of America and the world. I 
rise, again, for our allies in Ukraine and Israel. I rise for the 
defense of democracy and freedom of people who are fighting for their 
very survival as a democracy.
  The other week, I read a story, Madam Speaker, about the desperate 
situation on the front lines outside Kharkiv in Ukraine. The Ukrainian 
Air Defense soldier positioned outside the city spotted a salvo of 
Russian missiles rising over the horizon. He stood there helplessly. 
His unit lacked the equipment and ammunition necessary to shoot 
missiles down.
  Within minutes, the missile struck a residential complex, killing 
numerous civilians. Yet, we stand here ready to walk out of this 
Chamber, our work undone.
  The soldier later told the journalist: ``I understood they would fly 
and hit people and that I couldn't do anything to prevent it from 
happening.''
  He was right. There was nothing he could have done because he did not 
have the weapons that were necessary.
  The Congress, of course, cannot say the same. We can do something. We 
must do something. This Congress stands silent in this House. The 
Senate has acted late, but it is never too late to do the right thing.
  This Congress remains silent. For 413 days, our Congress has failed 
to secure additional aid for Ukraine. For 131 days, we have failed to 
do the same for Israel.
  This inaction is born not of a lack of consensus because we have over 
300 votes on this floor for either one of those bills and, I think, the 
Senate bill.
  Instead, we see Trump's and the far right's astounding sympathy for 
Putin. Just the other day, Senator Tuberville said to blame America 
first, that it is our fault, that we made Putin, a war criminal, invade 
Ukraine.
  All seven times supplemental aid for Ukraine came to the House floor 
in recent months, over 300 Members supported it. So, it is not that we 
do not have consensus. It is that the Speaker will not allow consensus 
to be spoken.

  The Senate just passed a bill to provide this aid to our allies with 
70 votes. Seventy percent of the Senate sent us a bill. The question is 
not whether this legislation would receive enough votes to pass this 
House. The question is whether Speaker Johnson will give us the 
opportunity to vote on it at all. The Speaker's refusal to do so is 
causing Ukrainians to die.
  The Speaker is preventing the people's House from working its will as 
the Senate did. The Speaker should give the victims of Putin's war 
crimes a vote and hope. Tell Putin: ``Nyet.'' Every minute that we 
don't signals retreat instead of a resolve.
  Incomprehensibly, Trump amplified that dangerous message over the 
weekend, explicitly saying he would not only refuse to defend our NATO 
allies but would encourage the Russians ``to do whatever the hell they 
want.''
  Is that America? Is that the leadership we want to portray to the 
world? Is that the leader of the free world? Mute. That, Madam Speaker, 
is aid and comfort to our enemies.
  Those aren't the words of someone who seeks to lead the free world. 
They are the words of someone who would turn his back on the free 
world. Every Republican, no matter what office they hold or seek, ought 
to go on record and condemn those comments.
  Governor Christie would agree with that statement. Putin salivates, 
Madam Speaker, at this inaction and division sown by the isolationist, 
authoritarian-loving factions of one of our parties that leads this 
House. That is why he recently sat down with Tucker Carlson.
  The Speaker should give us a vote. We have the votes. Ukraine and 
Israel cry out for America's help and leadership.

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