[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 27, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S998-S999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I just returned from the Middle East. We 
have 140 members of our Wyoming Air National Guard, and they are 
currently serving our Nation, and they are stationed in Djibouti. 
Wyoming is very proud of these brave men and women who are fighting for 
our freedom. Visiting them was a reminder of what makes America strong. 
It is also a reminder of the challenges we continue to face.
  There is a confluence of crises all around the world, from El Paso, 
TX, to Jerusalem, Israel. These terrible crises did not emerge 
overnight. They are the direct result of the weakness of the current 
President of the United States.
  President Biden has been weak in the defenses of our Nation. It is 
obvious to me. It is obvious to people around the country. It is 
obvious to people all around the world. Since he took office, he and 
the Democrats have taken a wrecking ball to so many different sources 
of our Nation's strength. They hollowed out America's military power in 
favor of wokeness. It has impacted and undermined recruitment. They 
sold out American economic strength. In favor of what? Well, Big 
Government at home and massive government spending. They traded away 
America's energy dominance. Why? Well, in favor of Green New Deal 
fantasies.
  It does seem that Democrats apologize for American excellence at 
every turn. They have worked to make us more dependent upon our 
enemies.
  President Biden's latest energy disaster--he would call it a move; I 
would call it a disaster--weakens our Nation even further. The 
administration announced in January that it would freeze permits for 
liquefied natural gas exports. I view this decision as astonishingly 
foolish.
  Affordable, reliable energy is the foundation of a strong, affordable 
economy. America's energy revolution created many good-paying jobs all 
across the country and certainly in my home State of Wyoming. It made 
us as a nation energy independent--some would go so far as to say 
energy dominant--and it helped us build the world's largest LNG export 
industry. It also gave our European allies a secure energy source. This 
is at the time of Russia's incursion into Ukraine. This is one of the 
best examples of how American economic strength makes the world safer.

  The Republicans want to make Europe less dependent on Russia for 
energy sources and more connected to the United States. That is not 
what I see happening with this administration. Both by word and action, 
Democrats and this President make America and our allies more dependent 
on our adversaries.
  Attacking American energy dominance is a pattern in this 
administration. It started on day one. Remember, it was day one that, 
after the President gave a speech right out here at the Capitol 
Building about how he wanted to bring the Nation together, he went down 
and took an ax to the Keystone XL Pipeline, and he opened the 
floodgates at the same time to the crises we are having at our southern 
border.
  The President restricted offshore oil drilling, and he has placed a 
moratorium on new coal permits on Federal lands--all of these things 
undermining American energy security. Now comes this blow where he is 
cutting American natural gas exports. He is denying Americans good 
jobs, lower prices, and empowering Russia and Iran.
  Joe Biden has failed fundamentally what should be the goal of any 
President, which is to make America stronger, safer, more secure.
  President Biden also has a long list of foreign policy failures. 
Nobody can forget the deadly and disastrous withdrawal from 
Afghanistan. Taliban terrorists seized $7 billion in weapons. So many 
Americans were left behind. Thirteen brave soldiers lost their lives, 
including one from Wyoming, Rylee McCollum from Bondurant, WY. The fall 
of Kabul was a deadly disaster.
  In January of 2022, the President made another damaging misstep. He 
suggested that a minor incursion by Russia into Ukraine would be met 
with minimal consequences. Weeks later, we saw Russian tanks head into 
Kyiv.
  Then there is the chaos in the Middle East. In September 2023, the 
President's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, made a bold 
pronouncement. He said:

       The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in 
     two decades.

  Eight days later, Hamas attacked Israel. They killed more than 1,200 
Israelis. They took hundreds more hostage, including American citizens. 
It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

[[Page S999]]

  The conflicts in the Middle East are devastating, destructive, and 
destabilizing. They threaten America's interests and America's allies. 
Yet President Biden works hard to accommodate our enemies. He is a 
fair-weather friend to our great ally in the Middle East, Israel. We 
see that in his maximum-concessions policy towards Iran.
  Early on, Biden pushed to rejoin Obama's Iran nuclear deal. He was 
negotiating to lift all sanctions imposed by President Trump.
  The Biden administration's lack of sanction enforcement and use of 
sanction waivers simply funded the Iranian regime. Iran used this flood 
of cash to bankroll Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorists 
proxies. In turn, the terror proxies attacked America, attacked our 
allies, and the attacks have only increased since October 7. Iranian 
proxies have attacked American servicemembers in the Middle East at 
least 180 times in the past 4 months. Let me say this again--180 
attacks on American servicemembers in the last 4 months. We have lost 
five American troops because of these attacks.
  As the Commander in Chief, President Biden bears full responsibility 
for the continuity of crises that he has created.
  It is no surprise that Americans overwhelmingly believe our country 
is heading in the wrong direction. America needs to change course. 
Republicans are the party of American strength. We believe in peace 
through strength, not dependence on our enemies. Americans deserve a 
President who is strong and a nation that is safe and a nation that is 
secure. That is our commitment.
  So I will tell you, Mr. President, the day I came back from Djibouti, 
it was very distressing to see the report in the New York Times. They 
reported that America and this administration have failed to do what it 
said it would do in terms of Iran selling oil to China--failed. If it 
hadn't been for the New York Times reporting, the American people 
wouldn't know because the administration would never tell them that 
tanker after tanker has moved 59 million barrels of oil from Iran to 
China. Every one of those tankers ended up in China, and the cash, 
worth a minimum $2.8 billion, ended up back in Iran. That is the money 
Iran has been using to fund these 180 attacks on American 
servicemembers in the last 4 months.
  We know where the money is coming from. Yet Democrats look the other 
way. The Secretary of Treasury, hapless as she is, came to Congress and 
testified--inaccurately, possibly misleadingly--that the administration 
is doing everything they can. Well, they are not. This administration 
is looking the other way as a hapless and diminished President Biden 
continues to be outplayed by Iran, and this is evident to the world.
  As Joe Biden bungles along, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and communist 
China continue on the march. We need a strong President to keep us 
strong and safe and secure.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.