[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2450-S2451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. President, now on the supplemental, the longer that the national 
security supplemental sits on Speaker Johnson's desk, the more 
desperate the situation in Ukraine becomes. The war in Ukraine is 
devastating entire cities and towns and villages, not just reducing 
their buildings to rubble but also decimating their populations. As a 
result, Ukraine is beginning to run out of soldiers. One Ukrainian 
village is even reported to have practically no men left because so 
many were drafted to fight, and many, sadly, will not return.
  A few weeks ago, I visited Ukraine with a group of Senators, and I 
will never forget the moment when they took us, in Lviv, to a cemetery. 
It was a parking lot 4 months earlier, but they needed more room to 
bury their dead. Half the cemetery was already filled with graves, and 
you saw the pictures on each grave site of the young men and young 
women whose lives were taken so soon in their lives. But right across 
the way, there were workers working, as we were looking at those who 
were already buried, building new graves because they knew there would 
be so many more dead. This was a sad sight, but it never saps the 
vitality and strength of President Zelenskyy and of the Ukrainian 
people, so we need to help them.
  What does Ukraine need? Ukraine is running out of munitions. Russia 
is now making three times--three times--as much artillery and munitions 
as the United States and Europe, and Ukrainian forces are suffering the 
consequences on the ground.
  The supplemental package will provide Ukraine the resources it lacks: 
military equipment, munitions, intelligence support, weaponry, more. 
Making sure Ukraine has the resources it needs is one of the best ways 
we can help them compensate for being outnumbered on the battlefield.
  Speaker Johnson knows this as well as I do. If he puts the 
supplemental on the floor of the House for a vote, it will pass with 
the same kind of bipartisan support we saw in the Senate. So my 
question for the Speaker is this: Why delay providing Ukraine the 
critical aid it needs to defend itself against Vladimir Putin?
  The supplemental package is Ukraine's best chance to win this war. 
The aid being supplied to Ukraine by our European allies--they are 
generous, but it is not enough. Ukraine needs more help, and our allies 
around the world are looking at the House of Representatives, are 
looking at Speaker Johnson to step up.
  The choice for Speaker Johnson is clear: Put the supplemental on the 
floor of the House for a vote and help deliver Ukraine the aid it 
desperately needs or kowtow to President Trump and the MAGA hard right 
who seem to want a victorious Putin.
  History will remember what we do here in this time of great 
consequence for democracy. The Senate answered the call by passing the 
national security supplemental with a large, bipartisan majority. Now 
it is time for the House to do the same. The clock is ticking.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S2451]]

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. 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.