[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           National Security

  Mr. President, on another matter, I have said frequently that the 
single most important, immediate objective of the free world right now 
is Russian defeat in Ukraine--I mean that--but not just for its 
implications on transatlantic security or our own economy; not just 
because helping degrade a major adversary's military strength is in 
America's interests; not just because the defense of Ukraine has 
ignited significant new investments in hard power here at home and 
among our European allies; certainly not just because of what the 
outcome will say about how the free world values sovereignty--no. The 
world we live in doesn't reward thinking compartmentally. Security 
threats don't exist in vacuums. Our credibility is not divisible. Our 
adversaries are working more closely together to undermine the 
American-led order, and allowing one threat to fester makes every other 
one a taller order.
  This week, the final report of the independent, bipartisan Commission 
on the National Defense Strategy underscored this reality.

       [The] new alignment of nations opposed to U.S. interests 
     creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict 
     anywhere could become a multi-theater or global war.

  A multitheater war--the sort of conflict America is simply not 
prepared to fight.
  Too many in Washington seem to think America can just opt out of 
facing such a challenge, but our enemies get a vote too. We owe it to 
our servicemembers and the American people to plan accordingly.
  As the NDS Commission report lays out, we have a lot of work to do 
and not much time to do it.
  The PRC's military is already leaving little room for doubt about 
Beijing's willingness to use hard power to coerce its neighbors and to 
test American power and Western resolve.
  Last month, the PRC's naval forces launched a violent confrontation 
in disputed waters that Beijing clearly hopes to turn into a Chinese 
lake.
  The Philippines--America's longtime treaty ally--has maintained a 
lawful presence in an area just 100 miles off their coast known as the 
Second Thomas Shoal for decades. Its sailors peacefully man a grounded 
ship on the shoal, and they count on regular shipments of supplies. But 
in recent months, these shipments have come under brazen attack. 
Chinese forces have rammed Philippine resupply vessels, harassed them 
with water cannons, injured Philippine sailors, destroyed their 
navigation equipment, towed them out to sea, and left them for dead.
  Thankfully, the most acute aggression appears to have subsided for 
the moment, but a fundamental reality still remains: Just as Russia is 
using force to redraw European borders and reassert imperial ambitions, 
just as Iran is using force to sow chaos and threaten international 
shipping, the People's Republic of China is engaged in a concerted 
effort to expand its control over maritime commerce well beyond its 
borders and build a pretext for wider war, and the first target of that 
conflict may well be America's longest standing treaty ally in the 
Indo-Pacific.
  Our adversaries have struck up a ``no-limits'' partnership, and the 
challenges they present us are as complex as they are urgent. We don't 
get to make neat, tidy, either-or choices about which threats deserve 
our attention--not anymore.
  The Senate was right to pass a national security supplemental to 
equip vulnerable partners with American weapons and invest in expanding 
our defense production capacity earlier this year. The Biden 
administration was right to start directing more rhetorical attention 
to the challenge facing our Philippine ally. But to the extent that the 
administration is serious about backing up its frequent assurances to 
the Philippines with actual support, it is high time to do more to help 
our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to reconfigure and 
strengthen their defenses against the PRC's maritime threat and to 
clear bureaucratic barriers so security assistance programs can move at 
the speed of relevance. More importantly, it is time for Congress and 
the administration to take our shared responsibility to provide for the 
common defense seriously.
  So I will close today with another quote from the Cochairs of the 
bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission. Here is what they 
said:

       The Commission finds that the United States faces the most 
     significant national security threats since the height of the 
     Cold War, if not World War II. We are not prepared to meet 
     those threats. The United States confronts the prospect of 
     war against peer and near-peer adversaries simultaneously 
     across multiple theaters--a war we could quite possibly lose.

  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. 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.