[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
International Criminal Court
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I thank my friend from New Hampshire who
cares so much about this issue and has done a great job. And I will
just be brief on that because I want to talk about Russell Vought.
As is clear, we Democrats--I, certainly--I hate the ICC. I have hated
it for 40 years. We have to come to--we have to get something done, but
there has got to be a fair compromise. And the compromise has nothing
to do with weakening any efforts that the ICC will be punished for what
they do to Israel, which I think is anti-Semitic.
But there are other things in that bill that would sanction other
people--other countries, other leaders, other businesses, American
businesses--that have nothing to do with Israel.
Jeanne Shaheen, our Senator from New Hampshire, made a valiant effort
to compromise, and we could have had it done, because there was
problems with the rest of the bill. It was poorly drafted and went way
beyond what it was supposed to do.
We are ready to compromise. We are ready to sit down and get this
bill done.
The Israeli Ambassador said, at our meeting, he wanted a bipartisan
compromise, and I told him we are ready to sit down and do just that.