[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 212 (Tuesday, December 16, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H5903-H5904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUILDING PEACE WITH HONOR

  (Mr. Hoyer of Maryland was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, this Chamber will soon be empty as Members 
leave for the holiday without having taken action to aid Ukraine, our 
friend, our ally, and a courageous people who want to be free.
  The trenches in Donbas will not be empty, however. Ukrainian medic 
stations and hospitals will not be empty. The air-raid shelters beneath 
Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv will not be empty.
  Mr. Speaker, this administration is sleepwalking toward the edge of 
an abyss that will be difficult to escape. Neville Chamberlain once did 
the same. He returned from Munich and hoisted a piece of paper above 
his head that bore his signature and that of Adolf Hitler.
  Without consulting Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain traded a fifth of its 
territory in exchange for Hitler's word that he would not invade. 
Chamberlain said that it would secure peace with honor, a peace for our 
time. Within 5 months, the Nazis occupied every square inch of 
Czechoslovakia. Within a year, they had added Poland. Within 2 years, 
German bombs were falling in London.
  Just a few days after Chamberlain brandished Czechoslovakia's death 
warrant, Winston Churchill said: ``The German dictator, instead of 
snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them 
served to him course by course.''
  Mr. Speaker, in that case, Hitler was the dictator. In our case, it 
is Putin.
  Another dictator now hungers for his next course. Vladimir Putin did 
not stop with his invasion of Georgia or his campaign to separate 
Transnistria from Moldova. He did not stop with his 2014 annexation of 
Crimea, though perhaps he would have if America and the United Kingdom 
honored the Budapest Memorandum.
  It is foolish and dangerous to think he will stop at the Donbas. The 
Russian bear is about to take its next bite, and Donald Trump is 
setting the table. Trump, Witkoff, Hegseth, Vance, and Rubio have done 
everything to appease Putin, short of putting on a Russian uniform.
  Their 28-point peace plan last month was a Russian menu. What 
concessions did Trump demand from Ukraine? He demanded it forfeit a 
fifth of its territory--including the land that Russia does not 
occupy--to its invader; that it cap the size of its military; and that 
it forego its right to join NATO, which I believe is the only measure 
that can truly guarantee Ukraine's security.
  What has he demanded from Russia in exchange? Nada, zip, nothing. He 
has demanded no economic reparations for Ukraine, no requirement that 
Russia return the Ukrainian children it abducted, and no accountability 
for the war crimes Putin has committed. He has asked for Putin's 
promise not to invade again, one he has yet to make and one he would 
never keep.
  This administration acts as though we have no leverage in this 
situation, as though NATO's $1.8 trillion defense expenditures, 3.5 
million troops, and combined GDP of $54 trillion mean nothing.
  America is not impotent, nor is NATO, nor is the West in this fight 
against fascism, and neither is this Congress. Over 300 of us in every 
one of 12 votes has cast its vote for Ukraine; the majority of 
Republicans on all but one of those votes.
  We only need three more Republicans to sign onto the bipartisan 
discharge petition Ranking Member Meeks and I put forward to bring the 
Ukraine Support Act to the floor for a vote. That legislation would 
undermine Russia's war machine and give Ukraine the support it needs to 
win this fight actually and psychologically.
  Mr. Speaker, this House has taken twelve votes on past bills 
supporting Ukraine. An average of 80 percent of our Members have voted 
for every one of those. Yet we stand silent. We have not acted. We 
cannot build ``Peace with Honor'' on a promise from Putin. We can only 
achieve peace by awakening to our own power and to our own influence.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues, each of them who has supported 
Ukraine continuously in the past on almost every vote, to sign the 
discharge petition now. Let us not go home silent in the face of 
tyranny.

[[Page H5904]]

  

                          ____________________