[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE AND GEORGIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Roskam) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House, we ought 
not bet against Ukraine and Georgia.
  I recently returned from a bipartisan delegation of the House 
Democracy Partnership that visited Ukraine and Georgia over the Fourth 
of July recess. Our purpose was to reflect this body to those 
parliamentary bodies in Ukraine and Georgia.
  I--and I know the other members of the House Democracy Partnership--
came away with a feeling of encouragement and a feeling of gratitude 
for the tenacity and very seriousness with which the Ukrainians and the 
Georgians are pursuing freedom.
  These are two nations that desperately want to be in the orbit of the 
West. They desperately want to be a part of the EU; they desperately 
want to be a part of NATO, and they are doing everything they can to 
stiff-arm and push back from the aggression of Vladimir Putin. They 
need our help; they need our encouragement, and they need our support.
  It is said that there are some who look at this as the front line of 
the rising voices against authoritarianism, and I think that is true. 
We have got to do everything we can in this body not only to provide 
the economic support and other support that these countries need, but 
also to do everything we can to push the administration to do the right 
thing as well.

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