a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. budd: we meet this week at a critical time for our country and world. there are wars raging in europe, the middle east. china poses a growing threat to the u.s. and our interests in the indo-pacific and we're currently facing the worst border crisis in u.s. history. we're feeling the consequences of these crises all over the country. new york city, we witnessed illegal aliens attack members of law enforcement and brazenly

flaunt obscene gestures on camera to all of america. in boston an illegal alien who crossed the border in december of 2022 was arrested after arresting a handicapped citizen. pick your city. pick your state. my home state of north carolina, we've seen a 22% increase in drug overdose deaths, the highest level ever recorded. this is primarily due to deadly fentanyl that was produced in china, then transported into our country through an open southern border on president biden's watch. police departments from charlotte to raleigh, they've uncovered tens of thousands of pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill every man, woman, and child not just in my home state of north carolina but in this whole country. in order to tackle the challenges both at home and abroad, the senate and the white

house, they attempted to craft an agreement to deal with this border crisis. senator, my friend and colleague from oklahoma, senator lankford, he did the best he could considering the ideologies of those he was negotiating with. but, unfortunately, senate democrats are still beholden to progressive ideologies and ideologues who believe in open borders. this term progressive, that's a perversion of the term progress, isn't it, especially since it leads the other side of the aisle down a path of chaos and tragedy. for example, president biden has taken 94 executive actions that transformative border from a place of relative security to a place of lawlessness. that might be progressive, but, friends, it ain't progress. it might be progressive but it's not progress to live in a nation

where children die of accidental fentanyl overdose before they even learn to drive a car. it might be progressive but it's not progress to allow activities, cartel members and human traffickers to run freely around this country. when it comes to our side's recent history, the republican house, they acted. they passed h.r. 2. at the end of the day it's democrats who refuse to agree to any provisions that would meaningfully secure our border. and at the same time the threats we face on the world sustainable, they demand our attention -- on the world stage, they demand our attention as well. we've got an opportunity to rebuild the arsenal democracy, to make significant investments in our national defense and prepare ourselves for the threat from the chinese communist party. right now our defense supply lines, they're brittle and our manufacturing base, it's not prepared for future conflict and it's got to be modernized. our allies and our partners like

israel and taiwan, they need our help, especially our friends in israel. they're in a fight for survival. and we need to send them the aid that they need to finish the job and free the remaining hostages, one of which is a north carolinian. at the same time we should share israel's military objectives to destroy hamas, to demilitarize gaza, and to deradicalize the palestinian population. we don't need president biden's virtue signaling to a democratic base that's increasingly becoming prohamas. we need to let our allies in israel and around the world know that we're on their side and that our resolve is indeed strong. if we let our own defense atrophy and we leave our allies high and dry, then forces of evil and instability will be even more emboldened and our world will become even more

dangerous. remember it is american strength that deters aggression and it's weakness that provokes it. but in order to be a strong nation, we've first got to be strong right here at home. we must secure our own border before we can help other countries protect theirs. so i believe this position is reasonable and i'm going to mention a quick example for my point here. on one of my recent town hall i asked a question to thousands of people that were on the call. i asked, and i quote, if you could be assured that the southern border was secure, would you support sending support to our allies and our partners? i'll say that again. if you could be assured that the southern border was secure, would you then support sending support to our allies and our partners? roughly two-thirds of the respondent said yes. i'll bet it's the same in other states around this country. most folks, they aren't opposed

to helping our friend. they just think we need to take care of our country first. and america first doesn't have to mean america only. but as i watch the process play out here in this chamber i can't blame folks back home. the senate's initial deal which attempted to address the border crisis was then replaced with a bill with zero border provisions at all. and to date there's not been a full amendment process as was promised. for example, i think it would be outrageous to allow a single u.s. taxpayer dollar to flow to gaza while hamas terrorists hold american citizens hostages. this amendment and many others, they're not even going to be considered. the truth is that this entire process, it's not working. the only viable path forward is for congress to force president biden to get serious about border security and for the

american people to see the situation at the border start to get better. until that happens, we find ourselves locked in a stalemate as the world burns. we can't accept this. yeah, we want to help our allies and our partners. but to keep our nation strong, we must always put america first. i reserve the balance of my time. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: what we have here is a ukraine first bill. this bill was never really about securing our border but about securing another country's border.

what we have here is a failure of the elites of washington on both sides of the aisle, the leadership in the democrat party, the leadership in the republican party, what we have here is a failure of these elites to understand that the american people want to put america first. 61% of americans hive from paycheck to paycheck, and they want to put ukraine first. i want you to talk to your constituents at home, the ones who live paycheck to paycheck and tell them why you're shipping $60 billion to ukraine. this will be $170 billion. we have never before in the history of the united states flooded so much money into another country. 61% of our country lives paycheck to paycheck.

eight out of ten families that make $50,000 or less don't have enough money to pay for their bill in two weeks if their check doesn't come. if they have one interruption in their family, one thing that sets them back, one unexpected expense, they don't have enough money to pay their bills. and you want to put ukraine first. this is why the democrat party is losing the working man. this is why the republicans have become the party of the working class. this is why many, if not most members of the unions are now looking at republicans, because we support the working man. we support the working women of america. and we recognize that they do not want to send their hard-earned money and taxes halfway across the world. what does their money go for? do we know what they're doing with their money in ukraine? well, we do know that the money

went to fund six fashion brands to go to the paris fashion show. we do know that it's funding small businesses to sell ladies' handbags. we do know that it's paying for the salaries of 57,000 first responders. what about the first responders in our country? what about the people who get in an ambulance and have a $35,000 bill in our country? what about tackle the problems of america first? instead this bill is a ukraine first bill. it's a ukraine first policy. according to the ukraine first party, which includes elites of both parties, war is good. war is useful. war profits make us stronger. it sounds a bit orwellian. they say that war profits will build the defense industrial

base. this is the part they used to say quietly. they used to whisper this. they used to never say it out loud, that war profits fund the defense industrial base. and, by golly, we're going to be stronger the more war profits there are. according to the ukraine first party, war's not so bad. war profits make us stronger. lost in this reprehensible argument is any sense of grief over the 500,000 dead, for the mothers and fathers weeping graveside, little sense of grief, little sense of understanding that supporting and lauding grief is supporting and lauding the death of war. missing from the war profits are good argument is any sense of compassion for the thousands of lives that will yet be lost by the prolongation of this war.

if military contracts for 100,000 rifles are good, what about a million rifles? if military contracts for 1,000 tafrpgz are good -- tanks are good, what about a million tanks? if military contracts for 500 bombs are good, what about the military contracts for 5,000 bombs? missing from the goument that war profit -- argument that war profit is good, that the more armaments we sell, the better is compassion for the death we're talking about, the prolongation of war. you know, war doesn't end typically in victory. almost all wars end in negotiated settlement. the longer there are unlimited war profits, the longer there are unlimited weapons being sent to ukraine, the longer the war goes on, the more people who die. this is a grinder. it's a meat grinder over there. there are whole towns without

young men. do i think russia is in the wrong? of course they are. arrest they aggressor? of course they are. do i have sympathy for ukraine? absolutely. but we also are now funneling money to a country that has no elections. they've canceled their presidential elections. they've suppressed speech. they've banned certain opposition parties. they banned certain opposition press. they banned officials of opposition religion. this should bother people because it is said that american might and foreign aid is to express our power and our values. are our values no elections? are our values suppressing speech? what's become confusing even in our country, as the democrat party has become the party of censorship. they are the party that agrees that the biden administration is okay to meet with the fbi, to meet with homeland security and to meet in the offices of twitter, meet in the offices of

facebook. they suppressed for over a year anybody who was willing to say that it looks like the virus came from a lab in wuhan. that was suppressed for over a year. not just by private business, but by the government, by the biden administration meeting the fbi, homeland security meeting with the tech companies. so it doesn't surprise me that they don't care too much. just get the money out the door even though in ukraine they're living under a regime where speech has been suppressed. what the american firsters, with the ukraine firsters are really arguing for is an america last policy. they're really arguing for a longer, bigger, more deadly war because it expands the profits of the defense industrial base. how despicable.

how absolutely disgusting. they're saying the quiet part out loud. they're okay with war. the longer the war, the more profits. the stronger the american defense base. it's this circular argument we're not sending the money to ukraine. it's coming right back. it's coming back in the form of profits to the american arms merchants. it's okay. we're really not going to lose $170 billion because it's coming back in profits. we'll make more bombs. whatever happened to the progressive left? wasn't it great when there were people on the left who actually were progressive on things such as war? how absolutely disgusting. so argue that war profits are a benefit, a benefit that somehow overshadows the awful specter of war's death and carnage. the amount of money going to ukraine in this bill is more

than we spend on the entire marine corps. think about it. we're going to send to ukraine more money than we spend on our own marine corps. this is a bill about ukraine first. this is a bill that makes us weaker. there is no money to give to ukraine. it's not like we've got a pot of money. there it is no surplus, there is no rainy day fund. this money will be printed up or borrowed from china to send to ukraine. it makes us weaker. once the border bill failed and they decided that this wasn't really about the border, that this was about ukraine's border, the american firsters plowed on but with with a more intellectually better proposal, nothing for america, everything for ukraine. that's what this bill is. nothing for america.

nothing to stop the invasion of nearly a million people across our southern border. they offered a border bill that would have said, well, if we have an emergency, the emergency's already happened. nearly a million people came in in the last two months. that is the emergency. this is a bill that is ukraine first and american last and ought to be defeated. i noticed my colleague from alabama is here and i will reserve the remainder of my time. how much time toy have -- do i have left? the presiding officer: the senator has eight minutes remaining. the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: madam president, reclaiming my time. i come to the floor to sound the alarm, as a lot of my colleagues are, about the crisis at our southern border. i've been here over three years and i've never seen this group try to do more for people out of

our country than within our country. it's amazing, but this is the worst border crisis in our history. since joe biden took office, there have been at least eight million illegal crossings at our southern border that we know of. this is in addition to the two million gotaways. these are the illegals that we know of. the real number is probably much, much higher. border crossings are at a record high, deportations are at a record low. why is this happening? you know, it didn't come out of the blue. this is a policy choice by president biden and his allies here in congress. we've been talking about this now for three years asking why, and we've not got one good answer yet. why is our borders open?

joe biden campaigned on opening up our borders. he campaigned on giving free health care to illegal aliens. so it's no surprise that he's keeping his promise. since taking office president biden has taken 94 executive actions related to immigration -- 94. we've got the same laws on the books as we did when president trump was in office, but president trump secured the border. joe biden has opened our border more than it ever has been in the history of this country. let's take a look at just a few of these executive actions. first, president biden stopped building the wall. in fact, he's been selling off parts of the wall for pennies on the dollar. i know people in alabama that have bought stacks of steel that

the american taxpayers paid in l lots, $300,000 for these certain lots, $300,000 of american taxpayer money. these people now can go on-line in an auction and buy these lots for $0.10 on a dollar. i know people who have bought $300 lots -- $300,000 lots for dollars, same thing for razor wire and other parts of the wall that are being sold. they're basically being given away. so we've been selling parts but president biden, nobody told him to do it, he did it on his own, he chose to do it. president biden got rid of president trump's remain in mexico policy. that was the most effective

policy we've seen in discouraging the abuse of our asylum system in years. i've been down to the border several times, and border patrol has told me time and time again, finish the wall. that's the best thing we can do here. it won't stop it, but it will give us an opportunity to police the wall, make them come in through certain sections of the wall and allow us to have some kind of border security. president biden is currently suing the state of texas to get them to stop securing the border. let's think about that for a second. the president of the united states is suing a border state for stopping illegal immigrants from coming into our country. that doesn't sound quite right. and i'm proud that my state of alabama has sent texas hundreds

of national guardsmen to help them police texas's borders, unfortunately president biden is trying to stop them from doing that. and, as i mentioned, joe biden has essentially stopped all deportations right now -- completely stopped it. he's not letting ice do their job, immigration police. all of these policies have led to this unprecedented crisis. they've also sent a message to the world. if you can get here, you can get in, and you'll never, never have to leave. that message has been heard around the world loud and clear. there's 193 countries around the world, and we know of 190 countries have been accounted for coming across our southern

borders. illegal aliens have literally crossed our border wearing joe biden t-shirts. i would imagine the american taxpayer somehow paid for those. tv reporters have asked meem coming across our border why they came across? time and time again, they say because president biden invited them. that's on television. fox news reporter found one in tucson saying, joe biden, i love you. thank you for everything. he was not from mexico. he wras from africa. -- he was from africa. people are coming here from every corner of the world many people are flying to mexico and walking across our border. the whole world news that our border is open.

these illegal aliens are criminals, drug traffickers. just last year nearly 500 people on the terror watch list were caught trying to cross our southern border. 500, now you would think that would open somebody's eyes. you would think it would go all the way up to pennsylvania avenue, but nobody seems to care. just a few weeks ago, christopher wray, the fbi director, says something bad is going to happen. this is christopher wray, the guy who runs our fbi, federal bureau of investigation, said something's going to happen. he seemed like in his voice he was beg somebody to do -- begging somebody to do something, but nobody has. but just imagine if 500 have been caught, how many more terrorists have come across the border unchecked. it doesn't take many.

it only takes a few. 9/11 was committed by 19 foreigners here on visas, 19. it only takes a small group to do terrible, terrible damage. but americans are already dying because of the border crisis. we all know that. we're here to protect american citizens, but we're losing. we're losing that battle. more than 300,000 americans, 300,000 americans have died from drug overdoses since joe biden took office, 300,000. i met with the police chief of mont montgomery, alabama, not too long ago. he said, coach, i never heard the word fentanyl until two years ago and now it's 95% of what we have on our streets here in montgomery, alabama, killing young people. that's roughly half of the americans killed in the civil

war, 300,000, and that's the most -- that was the most deadliest war in american history. the governor of oregon declared a state of emergency over fentanyl, the governor of oregon, and the governor is a democrat, but she declared a state of emergency. where does she think the fentanyl is coming from? she should demand that the people that represent the constituents in her state do something about what's happening. federal law enforcement has said for years that almost all of these drugs are coming over the southern border. you don't have to take my word for it, that's what the dea has said for years under obama, under trump and under biden. they said most of the drugs that come into our country come across the southern border. every day we fail to secure our

border, another 150 americans die from overdoses, 150 a day, a plane load of people. this is in addition to americans who are victims of crime committed by illegals. a few weeks ago we saw the video of illegal aliens attacking new york city police officers. new york city is a sanctuary city. in fact, new york city is giving out free money on debit cards to illegal aliens as we speak. american citizens don't qualify for this money that the new york -- new york city government is it giving out. if you're a citizen, you don't qualify for it. american citizens just have to pay for it, yet new yorkers wonder why there's a magnet

pulling illegal aliens from all over the world into their city. i wonder why that is. new york state is also a sanctuary city. that was a policy choice by the current governor. that means they do not cooperate with ice. that's what a sanctuary city does, when an illegal commits a crime, they do not get sent to ice. it doesn't matter what crime they commit. my democratic colleagues want them to stay in our country because they don't want them to be sent home because that is exactly what ice would do. in this new york case, the of these people who attacked the police were released and they were allowed back on the street where they could continue to commit crimes again americans. this case shows you how much democrats care about our police officers, defund the police.

that's all i've heard since i've been here. really? they want police to go out and arrest the same people and over and over and over again. police are risking their lives every day. every time they arrest someone, every time they kick in a door, they are risking their lives, yet liberal journals and -- judges and left-wing prosecutors will let criminals go back on the street again, again, and again. democrats, like president biden, talk about a lot of compassion in our immigration system. we've got to be compassionate. they don't have any compassion for any americans. they don't have compassion for americans like kate steinly who was murdered in san francisco, they don't have compassion for a woman raped by an illegal on a train recently in philadelphia, they don't have compassion for a mother and daughter killed by a drunk driver who allegedly had

been deported four times. when americans get attacked or even killed by illegals, democrats just see that as collateral damage. it's just a price of opened borders. it's clearly more important to them to keep the border open than to bring justice to the victims, protect american citizens, what an idea. just weeks ago the house passed legislation to deport illegals who have been caught driving drunk, deport them, 150 house democrats voted against deporting anybody that was illegal caught driving drunk. 150. the house also passed legislation to deport illegals who committed social security fraud. 150 house democrats voted against it. democrats want even the most basic things to secure our

bo border, but won't do anything. now, that is an election year, obviously. now that we've gotten to this point, and people have to have votes, we're supposed to believe that for democratic -- that our democratic colleagues have had a total change of heart. i've not seen anybody down there in three years and two months, and i've been going once or twice a year, i've not seen any of my democratic colleagues down there. i would be shocked if i didn't see somebody down there in the near future because it is an election year. they're paying lip service to the crisis at the border. they don't listen to their rhe rhetoric. look at their actions. democrats are not doing anything of substance that would actually help. president biden could start by undoing all 94 executive actions on immigration. we didn't need to do that. but he did it because he wants open borders. earlier today i spoke at length

about why the schumer-murphy voter bill is not good enough. i won't belabor the point, but as senator feinstein murphy said -- but as senator murphy said understand their bill, the border never closes down. even at 35,000 -- at 5,000 crossings a day, we would still process 1400 illegals per day. 1400. this is like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole. why even worry about it? the acceptable number of illegal crossings isn't 5,000. it's not 4,000. it's zero. in a tv interview a few days ago, chris murphy said fail to deliver for the american people we care about most. no, they care more about the undocumented americans. what is an undocumented

american? undocumented is just a left wing code for illegal. they don't like using the word illegal. the term used in federal law is illegal alien. that's who we're talking about. these are not americans who lost their paperwork and just can't find their documents or lost their passport. these are illegal aliens who have no right, no right to be here. first we stopped them from coming in. and then we deport the ones who are here. for decades we've been told that there are about 11 million or 12 million illegals here right now. i would say that's very, very short on numbers. but this is a huge problem. alabama's population is six million, my home state. so there are two states of alabamans worth of illegals

already here before joe biden let in the other eight million. this takes away power from american citizens. they're overrunning our hospitals, our schools. they're even affecting the balance of power in congress and the electoral college. seats in the house of representatives are divided up based on census votes -- census, and votes in the electoral college are based on votes in congress. right now, illegals are counted as parts of the census. a democratic member of congress on tv recently said i need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes. the presence of tens of millions of illegals in this country is tipping power to blue cities like new york, boston, philadelphia, and los angeles. it is watering down the power of the american voter. i joined with senator hagerty to

introduce legislation to fix this. only american citizens should have representation in congress. we ought to count citizens only. otherwise our voting system is not equal for all americans. they shouldn't be -- this shouldn't be a partisan issue. this is an american issue. but it looks like partisan, it looks like a partisan issue when democrats in congress go on television and say they need more illegals in their state for redistricting. democrats have shown no willingness to stop this crisis, none. they've put out some press releases and a few vague statements in the press, but they have taken no meaningful action in three years. action speaks louder than words. remember, president trump had the same laws on the books as president biden, but president trump secured the border. he went by the law. he went by the constitution. joe biden opened it up. and so, new laws are not absolutely necessary, but

certain new laws would be very helpful. and so, right now, i would like to propose an amendment to the ukraine bill that would actually secure the border. my amendment is still a bill -- is a bill i've introduced, the border safety and security act. the bill would simply suspend all illegal entries completely until the department of homeland security has operational control over the border. my amendment also prohibits mass parole programs. the schumer border bill would have allowed parole programs to continue at an unlimited pace. my amendment prohibits catch and release and requires detention. the schumer bill releases illegal aliens. the schumer bill would have allowed up to 499 -- or 4,999 borders crossings a day. my amendment would mean zero crossings, as soon as it is signed into law. it also allows states to sue the

administration if it doesn't do its job and enforce the laws. we should not pass a ukraine bill until we first pass a border bill worthy of the name. that was my position in december, and it's my position now. either we will end this border crisis or this border crisis will end us. i yield the floor. mr. paul: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: often, the titles of bills before the legislature don't really represent what the bill stands for. the title of this bill should say ukraine first, america last, because that's what this is really about. now, bills in the legislature, bills that come before the senate don't have pictures or covers on them, like a book would have or magazine. if this bill had an image or

cover on the front of the bill, the image would be the migrant in new york who assaulted a police officer, was freed from jail on no bail, and gave the middle finger of both hands to america. that's what this bill is, it's the middle finger to america. this bill is the middle finger to every working man and woman in america, every struggling american family. this bill gives them the middle finger and says we don't care about you, we care more about ukraine than we care about our southern border. we don't seem to care, or these ukraine firsters don't seem to care about the crime that's happening, they don't seem to care about the assault of a police officer in new york. they're intent on more coming in. just that one image, just that one image of that man, that

migrant, that illegal immigrant who came across the border and decided to assault with a whole group of other thugs, to assault a police officer in new york, just that image alone ought to be enough for us to say enough's enough. enough's enough. we really have to control our border. guess what -- from now on, the only people who come to america are legal immigrants. but this bill, this bill ignores the southern border. almost a million people came over the border in the last three months. almost a million people. and the ukraine firsters are saying we don't care about the southern border. we care about ukraine first. and so the picture, the image that every american should have when they see all of these billions of dollars, $60 billion being shoved out the door, being loaded on the plane, as you see these smiling politicians gleefully dropping off the pallets of cash over there, every american should remember the image of the young man

giving america the bird after he assaulted a police officer. that's the image of this bill. that's the image of the ukraine firsters. and nobody should forget about it. when we look at the problems that we face, we need to be fully aware that there is no pot of money, there is no surplus funds, there is no money to give to ukraine. we don't have enough money to pay our bills. we do not have enough money to pay for what we budget every year. in fact, the entire budget that congress votes on is borrowed. let me make that very clear. the entire budget -- not a little bit of it, not half of it, the entire budget is borrowed. this would be like someone saying, i don't have any money for rent, i don't have a job,

i'm going to borrow the money for my rent. that's essentially where we are. two third of spending up here is entitlements. all of the tax revenue, from every source that comes into the federal government, is only enough to pay for medicare, medicaid, social security and food stamps. everything else is borrowed. we don't vote on the entitlements. the entitlements are on autopilot. what do we vote on? we vote on what is military, discretionary and nonmilitary discretionary. $1.5 trillion. people talk about what is a trillion dollars. well, we're running a $1.5 trillion deficit in one year. in two years, $3 trillion has accumulated. how much is a trillion? how much is 3 trillion? if you take trillionon in $1 billions and stack them up, $3 trillion would reach to the

moon. 240 thousand miles high would be the tack of $1 bills. that's what we borrow in a two-year period. it's accelerating. in the last week, the federal reserve chairman said the debt problem is urgent. jamie diamond, head of chase morgan, says the problem is urgent. some of the economists and authors who wrote about the collapse in 2008, that predicted it coming, said the debt is an urgent problem. how does the senate respond to some of the keenest minds in the country saying we have a debt crisis? they respond by send a hundred billion dollars of your money overseas. it's not money we've got on hand. it's not cash on hand. we don't have any money. we are flat broke. people say it's for our national defense. we have these cold warrors who still believe in the domino they're yes. they say we are going to somehow

be overrun by communists if we don't do this. we have no no money. there is no money to be sent over there. it hall has to be borrowed. the title of this bill should be ukraine first, america last, if they were being honest. 61% of americans work paycheck to paycheck. eight out of ten americans who make $50,000 don't have enough money on hand to pay their bills. if something goes wrong for them, you think they're excited about having their tax dollars shipped off to ukraine? ukraine first, america last. that's what this bill is about. it's about giving the middle finger to america. it's about giving the middle finger to every working class man and woman in america. it is an insult. it should be rejected. it should be soundly rejected and we should get back to the business of this country, which

is protecting our borders. we've got a real problem. democrats didn't seem to think there was a border problem until a few hundred of them were shipped to new york, all of a sudden they think there's a problem now. they put them up at a fancy hotel, spend millions of dollars coddling them. the american people are smarter than the elitists up here. the title of this bill is, and ought to be if they were honest, america first -- or ukraine first, and america last. that's what the authors should have called this bill. i reserve the balance of my time. how much time do i have remaining? the presiding officer: the senator has one minute remaining. mr. paul: thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: madam president, there are a number of things that make the united states senate unique as an institution. we've got every state in the union represented equally. if you're a big state or a small state. huge population or tiny one, you're got two senators. that makes our work all the more important and all the more

unique. we need to represent our states, looking out for the people of our states, and our states sometimes as states. i can make a case that voting to pass this bill under these circumstances, without amendments or any language what whatsoever, forcing the issue of border security, forcing the border to be made secure by a re-luckett and, recalcitrant, willfully disobedient administration hell-bent on not enforcing the border. this empowers drug cartels, dissolves our borders, and spends insane amounts of money we don't have on priorities of foreign countries. all at the same time. look, senators today as always have an obligation to vote no on bills that do bad things of the we have an obligation to vote no today on bills, including and especially this bill. but all bills certainly that prioritize gangs above

governors, cartels above courts, and encourage breaking the law over enforcing the law, voting yes on this bill is a capitulation. it's a surrender. it's a vote for flooded classrooms and crowded hospitals. it's a vote for increased homelessness, death by overdose. it's a vote that undermines law enforcement, puts citizenship itself at risk and in doubt. adds burdens to teachers, food banks. undercuts safety in our community parks and threatens the first jobs that lead to the second jobs that ultimately culminate in the best jobs for our younger people. those who vote yes undermine what senators are elected to do first and foremost which is to represent our states, not sides. every senator has the chance, the chance today, the chance tonight, this very evening to vote no on this bill and by doing so in support of

governors, schools, churches, playgrounds, clean streets, and safe neighborhoods. by voting against more funding for ukraine tonight in this bill without any language finally compelling president biden to enforce the border, senators have a chance to vote against more border chaos, no to sanctioned corruption and no to shifting our burden of representation on to the shoulders of families, police officers, charitable organizations, school principals, judges, doctors, and parents. look, at the end of the day everyone wants peace. world peace, however, isn't always within our grasp. world peace isn't our principled business. all we can do is world funding, and that's all government can ever do. tax, spend, print, and force. our economy is our business. our debt reduction is our business. our leadership due to our

multilateral strength is essential, but this alas undermines what makes us strong in an attempt to prove our strength and in trying to do that, we will become less strong. we're not helping any group of people whenever we prolong a war in which they're involved. it does not help the ukrainian people to prolong their suffering in this war. and it doesn't help our people to refuse defiantly after the senate republican conference has come to a conclusion, after senate republicans have made a commitment to each other, to our counterparts in the house, to voters in our respective states and across america, we use this as an opportunity to force a bargain, a real bargain, a bargain that harnesses appetite more prevalent on the left to fund ukraine and an appetite, sadly, existing almost exclusively among republicans to force the issue of border security.

we committed to that some three months ago. we got a bill sunday night, a week ago sunday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern standard time that unfortunately didn't do that. it did other things. it contained some provisions that might prove helpful here or there, but it contained a lot of other provisions that made clear it wouldn't force thissed a managers to do what this -- this administration to do what this administration could already do. that was the essence of the bargain we struck, the agreement, the commitment we made to each other and to our voters months ago. republicans stand for border security and the rule of law regardless of where they come down on ukraine aid. they should realize that we're forfeiting that leverage, that bargaining power tonight if we vote for this. i encourage my colleagues emphatically to oppose cloture tonight and by opposing cloture, to vote for america's communities and for the rule of law. thank you, madam president.

i yield the floor and reserve the balance of my time. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. romney: the vote we will soon take to provide military weapons for ukraine is a most important vote we will ever take as united states senators. we're not being asked to send american troops into war. we are asked to help the ukrainians defend themselves. if we fail to help ukraine, putin will invade a nato nation. he may delay his next invasion until he rebuilds his decimated military. but we must be clear-eyed. ukraine is not the end. it is a step. if we fail to help ukraine, china will eventually absorb taiwan. if we fail to help ukraine, we will abandon our word and our commitment, providing to our

fri friends a view that america cannot be trusted. the chinese communist party is already spreading propaganda using our delay as a warning to taiwan that the united states will not be there to help in the face of china's threat. if we fail to help ukraine, nato, the alliance has prevented great power conflict for over 75 years will falter and eventually d disintegrate. if we fail to help ukraine, america will cease to be the arsenal of democracy. it will cease to be the leader of the free world. we will be replaced by the authoritarians, china, russia, iran, north korea. if we fail to help the ukraine, we'll be known not as our fathers and mothers were, the greatest generation, but as the worst generation. now, for months i've listened to

the argument fors denying help -- arguments for denying help to the ukrainian people. i observed that the reasons have evolved over time. first it was claimed that europe was not paying their fair share. that was proven incorrect. our allies have already contributed more than $96 billion in aid and the e.u. agreed to provide $54 billion more over the next four years. next, it was argued that we should instead focus on the pacific and taiwan, but taiwan and japan and south korea tell us that the single best thing we can do to dissuade china's aggression is to support ukraine. next we were told that we couldn't afford $60 billion for ukraine-related funding. but somehow we could afford an $850 billion annual defense budget, an annual trillion dollar deficits which just happened under both former president trump and president biden. next it was claimed that we

would have insufficient weapons to defend america in israel if we send more weapons to ukraine but the department of defense has explained that helping ukraine will actually strengthen our national security by helping to rebuild our depleted military industrial base. the latest excuse for denying aid to ukraine is that this bill is a clever disguise to set up an up peachment of donald trump somehow in the future. under the so-called logic, trump has to be elected. democrats have to win the house. and those democrats have to be unable to find any other discretion of donald trump's upon which to base an impeachment. now, i know that the shock jobs and online instigators have rivalled up many in the far reaches of my party. but if your position is being cheered by vladimir putin, it's time to reconsider your position. now, i can't see into the future. but there are no guarantees that ukraine will defeat russia, but

that does not mean that we should stand back and let putin have his way with europe. what's sending weapons to -- what sending weapons to ukraine does do is help discourage further raurnl and chinese invasions which could draw us in. it helps preserve nato. it allows america to remain the leader of the free world and it shows that we honor our word to our friends and allies. the first democratically elected president of poland of 1926 and someone i've been fortunate enough to meet with recently wrote to all the united states senators. he said this, quote, you're obliged to assure a peaceful future for your children. our grandchildren will never forgive us if we fail to stop russia now. if the u.s. does not lead, nobody will. end of quote. couldn't agree more.

helping a free people defend their freedom is simply the right thing to do. thank you, madam president. ms. collins: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, last week general carilla, the commander of u.s. central command, gave me a briefing that was directly relevant to the national security supplemental that we are now considering. during the course of that briefing, the general told me that this is the most dangerous security situation in 50 years. the threats that the united states faces from aggressive iran and its proxies, an

imperialistic russia, a hegemonic china, are interconnected and they require our immediate attention and a strong response. that is why this bill focuses on fortifying our military, rebuilding our own defense industrial base, and strengthening and defending our partners and allies. this legislation would send a strong message to putin that his goal of capturing free democratic nations will not be allowed to succeed. it would reassure our closest ally in the middle east, israel, that terrorists will not achieve

their goal of wiping that nation off the map. and it would counter ever growing chinese aggression. madam president, i urge our colleagues to recognize the perilous times in which we are living, and vote for this absolutely essential national security bill. the world is watching to see if the united states is still the leader of the free world. thank you, madam president. mrs. murray: madam president.

the presiding officer: the president pro tempore. mrs. murray: thank you, madam president. we all understand we cannot leave our job here unfinished. the clock is ticking right now, and there is so much at stake. we have a strong bipartisan package to support our allies in ukraine, israel, and the indo-pacific and provide humanitarian aid to civilians who are caught in conflict. by passing this bill, we will show our allies we stand by our word and we will help them in the time of need. we will show dictators that their fragrant attacks will not go unchecked, and they cannot steamroll our allies. and we will show the world that american leadership is still alive and well, and that we are still a strong protector of democracy and provider of humanitarian aid. given all the stakes at this moment, now, right now is a critical time to send that message, which is why i'm glad

we're here on the cusp of passing this bill in the senate and to my colleagues who have been holding this up and dragging the process out, we can disagree. you can vote against this. that's how it works. but one way or another, this aid will get to our allies. we spent months going back and forth to try and get a bill to the floor. and now we are here. we are not going to let a few more hours or a few more days wear us down. however, what is an inconvenient delay for the united states senate is a dangerous one for our allies in ukraine. putin's forces are on the march as we speak. ukrainians are fighting bravely to defend their homeland, but they are running lower and lower on bullets, air defense missiles, and more every day. we measure time in hours. they are measuring it in how many bullets they have left, how many more missiles fall on their cities, and how much closer

putin's tanks are getting. the question for us is how long is this going to take. the question for them is how much longer can they hold out. we cannot leave them waiting. so i urge my colleagues to support moving forward on these votes. vote to waive the budget point of order and let's keep this bill moving and once we get it through the senate, we're going to push every way we can to get it to the president's desk and signed into law.