back, celebrating 20 years with this year's theme looking forward while considering the past. we're asking middle and high school students to create a five to six minute video addressing one of these questions. in the next 20 years what is the most important change you'd like to see in america, or over the past 20 years, what has been the most important change in america, as we do each year, we're giving away 100,000 dollars in total prizes with a grand prize of $5,000 and every teacher who has students participate in this year's competition has the opportunity to share a portion of an additional 0,0. the competition deadline is friday, january 19th, 2024. for information, visit our website at student cam.org. >> c-span shop.org is c-span's online store, browse through the collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home

decor, and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan and every purchase to support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> on this tuesday, the u.s. senate is gavelling in. senators may vote today on whether to block president biden's new student loan repayment plan. lawmakers will also need to consider legislation to avert a government shutdown, federal funding expires this friday at midnight. now to the floor of the senate here on c-span2.

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray.

eternal lord, god, sometimes we feel that you hide from us. we cry aloud. it seems that we only hear the echos of our despair. we sometimes believe that the which could are winning -- that the wicked are winning. we sometimes believe that they rarely experience trouble and grief. today, guide our lawmakers with your truth. show them the path you desire for them to take. remind them that you are king forever. and though the wrongs seem strong, your omnipotence will prevail. hear our prayers, o lord.

incline your ears to us and give us your shalom, your peace. we pray in your matchless name, amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., november 14, 2023. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable

laphonza butler, a senator from the state of california, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten to speak therein for up to ten

>> guest: yes. today it will be voting on two parts here. . separates the continued resolution and the two separate parts. the first part of corporation bills sent to jail in 19th, that milcon, p.a., energy and water, and so we are going have

those four separate elsewhere. the rest will go to figure a second. basically people, what would happen is you work until june 19 to pass those bills. today the ability to pass that cr. they will do it under the will because what usually happens is it would go to rules committee and then while in rules committee it would then put out a roll. the rule would go to the floor and the role would have to pass in order to then vote on the bill which would require the majority. but usually it happens historically democrats don't vote for rules of republicans. republicans don't vote for rules from democrats. this rule will never pass. there are not enough republicans to vote and will and what would ultimately kill the bill on a procedural motion of which have happened that is they bring it up for suspension which requires a three force vote for the bill to pass. it's likely to get that. we saw this happen back at the end of september, beginning of october when to shut them was

about to happen on october 1. we saw a pass with three force supports. more democrats did vote for the bill than republicans. that's likely what you see happen here, or democrats will vote this year the republicans will. it is a clean cr. republicans of a lot of opposition to this. >> host: is that india does happen then does that spell further trouble for speaker johnson down the road? >> guest: i don't necessarily think it does per se. a lot of people, -- told cnn. there's a segment a lot of this is mccarthy cup for some people was policy-based. it was mostly personal. a lot of this was personal animosity towards kevin mccarthy and they were looking for a reason to get him out. with johnson people view them as a true conservative. view him as somebody who, especially the freedom caucus bay view them as somebody who is

very aligned with the thinking. even though he is doing this clean cr i don't necessarily think you'll see as much backlash. one member who is upset or likely will be upset is chip roy of texas. when asked yesterday in the press conference you played earlier, he said he was asked ringing it up on suspension will be due? with abby smart of johnson? he said if johnson brings us up under suspension he will be making a huge mistake. right there is the sentiment you'll see from some of these numbers. marjorie kelly greene will likely be upset. they have all expressed opposition to this bill and special bring up off suspension, skirting around the procedural motions in the house. that's one thing you will see. uacs. some people of said -- any kind a conflict mccarthy got a face for his doing a clean cr kind of off the table. >> host: if it happens today that its air passes, democrat

support in the house, senate report as well in the white house as well, what's the plan to keep funding in the long-term rather than the short-term measures? >> guest: so that plan is to keep funding appropriations bills in the time allotted. say this bill gets i did a law on wednesday, then which is just hypothetical, you will start wednesday and working of those four appropriation bills that expire june 19 to try to get those pass. come january 19 you have those four bills passed the you work on the remaining bills, eight bills until factory second. but there's a lot of lack of certainty that this can even happen. they have been having a tough time passing conservative republican only appropriation bills when they're still pressure attached because his bills are never going to become law. now you did on a tight timeframe and with actually a shutdown at the end of it. one thing johnson said on this

gop member call saturday when he unveiled this cr is that after this, if they can't get the appropriation bills passed by figure second and it's looking like the government might shut down again, or whatever, he's done with short-term resolution turkey city will go to quote the most painful version of a year-long cr meaning this will implement cuts across the board. according to johnson it would be in a person cut across the board of nondefense spending, to which we take a huge haircut off everything which i think that something and would also go to pass because has to pass a year-long cr with those cut in it which would be unlikely, but again this is just the outlook of everything going on right now. that's kind of their plan but it's uncertain that will even happen because having trouble passing bills as is right. >> host: reese gorman who report on course for the "washington examiner." you can find a a work at "washington examiner".com as were watching as well as with

him white house and assembled it when it comes to the short-term funding measure.

test:

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: tomorrow, for the second time since taking office, president biden will meet with

chinese president xi jinping during the apec summit in san francisco. above all, i look forward to president biden pushing president xi on something i raised during the bipartisan codel i led to china -- cracking down on the sale of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl. when my senate colleagues and i met with president xi, we explained in stark detail how destructive the fentanyl crisis was here in america and that china had a responsibility to do its part to stop its trafficking. one step we strongly urged president xi to take is for chinese law enforcement to coordinate with the u.s. to enforce laws already on the books on the sale of precursor chemicals. i believe that we have made progress on this issue, and i am very optimistic that good news will come from tomorrow's meeting regarding fentanyl when

president biden meets with president xi. if china stopped the sale of chemicals used to make fentanyl, it would not only save countless american lives, but even benefit china as it would go a long way to improving china's image in the minds of americans. so, just as we push president xi on cracking down on fentanyl last month, i expect president biden will urge him to do so tomorrow, and i think we may see real results. when we met with president xi in person, we were pointed and specific with our questions and issues and found him to be responsive, and i hope that president biden will have the same sort of frank conversation tomorrow with president xi. madam president, we have until friday to avert another costly, unnecessary, and avoidable government shutdown.

time is a luxury that neither side has. if we're going to keep the lights on beyond this friday, our republican colleagues will have to work with democrats in a bipartisan way to pass a clean extension without hard-right cuts and without poison pills. so far, i am heartened, cautiously so, that speaker johnson is moving forward with a c.r. that owe mitts precisely the -- owe mists the hard right -- omits the hard right cuts. i don't agree with everything the president is proposing, and i don't imagine too many senators would have taken the speaker's approach in drafting this bill. but the proposal before the house does two things democrats have pushed for. it will avert a shutdown, and do so without making any terrible hard-right cuts that the maga right wing demands. it also eliminates the poison pills that so many maga congress members put in the bills. we will see over the course of

today how the house moves forward. over the past few days, a significant portion of the speaker's hard-right flank has torched his proposal precisely because it doesn't make cuts. i hope the speaker does not yield to the demands of the hard right as we try to keep the government open. instead, i hope the speaker continues to recognize he will need democratic votes in order to avoid a shutdown. on senator tuberville, today the senate rules committee will mark up a resolution allowing the senate to quickly confirm the military promotions currently being blocked by senator tuberville. i will join the rules committee later today, i'm a member of the committee, it's the only committee on which i serve, and vote in favor of this resolution. i will vote in favor of the rules committee resolution. for nine months senator tuberville has thumbed his nose at long standing senate custom and prevented the swift, bipartisan confirmation of

hundreds of generals and flag officers. each time members from both sides tried to reason with senator tuberville, he has only dug in further. as a result of senator tuberville's holds, america's national security is now paying the price. our military readiness is paying the price. and our military spouses and kids, who can't plan the next chapter in their lives even though they served us for many, many years, they are paying the price too. patience is wearing thin with senator tuberville on both sides of the aisle. i strongly support this resolution to overcome these military holds, and if it is reported out of committee today, and if our republican colleagues cannot soon convince senator tuberville to drop his holds, i will bring it to the floor for a vote. i thank chair klobuchar and chairman reed for their good work on moving this important resolution. on the student debt cra, as soon

as today, senate republicans will force a vote on a cruel measure to eliminate president biden's historic student loan repayment program and strip away a critical lifeline for millions and millions of borrowers. i strongly oppose this terrible republican mesh tower deny american -- measure to deny american families a critical lifeline one month after the pause on student loan payments ended. my republican colleagues talk a big game about helping working families, but with this student debt congressional resolution, they are actively trying to block relief that would immediately improve the lives of so many working americans. the hypocrisy is glaring. republicans are willing to give huge tax breaks to ultrawealthy billionaires and large corporations, but when it comes to helping working families, republicans refuse to give them the break. they say that costs too much money. but billionaire tax breaks don't? give knee a break.

right now, there are -- give me a break. right now, there are over 5.5 million borrowers enrolled in the president's plan. the worst thing we can do for these borrowers and families right now is let this republican cra pass and strip away this critical lifeline. ly strongly oppose this republican -- i will strongly oppose this republican cra to overturn student debt, and democrats will keep working to make sure relief reaches every borrower in need. on the supreme court, yesterday, for the first time the united states supreme court announced the adoption of an ethical code of conduct for justices. at a time when americans' trust in the high court is deeply, deeply shaken, the supreme court has taken an important step to lay down basic rules ever the road for our justices. this should have happened a long time ago. lower courts have long been required to embrace an ethical code of conduct. there's no reason the supreme court should not have done the

same. now, while the supreme court's announcement was important, its lack of enforceability is a glaring omission. justices, it seems, are left to their own devices in applying this code to themselves. frankly, americans could be excused if they're skeptical after everything they've read in the paper with t about justices accepting lavish gifts and vacationing with ultrarich ideologues, some of which bring cases before the court. sheldon whitehouse said it well, he said, it's as if they're agreeing to the rules ever baseball, but no umpires. while the justices' code of conduct is a necessary and important step, it cannot be the final word. the public's trust in our courts is a key feature of our democratic society, and there's a lot of work left to do before that trust is fully restored. congress must, must continue its efforts to hold the judiciary accountable. now, on an fcc letter, last

month, my colleagues and i wrote the fcc urging them to adopt a number of key principles from our infrastructure law that fight against digital discrimination and ensures equal access to high-speed internet. well, i have good news -- the fcc heard us loud and clear and will vote tomorrow to implement the provisions i pushed with my colleagues to ensure everyone can access high-speed internet, no matter what zip code they live in. the digital divide has caused our country so much damage. it shut out rural, urban, and low-income americans, including far too many women and people of color, for whom basic internet access remains unavailable or unaffordable. i'm proud of great work we did to address the digital divide in our bipartisan infrastructure law. now, i encourage all of the fcc commissioners to take advantage of the provisions in our infrastructures law so that underserved communities can access high-speed internet, just

like everybody else. and on a circuit court judge, last night, madam president, last night the senate confirmed the 37th circuit court judge under president biden, ana de alba, to serve as circuit court judge for the ninth circuit. her confirmation is significant. she is the 30th hispanic judge confirmed by this democratic majority under president biden. with the confirmation of this, the 30th hispanic judge, there's more hispanic judges confirmed by any president in one term. something we can all be proud of. the most hispanic judges confirmed by any president in his first term. 30, 30 news hispanic judges. we're making the bench look more like america. one judge at a time, democrats are making our courts look more like america, greater diversity, more women, a broader range of

professional and personal experiences. we will keep going. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call:

also joined by romina boccia of the q2 institute. she's their budget and a taliban policy director. to both you think serving on the program. when it comes to matters of budget one of the things we've all been taught about all morning in the last couple weeks this idea keeping the government funded the short-term cr. another one possibly taking place as early as today. what you think about that as a strategy in light of a long-term strategy to find budget and a long-term strategy for budget in the federal government? >> guest: short-term continuing resolutions are not ideal because you can't set new

policy so you get stuck with the policies of the past. the political reality is the divisions between the house and the said it are just too big which is why we sing the stopgap funding bills. the question is what is at the end of the road? in those cases we have seen congress passed an omnibus bill just before christmas and at least i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: yesterday the supreme court announced its adoption of a code of ethics. the court produced the code internally and adopted it unanimously. in other words, as i expected, a coequal branch of government conducted its business independently, which sounds an awful lot like the separation of powers envisioned in the

constitution. certainly that hasn't deterred senate democrats from their obsessive effort to bend the court to their will. in fact, their month-long smear campaigned disguised as an effort to make the senior most jurist in the country duly confirmed by the senate more, quote, accountable, end quote to the american people, unfortunately continues apace. we know what our colleagues really mean by accountability. it's code for intimidation. i'm sure that this sort of accountability is exactly what the justices and their families felt as the biden administration declined to enforce federal law and protect them in their homes from angry mobs, or when senate democrats threatened to slash the court's security budget in

the face of death threats, or on any number of occasions when our colleagues have issued ominous veiled warnings about restructuring or outright threats that justices would pay the price. well, this week democrats on the judiciary committee are at it again. our colleagues planned last week to threaten legal action against private citizens who decline to indulge their sham trial of the justices. the only problem, republicans on the committee submitted too many commonsense amendments, and the majority worried that some of them might pass with bipartisan support. but regardless of how senate democrats choose to spend their

time, i'll repeat what i've said before. i have the utmost confidence in each one of the justices of our nation's highest court. they should continue to pay this intimidation campaign no mind. on another matter, this morning's october inflation report tells a story that has become familiar on president biden's watch. prices remain stubbornly high and well above the federal reserve's 2% target. prices are up 3.2% year over year and cumulative inflation since the president took office now clocks in at 17.6%. even as the rate prices are

growing, working americans are growing more frustrated with an expensive new normal. the price of a gallon of milk has risen 15.8% since january of 2021. meanwhile a gallon of gas is going for 54.8% more. as one small business owner in texas put it to reporters recently, he said i'm trying to think of one area where prices have eased, and i can't think of anything. earlier this month president biden told a gathering in rural minnesota that, quote, bidenomics is just another way of saying the american dream. the american people are just simply not buying that. according to one recent survey, only 14% of u.s. voters have

said president biden has made them better off, and 65% of voters said they had cut back on nonessential spending. so if the president thinks that bidenomics is the american dream, he might want to pay closer attention to how many americans are desperate to wake up. on one final matter, today our nation's capital will welcome a rally of jewish americans and friends of israel. the participants in today's events are gathering in mourning, in worry, in fear, and in shared resolve. in the dark days since the terrorist massacre of october 7, their message has been crystal clear. there is no moral equivalence between terrorism and self-defense. israel has a right to exist and

jews everywhere have a right to live without fear. these basic truths should be obvious and unimpeachable, but if anyone fails to see the creeping advance of anti-semitism across the west in recent years, if any corner of our society let itself believe that this unique hatred of jews has been confined to history, that naive fiction was shattered on october 7 and swept away by the hate that has poured across college campuses and city streets throughout america and the west over the past month. in just the first week after hamas and palestinian islamic jihad murdered 1,200

israelis, harassment, vandalism, and assault against american jews rose 400%. but the peaceful people gathering in washington today aren't here to ask for pity for themselves. they're here on behalf of the more than 240 hostages, including a three-year-old american boy and at least eight other americans who cannot speak for themselves. they're here with a clear message for our leaders -- stand with israel. since october 7, i've spoken repeatedly about the challenges israel faces as it works to protect its people, bring the hostages home, and destroy hamas capability to go to war. i've talked about the terrorist's reprehensible record

of smim -- violating codes of war, their cold-blooded practice of putting command centers and weapons caches in hospitals, schools, and even mosques, their grotesque penchant for using innocent gazans as human shields, and of course the threat of further violence from the iran-backed terrorist on a second front. this is why i've urged the biden administration to give israel the time, space, and support it needs to bring these savages to justice. how quickly some in the west have become confused about the crystal clear distinction twoan terrorism and -- between terrorism and self-defense. it's not the same thing. hamas sought the conflict.

hamas perpetuates it by holding toodges -- hostages and continuing its terrorism. and those of us who live out of range of terrorist rockets should pause before second-guessing israel's response. this is the time that demands moral clarity on campuses, in news rooms, in congress, and at the sharp end of american military strength. it's also time to restore a credible deterrence against iran, the chief underwriter and architect of violence against israel and against american forces in the middle east. in less than one month it -- iran-backed terrorists targeted u.s. servicemembers in iran and syria 52 times. from the abandonment of afghanistan to the delisting of

the houthis to our failure to respond to proxy attacks on our friends in the region, the biden administration has made israel's job -- iran's job actually easier. and now as america dithers over support for their friends in ukraine, tehran is throwing itself firmly behind putin's russia. it will take more than demolishing a couple of warehouses to show our adversaries we're credible. iran and its terrorist networks must know that violence against america or our allies will be met swiftly and overwhelmingly with lethal force.

i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin:

quorum call:

xi jinping during the apec summit in san francisco. above all, i look forward to president biden pushing president xi on something i raised during the bipartisan codel and back to china, cracking down on the sale of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl. when my senate colleagues and i met with president xi, we explained in stark detail how destructive the fentanyl crisis

was here in america, and the china had a responsibility to do its part to stop its trafficking. one step we strongly urged president xi to take is for chinese law enforcement to coordinate with the u.s. to enforce laws already on the books on the sale of precursor chemicals. i believe we've made progress on this issue, and i'm very optimistic that good news will come from tomorrow's meeting regarding fentanyl. when president biden meets with president xi. if mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, recent vents, notably putin's war of aggression in ukraine and hamas' deadly october 7 attack on israel, have thrown the importance of national security into sharp relief. at its most basic level, of course, national security means having a strong military, a fighting force that can meet and

defeat any threat it's called upon to face. but there are other key components of national security as well. there's border security. there's economic security. and there's energy security. now, what do i mean by energy security, madam president? i mean a strong and stable energy supply that does not depend upon imports from hostile countries or unstage regions of the world. -- or unstable regions of the world. you only have to look at the soaring costs and supply issues that countries like germany have faced to realize that relying on energy from other countries, particularly hostile countries, can leave a country in deeply vulnerable position. madam president, the united states has been doing a good job of maintaining our energy security. we develop domestic resources, both renewal and conventional, which meant that we were able to minimize our reliance on other countries. but president biden upended that

trajectory with his singular focus on green new deal policies. now we're at an inflection point, madam president. president biden's energy policies have put us on a dangerous trajectory you one that could result in significant disruptions to our domestic supply. for starters, there's the president's notable hostility to conventional energy production. since the day he took office, president biden has pursued an agenda that is hostile to conventional sources of energy -- namely oil and natural. he set the on his first day in office when he canceled the keystone x.l. pipeline, a project that was why under way and that was to be paired with $1.7 billion in private investment in renewable energy to fully offset -- fully offset its operating emissions. he also almost immediately froze new oil and gas leases on

federal lands, sending a clear signal to oil and gas producers that his administration would be reluctant to work with him to increase american energy production. and he's continued along the same lines ever since with a recent notable example being his cancellation of self isn't oil and gas leases in the small portion of anwr, the arctic national wildlife refuge, that is available for energy exploration and development. the problem with the president's actions, of course, is that our nation is nowhere near being able to end our reliance on conventional energy. and met me just say, madam president, i am a big and longtime supporter of renewable energy, but we are simply not in a position yet where we can rely predominantly on alternative energy technologies. the president himself admitted is much in his most recent state of the union address but that hasn't stopped him from pursuing

policies designed to eventually force our nation to rely on other countries for oil and gas with all the attendant security and economic risks that brings. and the president's energy agenda isn't limited to canceling oil and gas leases or discouraging investment in conventional energy production. also of deep concern is the president's apparent determination to force americans to adopt electric vehicles on a broad scale within the next decade. and why is this so concerning? because our electric grid is nowhere near capable of supporting that kind of a widespread transition to electric vehicles. rising electric demand is already stretching our grid, which has been weakened by the move away from traditional energy sources. it has been warned that fossil fuel plants are being forced to

retire at a faster rate than new renewables can be brought online at a rate of roughly 2-1. in other words, madam president, we're rapidly approaching a situation which we simply -- in which we simply don't have the ability to keep up with our current electricity demand. now, add charging for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles on top of that and we would be looking at a future of widespread blackouts and brownouts, to say nothing of soaring electricity prices. and so it goes without saying that a nation that can't reliably keep its lights lightss homes heated is a nation that's less than secure. the president biden's proposal rule that would severely constrain distribution

transformers, a critical component of america's electric grid. stakeholders are already facing significant backlogs for these critical components, whether trying to restore from a storm, improving the grid or tie in new development e the biden administration's proposed rule would guarantee that these problems would get worse. madam president, recent events we mind us that we can't make our nation's security for grants a. -- we have to work constantly to ensure that we're always prepared to meat any threat and because being strong is the best way to discourage any threat. energy security is an essential part of maintaining that strength. we want to maintain our energy security and if we want to maintain the kind of energy supply that cannot only deal with all domestic energy deed manneds but will leave us free from overreliance on other countries, we can't keep heading

down the path the biden administration has set us on. i hope the president and his allies will realize this important point before it is too late. madam president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

>> the court produced the code internally and adopted it unanimously. in other words, as i expected, but coequal branch of government conducted its business

independently, which sounds an awful lot like suppression of powers envisioned in the constitution. certainly that hasn't deterred senate democrats in their obsessive effort to bend the court to their will. in fact, their month-long smear campaign disguised as an effort to make the seniormost jurists in the country duly confirmed by the senate quote accountable end quote to the american people. unfortunately continues apace. we know what our colleagues really mean by accountability. it's code for intimidation. i'm sure that this sort of accountability is exactly what the justices and their families felt as the biden administration decline to enforce federal law

and protect them in their homes from angry mobs. or when senate democrats threaten to slash the courts security budget in the face of death threats. or on any number of locations when our colleagues have issued ominous, veiled warnings about restructuring, or outright threats that justices would pay the price. well, this week democrats on the judiciary committee are at it again. our colleagues planned last week to threaten legal action against private citizens who decline to indulge their sham trial of the justice system. the only problem, republicans on the committee submitted to many commonsense amendments and the majority worried that some of

them might pass with bipartisan support. but regardless of how senate democrats choose to spend their time, i will repeat what i've said before. i have the utmost confidence in each one of the justices of our nation's highest court that they should continue to pay this intimidation campaign no mind. now, on another matter, this morning's october inflation report tells a story that has become familiar on president biden's watch. prices remain stubbornly high, and well above the federal reserve's 2% target. prices are up 3.2% year-over-year, and cumulative inflation since the president

took office now clocks in at 17.6%. .. to 4.8% more , one small business owner in texas reported recently said i'm trying to think of one area prices are at ease and i can't think of anything. earlier this month biden told a gathering in rural minnesota by economics is just another way of saying the american dream people

are simply not buying the. the sermon a 14% of u.s. voters that president biden has made them better off and 65% of voters so they've called back on nonessential funding so the president thinks economics is the american dream, you might want to pay closer attention to how many americans are desperate to wake up. one final matter, a rally of jewish americans and friends of israel. participants in today's events are gathering morning and worry and fear ending result. the message has been crystal

clear. there is no law equivalent in self-defense. israel has a right to exist in the right to live without fear. these basic truths should be obvious and unimpeachable but if anyone failed to see anti-semitism across the west in recent years, any corner of our society believes spend confined, october 7 swept away by eight has poor cross college campuses and city streets red america and the west as possible. the first week after hamas and

palestinian islamic jihad murders of hundred israelis, hurrah. because american jews rose four 100%. peaceful people gathering today themselves, they are 2403-year-old american american cannot there be a message for our leaders in israel, i repeatedly about israel faces home story, i for filing his

peers time, space and support it quickly the evidence you have become frozen the most slope the

terrorism willamerican forces in the middle east and listen will bring back tears service members in.

fifty-two times from the abandonment afghanistan and friends in the region the biden administration made here to spread firmly behind putin's russia. it will take more than demolishing a couple warehouses to ensure they are credible. iran into terrorist networks it will be with brutal course.

the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: i'd like to end the quorum, make that motion. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. marshall: mr. president, i seek recognition. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. marshall: thank you, mr. president. time is of the essence. time is of the essence, and

that's why i rise once again in calling for the immediate passage of the house-led and passed bipartisan standalone aid package for israel that will provide our ally with $14 billion in military assistance for their ongoing war with the savage hamas terrorists. this standalone bill does not use israel as a lever to fund ukraine funding or to make our border more porous to terrorists and criminals. i want to start by sharing two stories, is of two gentlemen i met last week. i'm going to start with duran. duran's brother was the mayor of a kibbutz located within a stone's throw of gaza. as the mayor, he often welcomed palestinians from gaza, he shared meals with them and conversed with them. there was a peace-loving family.

on the morning of october 7, duran's brother, the mayor, was brutally murdered by hamas. that wasn't enough. next his brother's mother-in-law was murdered. then his son was murdered. and finally, a nephew. in the matter of a few hours, a woman lost her husband, her mother, her son, and her nephew. the other story i want to share is of two brothers, gal and guy. gal was the older brother, guy was the younger brother. they went to the peace and love music festival about three miles from the gaza strip. on the morning of october 7, gus brother, guy, and they heard gunshots and rockets going off, and they both decided to run for their cars. they were split up. while gal made it home, guy

never did. later that same day, his family saw horrifying videos of his brother laying on the ground, handcuffed, and who remains a hos amg to this day. of course, we have -- a hostage to this day. of course, we have no idea if guy is alive or not. i ask, why is this important? why is time of the essence? listen, israel a powder keg and it's about to ex 34r0ed. for starters -- to explode. since we were here last, hamas declared desire for a permanent state of war with israel on all borders. there continue to be a barrage of missiles, rockets and drone attacks on israel that worsened since the war broke out, with hamas firing at israel nearly 10,000 times. since october 7, 50 attacks have occurred on united states military installations, some 52

american soldiers have been injured, not to mention we lost 30-some americans killed on october 7 by these monsters called hamas. why is time of 9 essence -- why is time of the essence? right now, there are hundreds of innocent people, like gal's brother guy, held captive and likely being tortured and raped by hamas terrorists, including ten americans. i stand here calling on my democratic cleelings to do the right thing -- colleagues, and to do the right thing, today pass this. it's been five weeks since the hamas army terror launched their assault on our greatest ally in the middle east. the house and its bipartisan solution, only met with obstruction by my friends across the aisle in this chamber. the american public wants to know why the white house and my friends across the aisle insist upon leveraging this funding in order to fund their other priorities. is it really anybody across the

aisle that objects to israel receiving funding and to help stop this war against humanity? this delay is providing this aid is not lost on israel. raising questions about our commitment as an ally. equally concerning is the message it sends hamas terrorists, emboldening them. in our slow response, it reinforces the white house message that america has no red line and they can continue to attack our military without significant recourse. america is not a fair weathered friend. we must stand unequivocally with israel, a qund that stood -- a country that stood beside us through thick and thin. we must pass this aid today. now, when i met with duran, who lost, as you recall, four members of his family october 7, he pledged with me to help get one clear message to the american people -- hamas does not use logic. we are not dealing with a

civilized nation here. their evil defies any type of logic. they don't make sense. these people are evil monsters who rape, torture, and kill their enemies. by the way, every person in this room is one of their enemies. anyone in america who does not believe in their religious ideas is their enemy, who they pledge to kill. hamas, iran, and its proxies have taken an oath to kill all americans. some of my colleagues have delayed this assistance as they call for negotiation was these terrorists on a ceasefire. i ask each of my friends across the i'll, who is holding up this bipartisan funding, to sit down with the victim of hamas savage attacks. please, envied any one of the 17 0 family members here on capitol hill today -- 170 families here on capitol hill today with family members being held as hostages, being used as

human shields by this evil terrorist group. i am asking you sit with them and listen to their stories of how hamas terrorists tortured, maimed , and massacred the most jewish people in a single day since the horror of horrors, the nazi holocaust. i want to make sure it's clear today, heal evil defies any logic. there's no negotiating with them. there are no terms they would seriously concern. all they understand are death, horror, and destruction. let's make this point perfectly clear. our hesitation to provide bipartisan funding to our staunch ally israel gives hamas a green light to kill americans. mr. president, i'd like to urge everyone to take this measure and adopt it immediately. and for now i'd like to yield to the gentleman from ohio, my friend, senator vance. mr. vance: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio.

mr. vance: thank you, mr. president. thanks to my colleague from kansas here. this is pretty simple and it's pretty obvious. the united states senate would passed, much-needed aid to israel today, at this very moment, aid the house has already passed. it could go to the president's signature this afternoon if my democratic colleagues would stand down, but they won't. many of them here are gathered to push back against our very commonsense proposal to offer support to one of our most important allies as they face an existential threat. and it's important for us to be honest about that fact, to acknowledge that israel would be getting support from this government tomorrow if our democratic friends didn't stop it today. now why are they doing this? you will hear over the next hour or so, we'll hear a lot of slogans but very little real discussion about our policy in ukraine or our policy in israel. the democrats have decided that

this must be combined into a massive hodgepodge package for it to pass the united states senate. they're doing this because they know that america is united behind israel and they want to use our israeli allies as a political cover in their time of crisis. that is all this is about. you'll hear a whole lot but that is ultimately what this is about. they know they cannot dividend president biden's -- defend president biden's directionless ukraine policy so they would like to use israel as a cover. we have before us a hodgepodge of a supplemental from the president of the united states. it combines a few billion dollars for ukraine with a few billion dollars to gaza support because that makes a ton of sense. let's give money to the israelis to fight back against hamas and then let's give some money to hamas to -- i'm sure they won't use it to kill israelis. it will just be food and medicine we're assured even though we know because hamas is

the functioning government in hamas, that support will flow to their war effort. at least some of it will. maybe some of it will flow to the palestinian people, call me skeptical but we know some of it will support the hamas war effort. let's be honest about it. it's not just a few billion for hamas, a few billion for israel. it's a few billion to resettle migrants in the united states of america because god knows we haven't had enough resettlement of migrants in the united states of america over the last couple of years, the fentanyl deaths and the chaos and crime in our country prove it. on top of that let's add $60 billion to ukraine because of course we know that israel and ukraine are very closely connected. they're so closely connected in fact that this chamber can't have a separate debate on one aid package or the other. then let's add money to east asia on top of that. we'll combine this on a supplemental aid package that has very little. the gross majority of the money has nothing to do with israel, and we will do it so that we can

cover for the fact that the president of the united states has thrown the world into chaos. what i'd like to do is have a separate debate. divide these questions into separate conversations and debate them separately, and, oh, by the way, use the political will of this chamber to support our israeli allies yesterday because they have needed it for much longer than that. let me close with just a couple of final observations here and then i'll kick it over to my friend, the senator from missouri. i'm getting sick in this ukraine policy debate of hearing the same exact slogans repeated. this country has been governed for 30 years on bipartisan foreign policy slogans. why don't we have a real debate? we are told again and again and again that vladimir putin is just like hitler in the 1930's. if we don't stop him, ukrainians are going to march through europe.

what happened to our education system that the only historical analogy we can use in this chamber is world war ii? what about world war i. where competing major powers threw the entire world into conflict because we didn't make smart decisions, we didn't de-escalate conflict when we had the opportunity. why is it that we think vladimir putin, who has struggled to fight against the ukrainians is somehow going to be able to march all the way to berlin when he can't conquer a country immediately to his east? why do we think that everything that happens in the united states and in the world in 2023 is munich almost a century going? i am sick of us not having a real debate on this conversation. vladimir putin is a bad guy. he should not have invaded ukraine. but our policy in 2023 has to be different than our policy in the 1940's because the circumstances are different. as lincoln said, our case is anew, so we must think anew and

act anew. you'll also hear, you'll also hear that china will be emboldened. china will be terribly emboldened if we don't stop the russians in ukraine. well, call me crazy but i think the chinese will be emboldened if we use limited american weapons and give it all to the ukrainians instead of giving it to the taiwanese. maybe you disagree but let's have the debate and let's have the real debate on the president's ukraine policy instead of holding israel hostage. there is nothing more shameful than taking an existential crisis, thousands of dead israeli civilians, and using them as a fig leaf for ukraine policy. if you want to defend the ukraine policy, defend it. let the israel aid flow through and let it flow through today. i yield to my good friend from missouri. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri.

mr. schmitt: i think the american people think that's what we do here. i think the american people think we actually have an appropriations process. we have individual bills come forth and we're offering amendments and senators can have their say, republicans and democrats can have different ideas, offer different amendments and we vote on those things. that's actually not what happens here at all. this is now compounding this with a supplemental aid package of putting on a bunch of unrelated issues to try to bootstrap ukraine aid when the most pressing need we have now, the most bipartisan support we have is the israeli aid. by the way, it's paid for. listening to the hallways buzz in this town about actually paying for something is like unbelievable. you know, it's going to be catastrophic if we have that discussion. but i think it's healthy. i think it's healthy, but i think we need to separate these issues. this is supposed to be the most deliberative body in the history of the world and what we're told is we can't do that.

to my friend from ohio's point, history doesn't begin and end with neville chamberlain. there are a lot of lessons from history about how do you confront these things. and, by the way, each theater is very different. what israel needs is different, what ukraine might need is different, what taiwan might need is different. by the way, what the united states of america might need is different as we face our chief rival in the world. we've never had one like this in the history of this country with china. we've never had an economic rival, a nuclear power, a militarized power like we have with china. maybe we should be talking as we talk about this military industrial base, and i think there's broad support for this, for long-range capability. our military industrial base is strapped right now. we're at capacity. we ought to be growing that. i support that. but i think we ought to have a discussion about what does the united states need too? as relates to israel, they have a clear objective, a likelihood of success, broad support.

i have yet to hear any of that as it relates to ukraine. all we get are, again, slogans and fearmongering. i think, by the way, if you brought that up for an individual vote, it might pass. i don't know, we ought to try it. but i know this would. it should today. but we're going to hear objections now from the democrats. they're going to object to this and forestall this important aid that our allies in israel, who are facing a real existential threat right now, need. again, by the way, we've thrown in, you know border here, and call me skeptical as it relates to joe biden and his administration on his seriousness when it comes to the border. when i was attorney general in missouri we fought on these, including remain in mexico in place. we had to get contempt orders against this administration to follow a judge order to enforce the law. i am going to support strongest

border package possible but it's really hard when you have an executive branch that isn't interested in executing the law. and now we have eight-plus million people in this country who have come here illegally. they've admitted that quite possibly we have terrorists in this country because we have an open border. let's have that debate also. but here we are with an opportunity to separate the israeli funding, again, that has broad support. each one of these issues, each one of these funding requests have separate relates on the ground, political support, strategies, likelihood of success. let's respect that and let's respect the will of the american people that we can actually come up here and do the important work we were sent here to do, which is to have real debate in what's supposed to be the most deliberative body in the history of the world. i yield back thought senator -- i yield back to the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: let me start by thanking my colleagues from the great state of ohio and missouri

for standing beside the people of israel unequivocally. but before we turn the floor back to those who protest too much, to those who protest against this stand-alone israel funding, let's address some of the objections made by the senate democrats last week. it's important that we focus on the urgency of israel without tying it to other complex, time-killing, unrelated conflicts. in last week's debate here on this senate floor on israel safety and security, senate democrats mentioned ukraine 7 times, more than -- 77 times, more than twice than they mentioned israel. i ask americans to listen to this debate and count for themselves how many times my friends across the aisle mentioned ukraine but turn their back, almost like they're allergic to using the word israel. they took 45 minutes of their hour-long speeches to make their case for ukraine funding.

look, i get it. i get it. you want to fund ukraine. but let's have that debate another day. what americans understand about ukraine is that joe biden has thrown $113 billion at the problem with minimal accountability. and in return, 200,000 people have died. americans understand that the war in ukraine is at a stalemate and it's going to turn into a seven, probably ten-year war. it's going to turn into a war of attrition. what's the plan, americans want to know. how much more of their blood and treasure do we have to send overseas? let's debate ukraine funding another day. next my friend across the aisle are going to use the pay-for as an excuse. if that's the reason you won't support stand-alone funding for israel, then give us a different pay-for. but meanwhile, time is of the essence. your caucus, our caucus is

divided on funding for ukraine. your caucus and our caucus is divided on how to solve the open border crisis. and i don't hear any solutions offered from the republican-controlled house, the people's house, the first thing we don't hear from the white house and senate leadership is that it's dead on arrival. and vice versa. anything that we're offering, they say is dead on arrival. folks, we're no closer today on figuring out ukraine funding or how to solve the open border crisis than we were a month ago, two months ago, six months ago. we're months apart, i think we're infinitely apart from solving these problems. meanwhile, hamas and iran grow more emboldened and world war iii inches closer. i don't hear anyone saying, from either side of the aisle, don't fund israel. so why don't we fund israel today? don't tell me why we should fund ukraine.

don't tell me you don't like the pay-for. stand up today and tell me why we shouldn't fund israel today. tell me why we shouldn't use israel as a leverage for your other priorities. tell me why we shouldn't send a message to hamas in iran and the message that we're going to send them is that we will not tolerate this barbarism, these atrocities, these crimes against humanity. mr. president, time is of the essence. the house has passed the stand-alone bill to fund israel. the senate should do the same. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 6126, which was received from the house. i further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president,

reserving the right to object. we cannot send the message to our allies or to the world that america only stand by some of its allies, that our word is only good some of the time. we also cannot send our adversaries the message that they can simply wait us out, allow us to become distracted, allow our resolve to waiver, and that the united states will eventually fail to respond to all of the pressing challenges that we face. our adversaries are watching carefully to see if we will let putin win. and the answer must emphatically be absolutely not. i said it before, i'll say it times again. we cannot just do half our job here. that's not just wrong, it is dangerous and it is naive. and, mr. president, there are fundamental flaws in the arguments i've heard from my colleagues from splitting up this aid. let's start with this one.

the argument that somehow we haven't debated ukraine aid even though we've been debating this even longer than aid for israel even though we've already been forced to punt this aid to an ally in need before. ukraine can no more afford a delay than our allies in israel. ukraine is at a critical point in a brutal war to defend its sovereignty against putin's bloody invasion. abandoning ukraine is the same as surrendering to putin. and sends a message he can invade any democracy he likes with impunity. fortunately members on both sides of the aisle do understand this and clear overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both the house and senate have shown they support aid for ukraine. so we absolutely cannot allow ukraine aid to get left behind yet again when they are at a critical moment in this their

heroic fight to protect their homeland and their future as a sovereignty democracy. we had a robust debate on this last week and there was strong showing from senators who discussed at length why it is so important we keep this aid together in one package. here's a key point raised time and again in that debate. the global challenges we face are all connected and they're all urgent. we have to be strategic enough to understand that. you know who had met with putin last month? the leader of hamas. you know who's watching how committed we are to our allies in ukraine? the government of china. and when it comes to this serious human tricrisis in -- human yois -- humanitarian crisis in gaza, and making had sure that people have the medical care, it is not just the

moral thing to do, it is in our national interest as it promotes long-term security. hawsms hopes that we ignore the humanitarian needs in gaza. it hopes to drive more people to despair and anger and ultimate ily extremism. in this critical moment if we only respond to some of the challenges before us, not only will the other challenges continue to fester, but we will be sending a dangerous message about the limits of american leadership in the world. for our commitments to mean something in the world, they have to be ironclad. for our adversaries to make american leadership -- to take american leadership seriously, they have to know that we will stand by our allies that we will stand up for democracy and we will stand up to dictators. and the way we do that is by passing a strong unified security package with support for ukraine and israel,

humanitarian assistance, and smart investments in the indo-pacific to support our partners and strengthen deterrence. now i'm continuing to work on this package to get it done, than work could not be 0 more important nor could it be more urgent. if my colleagues are serious about making sure we act quickly, i urge them to support us in that effort. mr. reed: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: reserving my right to object. i believe we must move forward with emerging funding for our allies, all of our allies, not just the state of israel but also ukraine. we are in a situation where both of these countries are in tremendous stress. but it's very clear that the proposal before us, this unanimous consent to pass the bill, including only funding for israel, is just ironically an attempt to deny funding to ukraine.

it's not really about helping israel, it's about making sure we don't continue our support and commitment to ukraine. that commitment is just as vitally important to us as our solemn commitment to israel. if we fail to support ukraine, we will send a very unfortunate message to our adversaries. you can succeed in overrunning america's allies if you simply wait us out. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been spinning a false narrative that says by providing support for ukraine, we already deny support for israel. the truth is that the only obstacle to providing help to both nations is them. and the truth is also that the united states is already supporting the state of israel. the united states has provided israel with over $4.12 billion in military assistance and missile defense funding over the last three years and in response to the attacks of october 7, president biden has moved two

aircraft carrier strike groups into the region, he ordered marines into the region, u.s. forces have engaged and shot down missiles and adversaries in the area, and we have suferred -- suffered injuries because of the united states position in the middle east. we need to support israel. we are supporting israel. we will continue to support israel, but we cannot abandon ukraine many they have lost hundreds of thousands of civilians and military personnel. the -- the -- october 7 was grotesque. i was in israel last month. i saw the images, some have not been released of the slaughter. it was traumatic for israel and the jewish community worldwide. but go to ukraine, dig up the graves of people shot in the back of their head while their

hands were tied. you want to talk about atrocities. those were atrocities perpetrated by the russians. we are fighting forces that are dark and evil on two fronts and we have to support all of those democratic nations, israel and ukraine. they are struggling against the darkness. this is not my opinion alone. two weeks ago, mike pompeo, a former congressman from senator marshall's home state of kansas wrote about ukraine. make no mistake, the outcome of this war will have a direct impact on u.s. national security. should putin prevail, whether on the battlefield or through a war of attrition that leads to ill conceived diplomacy, and i would suggest that denying this aid is ill conceived diplomacy, the war will be felt beyond the ukraine borders. if we fail to supply ukraine

with supplies and equipment, young american servicemember will be called upon to fight. as so many of my colleagues have suggested and as secretary pompeo suggested, putin will not be satisfied with simply taking ukraine. and we could see ourselves engaged in defending one of our nato allies i. a simple notion of american military policy having the privilege to have served in the military, i would rather send resources to fight than send american soldiers to do the fighting. if we don't support ukraine, that will happen. let me conclude by simply saying, it is time to get serious. we have three days before our government runs out of funding, israel needs our support, ukraine needs our support, american families and communities are counting on us to deliver critical disaster

assistance, they need support for high-quality child care. there are many needs we must address. we have to move now but not isolating our ukrainian allies. we are in the fight with them and we will finish the fight with them. at this point i would yield to senator durbin of illinois. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: resoifg the -- reserving the right to object. i share the concerns of my friend from missouri. we have seen what happened to those perpetrated by hamas on october 7. the deadliest single day for the jewish people since the holocaust. we know the return to status quo is unacceptable. i support the senator's sense of urge urgency, we must get aid to israel. as a former chair of the defense

appropriations subcommittee, it was my privilege and honor to appropriate literally millions of dollars for iron dome, the air defense which today protects israel. i believe supporting allies and friends. i joined a quarter of my colleagues in the senate with a letter to the president with the same message. i want to be clear, many of my colleagues harken back to the days of munich and say we're stuck in that thinking. forget munich for a moment and think of moscow and think of the hamas terrorists to moscow to sit down with vladimir putin. coincidence? happened to be part of a travel plan? no. hamas already attacked israel it they were branded as a terrorist group. where did they find a friend? they go to moscow to vladimir putin. why would we get soft on putin at this moment? what's happening in israel is a

mirror of what is happening in ukraine. a tyrant with atrocious conduct and unprovoked invasion of a country, innocent people killed. that's the story in both places and yet the republicans come to to the floor today and say to us we are only concerned about one. we don't care about the into the alliance and supporting it fursdz, we just want -- further, we just want to help one of our allies. 2,000 miles north of israel there is another country fighting for its survival in the face of a brutal assault also in need of a sustained u.s. security assistance, that country is ukraine. two months ago i imagined my colleagues all joined me and others meeting in the old senate chamber in a private, secret confidential meeting with the president of ukraine. president zelenskyy told us without equivocation that without the continued financial support of the united states and

nato, we will lose this war. he didn't say that once, he said it twice to make it abundantly clear. and now for the republicans to say we'll step aside and let the aid to ukraine, if it is ever to come, will make a mockery of their amazing display of courage we have seen in ukraine resisting the russian aggression. just as secretaries austin and blinken argued aid for israel, they also stressed the need for aid to ukraine. they have stood up against russian tyranny with the united states, european union and other countries around the world standing with them. we are the front line of democracy in ukraine and to walk away from ukraine as the republicans are suggesting today is a travesty. to pull back now would be your honor conscionable, a reflection of america no longer being the world leader it purports to be

and a boon for countries like russia, china, and iran eager to fill the ensuing void. secretary blinken said it plainly, in israel and ukraine, democracies are fighting ruthless foes. he went further to say today's battle against aggression and terrorism will define global terrorism for years to come and to walk away from ukraine would lead us to that conclusion. only firm american leadership can ensure that the tyrants, thugs and terrorists will not be emboldened. in addition to israel, we must be steadfast in addressing chinese aggression and taiwan. let me talk about humanitarian aid. one cannot look at the scenes coming outside of gaza without realizing there are many thousands of innocent victims, people who are not part of the

terrorism of the hamas leadership. people who are simply trying to survive. the scenes congress coming from hospitals on a daily basis is a reminder that there is a desperate need for humanitarian aid. there were photographs of a dozen infants who had been separated from their ventilators to provide humanitarian aid to the helpless, guiltless victims in this part of the world is consistent with the values of the united states and i support it without reservation. humanitarian assistance is not only the right thing to do, it will save lives. it will help prevent the next conflict. it will serve as a down payment on our own security in the future. i urge my colleagues to resist this effort from the republicans to walk away from ukraine and ignore the obvious cons p commonsense, the -- consequences, the people of ukraine have showed

extraordinary courage. i yield to my friend from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. president, are reserving the right to object. at this moment of danger and peril around the world, we, the united states of america, must support our friends and democracies that are under attack from brutal adversaries. that means supporting israel's right to defend itself in the aftermath of the brutal hamas attacks of october 7. it also means ensuring that the people of ukraine can defend themselves against putin's rank aggression. make no mistake about it, this proposal on the floor today is tantamount to saying the ukrainian people should surrender to vladimir putin. it's waving the white flag. if we don't support ukraine, democracy will lose around the world.

i have to say that ronald reagan would be rolling in his grave today to see the republican party abandoning ukraine in the fight for democracy and freedom. you know most of us gathered recently in the old senate chamber with president zelenskyy, and he was very clear that the ukrainians will fight on to defend their democracy and their sovereignty, but if the united states doesn't stand by the people of ukraine, putin will have the upper hand. so for goodness sake our ukrainian friends are spilling blood, the very least we can do is step up and provide military assistance so they can defend themselves. and this is not only about ukraine. it is about making sure that our allies, our nato allies, understand that the united states will continue to stand up against aggression. if the united states walks away,

the nato alliance will begin to collapse. it also sends a terrible signal to others around the world, other ato accurates who are -- other autocrats doing to ukraine. i heard my colleagues say it is only speculation of what our allies would think if we walked away. let me tell you they have told us very clearly, leaders in japan and south korea, friends in taiwan, they are watching very closely what the united states does with respect to ukraine, just as president xi is keeping one eye on taiwan as he keeps the other eye on what's happening in ukraine. president biden is scheduled to

meet with president xi tomorrow. i say to my colleagues don't pretend that you are going to be tough on china, that you are going to support taiwan if you cut loose and run when it comes to ukraine. because they are connected. just ask the people in taiwan. ask people in the indo-pacific region. i keep hearing my republican colleagues talk about their so-called pay-for. as if the 14 billion-dollar cut to the irs pays for the $14 billion in support for israel. this debate's been going on for a couple of weeks. it cannot be that our colleagues aren't paying attention to what both the irs and the congressional budget office have said. they have said far from paying for it, it will actually increase the deficit. you're sao

the irs we're going to deny you the funds to go after the very wealthy deadbeats and because you can't collect the revenue from the tax deadbeats, the united states deficit is going to go up, not down, so that doesn't pay for it. don't call it a pay-for. that's simply a fraud. it's not true. and what is really astounding, i've heard my colleagues use the word leverage a couple of times, it's a new cynicism to use our efforts to support israel, to provide what amounts to a don't have to pay your taxes message

to very wealthy americans. and it's like nobody ever seems to miss an opportunity to give another tax break to very wealthy folks on the republican side. in this case it's not a tax break. it's actually requiring that people pay the taxes already due and owing. so stop calling it a pay-for. let's stand up for ukraine and democracy in ukraine. yes, let's continue to support israel's right to defend itself. and let's stand up as the united states of america to ensure that we send a message to our allies around the world that were with them and our adversaries around the world that we will stand by our friends. and with that i yield to the senator from colorado. senator bennet. mr. bennet: thank you very much to my colleague. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you. reserving the right to object. i'm glad to be here today. it's important to have this

debate. this is a debate. people on the other side of the aisle are saying it's not one. i heard my colleague from ohio talking earlier about slogans, slogans, this is all about slogans. i cannot believe the degree to which the accomplishments by the ukrainian people are being diminished on this floor or being diminished in this debate. it is absolutely disgrateful -- disgraceful. they are this close to winning this war. there is a freeze on the battlefield, on the front line, in part because putin knows exactly what's going on here. he knows about the debate that's going on here. he knows my colleagues that he's losing on the battlefield. he understands that. nato understands that. xi jingping understands that. he knows that. he's losing on the battlefield.

he's counting on winning on capitol hill. he's counting on winning on this battlefield. let me tell you something. this isn't about slogans. let's talk about ukraine has done over the last two years. i haven't heard anybody talk about that in this discussion or debate. i hope my colleagues on the other side are listening because you will not hear in your lifetime a list of greater courage or sacrifice than what you will hear from ukrainians and it's not slogans. they defeated and reversed the russian attack on kyiv which, by the way, kyiv was supposed to fall in 72 hours. they reversed that. they forced russia to retreat r- retreat from sunni. they won the battle of kharkiv. they took by kherson.

they took back safe island. ukraine has taken back more than half, more than half of the land that russia took from them in this invasion. colleagues, more than half. nobody two years ago would have predicted that. everybody would have said putin would never relinquish that land. they almost single-handed whri restarted commercial grain trade with asia and africa. why does that matter? that matters so that the whole rest of the world can be fed so they'll stay in the fight that we have led that no other country can lead but the united states of america. even hope my colleagues on the other side have gotten tired. last month, look it up. i'll put it in the record, mr. president. there was an amazing article over the weekend about this in

"the new york times." may i put it in the record? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: thank you. they largely neutralized the black sea fleet. they don't even have a real navy. they don't have a navy and through their dedication and through their imagination and their willingness to sacrifice, they have managed to neutralize the black sea. there is nobody who thought they could do this. this is all while russians outnumbered ukrainians 3-1 on the battlefield. i heard from my colleagues how much more american lives, how much more american treasure. there is not an american losing their life. the ukrainians are losing their life in the name of democracy. in total, ukrainians killed 300,000 russian fighters -- for doing the work that nato has not been asked to do, that the united states has not been asked

to do. putin knows he's losing this war in ukraine. the only question he has is he going to win the war here in the united states congress. who is going to lose ukraine and the people that are here today say this is not a lesson from world war ii. this is a lesson from world war i. these are the people that are going to lose ukraine. do we have any right to be fatigued, colleagues? when we haven't lost a hundred thousand people? when all we're being asked to do is manufacture the weapons that ukraine is using on this battlefield, putting american people to work, to support ukraine and democracy. that's what we're being asked to

do. can we possibly be fatigued at this moment. i suppose we could be having a very different debate if ukraine hadn't been as successful as they have been but they have been successful. and what we know is if we roll over now from vladimir putin, if we stop providing ukraine with weapons and their aout of bullets, mr. president, they're out of bullets as we stand here today, they have a billion dollars left, that if we stop providing them with resources, if we stop providing them with the intelligence that we've provided them, they're going to lose this war. president zelenskyy came here and told you that. we will win this war if you stick with us. we will lose this war if you abandon us. we cannot abandon ukraine at this moment. so i know i have other colleagues on the floor who need to speak today, mr. president. i am glad this has been recorded for history.

i am glad today's debate has been recorded for history because when they ask who lost this war to vladimir putin, it's not going to be a question of rhetoric or debate points. it's going to be a question of a war that we were actually on the verge of winning and a war that we've walked away from and lost with repercussions to every single corner of this world including where xi jingping is sitting right now and don't toaght about it. don't forget about it. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you very much. i want to thank senator reed for leading us in this time. i want to make two relative brief points to the discussion and then i'll turn it over to other of my colleagues. first, i understand that my republican colleagues want to avoid the question of republican

priorities. the fact of the matter is and israel only funding bill passed through the house of representatives. and attached to it was a massive giveaway for the richest americans, millionaires and billionaires who don't pay their taxes. and so as we chart the path forward for a bill that only funds israel, we know in the house of representatives it has to be matched with a massive, massive giveaway for millionaires and billionaires. i don't think you can ignore that fact that a large swath of the republican party is using this crisis in israel in order to deliver yet another gift to

the very small slice of americans who don't need any more gifts. there are 700 billionaires in this country who have more net worth than 50% of all americans. the rules are already rigged in favor of the super wealthy. and so the idea that we would facilitate a plan in the house of representatives to use israel aid as a means to continue to rig the rules in favor of those ultrarich americans, it's just incredibly distasteful and it's a signal where the republican party priorities are today. second, i do want to talk about what senator vance and others talked about, about the lazy precedent referencing, the sloganeering that they accuse democrats of engaging in. so it is correct that what is happening today in ukraine does

not have a modern precedent but because never before in our lifetime in the post world war ii order has a large nuclear nation like russia invaded another large neighboring nation with the purpose of annexation. what russia is trying to do is to fundamentally change the rules, fundamentally shift international norms that have been in place since world war ii. at the foundation of it is that big countries don't change their borders through force, through aggression. it is important -- it is important to understand that these are the rules that have ungird u.s. growth and u.s. national

security. and so we don't believe that we should support ukraine because we just believe that vladimir putin is adolf hitler. we don't believe we should support ukraine to perpetuate some slogan about american greatness. no. we believe that we have an interest as the most powerful nation in the world, as the nation that has benefited most from the post-world war ii order, to defend those rules because if we don't, no one else will. and it just strikes me that my republican colleagues who have this fatalistic view of what is going to happen in ukraine just really view america as weak, as impotent and as powerlessness in the face of this unprecedented aggression from vladimir putin.

america's greatness is connected to our willingness to stand up and lead at moments of crisis. and this is a unique moment of crisis without precedent which is why is requires the united states to stand against russia's aggression. for thousands of years, we know this because you read about it in your history books growing up, for thousands of years prior to the establishment of the post-world war ii order, this world was defined by state on state civilization on civilization violence and conflict. people labored under the constant threat that their entire world would be ended by another one of these civilization on civilization conflicts. but this was back at a time when weapons were crude. they were swords, they were bows and arrows and then they were

simple firearms. millions died but millions also survived. we live in a very different era today where we frankly have to be more worried, not less are worried not permissive or fatalistic about the consequences of reentering a world and a paradigm in which states enter into conflict with other states. why? because we now live in a world filled with weapons of mass destruction. not just nuclear weapons, but other highly sophisticated weapons. and so now this kind of conflict that russia and ukraine are engaged in, that's the kind of conflict that can wipe out millions in a day. that's why the united states of america has stood up for the post-world war ii order. that's why we have fought and sometimes died to maintain it, and this is the most significant

affront to that order, an order that has protected this country, an order that has protected our economy, an order that has saved millions of lives in our lifetime. it is hard -- ukraine's mission is difficult. in a short-term satisfy me now culture, i understand that many of my republicans get phone calls from their constituents who say, if ukraine hasn't won this war tomorrow, it doesn't matter anymore. this conflict matters. it matters that bestick with ukraine because if we lose, we are living in an entirely new world, the cap is off with state on state violence and america will be had in a conflict with another nuclear state nation, and we will not talk about others dying, we will be talking

about americans dying. i think it this is as important as it gets. we are deciding the future of this world and the rules that governor it. and i join my colleagues in objecting to this motion. i yield the floor to senator schatz. mr. schatz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. schatz re -- mr. schatz: reserving the right to object. i will be clear here. i have rarely seen such a cynical piece of legislation on the senate floor. i have rarely seen it. and i think the point that chris van hollen and chris murphy made is good. i think when you have a hammer or a nail and whenever there is an opportunity to legislate even if we are in a global fight against fascism, the first thing that comes to be mind of many people on the other side of the

aisle, how can we make life easier for the wealthiest among us? like it's literally got nothing to do with israel aid or ukraine aid or indo-pacific security matters. just whenever you get a chance throw in an opportunity to enrich the wealthiest among us who are already not paying their fair share of taxes. that's the frame, right? this is where we start. which is, i've got an idea, cut taxes again. i've got an idea. let cut -- let's gut the irs so they don't have a chance to audit the millionaires. this is how you should understand this from the jump. the second thing you should understand is we really are in a global fight against fascism and authoritarianism. and if there is one thing that i think the last two or three years -- frankly the last seven

years -- have taught us is believe what the authoritarians say they want to do. believe hamas when they say they want to wipe israel off the map and that they're not done. believe putin when he says that the biggest mistake that the soviet union ever made was glasnost and all of that. believe him when he says that after he takes ukraine, he will turn his eyes to the baltics. believe all of these people. they do exactly what they've been saying they would do and here we are hoping, hoping against hope that maybe they don't mean it, maybe their ambitions aren't so murderous. they do it every time. the idea that we would separate these two fights even those people are aligned, these authoritarian movement is increasingly aligning itself perhaps because of the internet,

perhaps because of globalization, but whatever it is, there is an actual global fascist authoritarian movement, and they are on the march and the idea that we would fund israel's security needs and leave ukraine behind because, what, ukraine's in europe, because donald trump doesn't like ukraine aid, because it's getting hard? because it's getting tiring? because it's getting expensive? listen to those arguments. my god. this man wants to take europe and have a plan to do so. and as senator bennet said, and this is a key point, god bless these ukrainian fighters. they are the ones fighting and dying. they are the ones spilling blood to keep europe peaceful, to

establish that nobody can change the boundaries of a country using violence only. god bless them for doing this. god bless them for their sacrifice, for their ingenuity, for exceeding everybody's reasonable expectations. god bless them for their sacrifice. all they need from us are resources, and we are the most wealthy country in the history of humankind and we are saying it's a little too long, we haven't won yet, trump doesn't like it, this is kind of getting expensive. what a bunch of terrible arguments in the scheme of things. what a bunch of terrible arguments when we look back 20, 30, 50 years from now at this

debate no one is going to ask whether this was emergency spending or in a supplemental or in the regular appropriations process or in a c.r. or c.r. and omnibus, they are just going to ask, did we stand with the free world like americans always do? and so this has gotten me a little angry. this has gotten me a little frustrated because i just thought -- i really did think, and i'm not naive, but i really did think that on an issue like this we could put our partisan aside, we could put our facilitatey with -- we could put this aside and say, look, this is good for the free world, we are going to do it together. now, with your permission, through the chair, defer to the

president pro tem. mr. marshall: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: i call for regular order. the presiding officer: is there objection? objection is heard. a senator: mr. president. mr. marshall: the senator from kansas still has the floor. mr. marshall: you thank you mr. president, and thank you to my colleagues from the floor for their arguments. many were good arguments. some of the facts the american people disagree with, some of the conclusions the american people disagreed with. what i heard today was once again from my colleagues focusing 80% of their time on ukraine funding. but i didn't hear one person say why we shouldn't go ahead and fund israel today, why we shouldn't send a bill to the president's desk today. look, we have debated ukraine at lengths. put a bill on the floor.

let's vote on ukraine funding. my friends across the aisle have said that ukraine is winning this war, and many of the same reasons they give us to continue to support ukraine are the same words i heard in grade school why we should support the cause in vietnam. it's the same arguments. if it -- if ukraine is winning, then why is poland, hungary and slow advocacy gentleman -- slovakia abandoning ukraine? some of my friends brought up aid, if you want aid to gaza, then tell iran to stand down. i don't hear anyone talking about that. tell mawms to surrender -- tell hamas to surrender. let's send a message from the senate that we unequivocally

stand beside israel. i will close with this. one of my friends across the aisle talked about president reagan, and what i remember about president reagan and president eisenhower is peace through strength, but this president is giving us war through weakness. time is of the essence, we need to give assistance to israel. mr. coons: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: my colleagues from kansas, ohio, and missouri have raised questions. i will say, look up, look back, look ahead. to my colleagues from kansas, his predecessor, bob dole, a senator who was a great leader in this chamber. was a champion for helping others around the world. ly not -- the critical role of

humanitarian aid in sustaining partners and allies, in averting humanitarian catastrophe, and, yes, in sustaining both ukraine and israeli national security. but first, if i might, let's look back for a moment to history. my colleague from ohio complained that we somehow had not thoroughly debated ukraine. i believe we have, but i would be happy to engage for hours more because there are critical lessons from the past that inform the strong and bipartisan support for aid to ukraine. the last time i kent -- went to kyiv, i traveled with his predecessor, senator portman, a determined and committed supporter of ukraine. why? let's look back for a moment. in the runup to the second world war, a famous american aviator, charles lynneburg, who was decorated for his exploits

joined a nationwide movement whose slogan was america first. america first seemed to say that we should stay out of the conflicts in the pacific and in europe. that we should step back and allow the armies of the nazis to advance across western europe and allow the armies of imperial europe to to advance. he gave a publicized speech in favor of neutrality on the eve of the attack on pearl harbor. history proved that america first almost risked america alone in a world overcome by authoritarianism. and that is a mistake my colleagues risk making now. if they want to make america weak again, they can go back to the argument, of the isolationist republicans on the verge of the second world war.

but my colleague from kansas, you don't really have a debate with us. you have a debate with your own leadership. very heard on this floor clear, forceful, focused speeches in defense of ukraine. the critical role of our support for ukraine, not from democrats alone but from some of the most seasoned and capable and leading members of the republican caucus, including my colleagues from texas and from kentucky. there is broad support for ukraine, and i frankly think to answer the question of my colleague from ohio, how are these possibly connected. the attack of hamas on israeli civilians, the attack of russia on ukrainian civilians. i say you need only look up. what's that sound? it's iranian drones and missiles reining death on -- raining death on innocent civilians in israel and ukraine.

these conflicts are profoundly connected. my colleague from ohio suggested that president biden has thrown the world into chaos. i do not have the time to fully rebut this ill informed point, but i'll suggest that if vladimir putin's aggression in ukraine and in particular the terrorism of hamas in israel is not the cause. of that president biden is not the cause but in fact has been a forceful, timely, and responsive leader. his response to the attack on israel i hope has earned broad bipartisan support because it was personal, forceful, and timely. all of us here are standing calling for the release of hostages by hamas, standing in strong support of israel, and insisting that we advance at the same time the aid that is das separately needed by our -- that is desperately needed by our close allies. my colleague from kansas asked a critical question. will we show the united states as a fair weather friend.

to my colleague i'll say, sir, that's exactly why i join my colleagues in objecting to this narrow israel-only aid package because we cannot show that we will fail to aid ukraine. last, it was asked by several of my colleagues why would we send humanitarian aid into gawns? it -- gaza? it will all inevitably fall into the hands of hamas. who supports this? i would submit into the record with unanimous consent if i might, mr. president, a letter from the israeli embassy to the congress of the united states. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: who supports humanitarian aid into gaza with appropriate measures of inspection? the israeli government. they say it is critical to bolstering their national security. look up, look back, look forward. look up, you'll see the missiles and drones of iran raining down on innocent civilians. look back, you'll see the mistakes of isolationism. look forward, and you'll see there is a bipartisan path to

supporting humanitarian relief globally, to supporting aid to israel and hamas, to investing in border security, to taking up and passing a robust supplemental as we can and as we should, and for that reason i join my colleagues in opposing the motion made by my colleague from kansas. and i yield the floor to my colleague from minnesota. stabenow stabenow mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise alongside might colleagues including senator coons and senator murray to implore my colleagues to hold firm in their support of ukraine. i have sat here for the last hour and listened to these speeches, and listened to some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, which i know does not reflect all of them. and this is what i came away with. the focus on oh, you just want to go backwards, the analogies

to talking about past decisions in munich and vietnam. we all are students of history. i'm focused on now. i'm focused on what is happening now. and like my colleagues here, i have strongly condemned the massacre, the terrorist attack by hamas, and the democrat of israel -- the democracy of israel. and we stand with israel and the right to defend but we also stand with the idea that we should continue to provide humanitarian relief in gaza and around the world. and i think one of the ironies of the statement of our colleague from ohio and some of our other colleagues was that he failed to mention that actually israel has come out this week also supporting the humanitarian aid. so that's one thing that i think needs to get corrected.

the second, as we look at where we are now, you mentioned vladimir putin called him a bad guy. those were his words. a bad guy. i think it's a lot more than that. this is a tyrant. this is a ruler who has committed war crimes, who has downed passenger planes, who has invaded a democracy. so let's get the facts straight about vladimir putin. the other thing that is now is to not see this as connected is just plain wrong. what kind of drones was russia using? iranian drones. who took the meeting with some of their senior officials from russia? who went there? hamas. hamas went to russia after this terrorist attack. when we stand for democracies

one place, we stand for democracies in other places. and our colleague from ohio referred to some of the president's requests as a hodgepodge. a hodgepodge. i was thinking of that word and what's in this request and this budget. protection of a nuclear plant, the largest nuclear plant not just in ukraine but in europe. whether his predecessor, senator portman and i were in ukraine, when we met with president zelenskyy, where we actually talked about the strong support and strong ukrainian community in ohio and in minnesota, when we met with them, a major focus of ours was the nuclear plant because we didn't know how long the ukrainians were able to hold the line to protect that plant from not just contamination in

ukraine but contamination all over europe. that's what's in what our colleague has called a hodgepodge of a budget. what else? supporting nato. i was just with the leader of estonia, small country, yes, but they have given over 1% of their military budget, of their budget of their country to ukraine. are we just going to turn away on nato because we think it's a hodgepodge to support our allies in countries like great britain, our allies in countries like france and germany and estonia and latfiya and lithuania and georgia and, yes, ukraine? we're just going to say it's a hodgepodge. or how about what else is in that hodgepodge? well, what else is in the hodgepodge is things like air defense, things like munition, things like small arms. that's what we're talking about here when we talk about the help

that we give to ukraine. then i looked at some of the percentages as i sat here of other small nations that that he given much more than the u.s., where it's something like .3%. these countries are over 1% in the help they've given ukraine. they have taken in four million, count that, four million refugees in europe. so when we help ukraine, we are not doing it alone, colleagues. we are standing with our allies. we are standing with our best trading partners. we are standing with the world for democracy. so this is not in a vacuum. this is, as the president once said, a big f'ing deal. what about putin and senator bennet got this.

he's failing. he tried to capture kyiv but he failed. he tried to wipe ukraine off the map but he failed. he tried to break the ukrainian spirit but he has made it stronger. he tried to break nato but nato has grown. ukraine has persevered against all odds. to abandon our partners now would be a dereliction of our duty to defend a democracy and an embarrassment to this nation and, yes, it would create a much bigger national security risk not just for our allies but for our country. i've had the privilege of visiting ukraine not just with senator portman but another visit as well with a number of our republican colleagues. each time i was struck by the strength of the people who put their lives on the line. the ballerina has to don cam mow and go to the front line, the gj

at the national call center using her platform to find missing loved ones. we must not forget president zelenskyy's words in september. there is not a soul in ukraine that does not feel gratitude to you, america. so that's what we have to remember. they're watching in ukraine. the democracies are watching. as leader mcconnell has said, think of it as an access of evil. china, russia, and iran. this is not just a test for ukraine. it is a test for the united states and for the free world. and the path for greater security for all of us is simple. help ukraine win the war. thank you. i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president. ms. klobuchar: the senator from oregon is with us today to

speak. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent the following senators be permitted to speak. senator merkley, senator lee, and senator cornyn. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: reserving the right to object. our colleague from kansas has come to the floor and asked for unanimous consent for a bill of some major significance. we've heard a lot of my colleagues explain why this israel only bill would be a disaster because it throws ukraine overboard. and then i heard his rebuttal. and his rebuttal was well, why not do israel alone as if we hadn't had this conversation for the last hour and a half. we know the answer. because the house has said it will pass an israel alone bill leaving ukraine abandoned. so this you see is about

abandoning ukraine. that has powerful international consequences. allow ukraine to be torn apart by putin's brutal invasion. that is what this u.; does. -- u.c. does. it make as group of american senators putin's best friend. this bill, this u.c., this unanimous consent for this bill will shatter the atlantic alliance, deeply, deeply damaging the power of democracies working together. this bill, this bill will fracture nato because if we don't stand with ukraine, how many doubts creep in about any enduring effort to defend a smaller country assaulted by a

dictator next door. this bill will destroy american leadership in defending democracies. this bill will empower dictators around the world. they conclude they can outlast the attention span of a coalition of democratic republics as long as they stay the course. now, some of my colleagues in support of this bill say it's costing a lot of money. the budget that russia is dedicating to this battle is somest maiteed 30% -- some estimated 30% of their defense expenditures. our gdp here, it's 1.5%, 1.5% versus 30%. if we can't stay the course,

when the question is a dollar 50 out of every hundred, when would we ever stay the course? the last time this globe saw such compolicety placating a vicious conqueror was when chamberlain is went tote munich. in munich, chamber told hilt letter that you can take that massive slice of czechoslovakia and england will look the other way. we'll simply declare peace in our time. but that the appeasement by chamberlain didn't produce peace in our time u -- in our time. instead, that appeasement of hitler stoked hitler's appetite for concurring adjacent lands. that appeasement of hitler set the stage for the second world war, with massive loss of life

and treasure for the united states of america and nations around the world. appeasing putin today is as wrong as appeasing hitler 85 years ago. we must instead stand with the freedom-loving, fierce-fighting, democracy-defending people of the republic of ukraine. if you come to this chamber and you have followed former president trump's lead in loving putin, then say yes to this unanimous consent request. and throw ukraine under the bus. if you love china, love their authoritarian conquests, love their desire to invade taiwan, then come to this floor and support this unanimous consent request for this bill and throw ukraine under the bus.

but if you care about freedom, if you are a champion of democracy, if you believe that democracies must stand together against tyranny, against autocracy, against imperialist invaders, if you respect the courage and fortitude of the people of ukraine, then absolutely say you object to this u.c. request, that you object to this bill. we here in the u.s. senate must not countenance putin appeasement. we must not countenance complicity and another munich moment. so, mr. president, i join my colleagues today in preparing to object to this bill. i yield to may colleague from washington state.

the presiding officer: the senator from utah is to be recognized next. mr. lee: mr. president, this is a moment in history when we have the chance to stand up and provide assistance to an ally, an important ally in a tough part of the world that has a lot of enemies in common with the united states. israel was savagely attacked without provocation on the morning of october 7 of this year, just over a month ago. the most unspeakably savage human attacks were carried out on men and women of israel whose offense was simple -- living in

israel. the people of hamas wanted them dead because of the fact that they're jewish and they live in israel. their humanity, their religion, their ancestry and their geography all qualified them to be deemed unworthy of living by the savages of hamas. these savages will continue in their butchery, and in so doing degrade humanity for as long as they can get away with it. long-standing relationships between the united states and israel have set success on a course in which we can reasonably be expected to provide reasonable assistance to israel. now you to be clear, what israel is asking for us is not grand. they're not asking us to go there and fight their war for

them. nor are they asking us toss provide hundreds of billions of dollars over many years in order to help them achieve that effort. no, the relatively modest request that they're making of us, compared to other requests that we are considering from other parts of the world, including and especially ukraine, this is a modest one. this is, moreover, an effort that they believe they can carry out successfully in a matter of weeks or months, not something spanning out over the better part of a decade. finally, there is overwhelming bipartisan, bicameral support for aid to israel. it's already passed the house of representatives. it's done. we could bring it up right now. we could pass it today, and it could be on the desk of the president of the united states in the oval office just a few blocks from here by tonight. to my knowledge, there's not a single member of this body who

would object to collapseing -- consolidate ago the otherwise burdensome and time-consuming process that it takes to bring a bill to the floor of the united states senate. we could have this done today, and i predict that the vote would be overwhelming, if not unanimous, then very nearly so with the number of dissenting votes probably in the single digits, probably in the low single digits, if in fact there were any no votes at all. so the point here is that where you've got two proposals, two ideas to offer support in two different conflicts, one is overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan and could easily pass both houses, the other is troubling and fraught with questions and also happens to be the proposal -- the one for ukraine -- that's a lot more expensive and that involves a conflict that is now, we're

being told, a conflict that's like lay to spread out for the better of a decade, with no end in sight. since the beginning of last year we've spent $113 billion on the conflict in ukraine. they are analytically distinct. they involve different considerations. we ought to consider them together. this is, mr. president, one of the real maladies of washington today is the fact that in many instances, congress can't seem to resist the impulse to consolidate support for one thing and use that as leverage to bring about support for something else, for which there is no comparably large bipartisan support. that's unfortunate. the people of israel need this aid now.

let's get this done now and we'll consider ukraine on its own merits. there is no reason to delay. we should bring this up today, get it passed today, get it signed into law this very evening. thank you, mr. president. mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, tomorrow president biden is scheduled to meet with chinese president xi jinping, and it's safe to say their meeting comes at an especially fraught time. there is a war in the middle east, a war in europe, and growing tensions in the indo-pacific. in each case, the united states

and china have aligned with opposing powers. china is financing the russian war while america is supporting ukraine. china is propping up the iranian regime and terrorist proke sis while the united states is -- terrorist proxies while the united states is backing israel's righteous defense. china is threatening its own invasion of taiwan while the united states stands firmly in support of taiwan's defense. in addition to these conflicts on the world stage, the u.s. is facing more direct threats from the people's republic of china and the chinese communist party. the economic relations have deteriorated due to china's subversive trade practices. the chinese communist party is holding three american hostages,

including houston native mark swidan, who's been in prison and tortured for more than a deducted. more than 70 dow americans a year are being killed by a synthetic opioid fentanyl using chemicals that come from, you guessed it, china. earlier this year a chinese surveillance balloon traveled across the united states marking ago new level of bravado for the chinese communist party. so suffice it to say, this is an especially fraught time for u.s.-china relations, but president biden should not give the chinese communist party or president zia free pass. i hope the president will deliver a clear message to

president xi, that china's hostile actions will not be met with kid gloves. we have a responsibility to the american people and to our allies to deal with threats from china straightforwardly and head-on. strong leadership from the president is important, but congress has an important role to play, too. for example, we have a major piece of unfinished business that's a key to our efforts to counter threats from china, and that is the national defense authorization act. this year's national defense authorization act -- or ndaa, as we call it -- includes a range of provisions related to long-term strategic competition with china, and it is time to finish that bill and send is it to the president's desk for his signature. the senate passed the ndaa at the end of july, and here we are

in november. i hope this week, after more than three and a half months of waiting, we can finally begin to vote on the formal conference process. there will be -- this will be key to ironing out the differences between the house and the senate, so we can deliver a bill to the president's desk that is truly tough on china. and that deals with the threat in a realistic and clear-eyed fashion. the biden administration has moved away from the idea of decumming from china and now focuses on de-risking. frankly, that makes a lot of sense to me because it's hard to ignore a population of 1.4 billion people on the other side of the planet. but we do need to de-risk, and that requires some very specific tasks. we want to reduce america's

reliance on china for key national security interests, but we don't necessarily want to completely decouple. i can care less how many businesses want to invest in starbucks or burger kings in china, but i care a lot about american investment in artificial investment, quantum computing and advanced semiconductors. well, we know that dedumb ever coupling -- or -- well, we knee that decumming -- >> the chinese communist party has become increasing lay aggressive in its efforts to gain power and influence, embracing illicit tactics like property theft for which it is infamous, forced transfers and predatory lending. it is important to understand

that this strategy by the chinese communist party doesn't just benefit china's economy but also its military. in china there is no bright lining separating the military and civilian sectors. this is part of a very intentional strategy known as military civil fusion, which promotes development of dual-use technologies. in short, the chinese communist party is focused on shoring up technologies that bolster its military strength and its economic power. unfortunately, american investors are fueling the success of chinese military civil fusion, possibly unwittingly, without even knowing exactly what's happening. i'm not talking about covert theft of intellectual property. i'm talking about direct investments in chinese

companies. american investors are fun you willing money into -- are funneling money into companies that are developing quantum computing, next-generation semiconductors, all of which benefit the people's liberation army. intentionally or not, these american investors are fueling china's military strength and funding capabilities that could eventually be used against the united states and our allies. josef stalin reportedly said we will hang the capital ipe'ss with the rope -- the capitalists with the rope they sell us. metaphorically, the united states has provided the chinese communist party with a lot of metaphorical rope. at the end of 2020, u.s. investments in chinese companies totaled $2.3 trillion in market value. that includes $21 billion in

semiconductors, $54 billion in military companies, and a whopping $221 billion in artificial intelligence. that's american investors in china, in those sectors. we now know china as the single largest national security threat of our time, and it's clear that united states entities are helping bankroll its rise. while we have some information, anecdotal, really, that illustrates the scope of the problem, we need more information, we need more visibility, we need a better understanding of how certain u.s. investments benefit the chinese communist party and its military buildup and its belligerent and aggressive actions. thankfully, this is a bipartisan

priority, and i'm glad the senate took action over the summer. the senator from pennsylvania, senator casey, and i, introduced an outbound transparency provision that was adopted as an amendment to the national defense authorization act, and it passed by a vote of 91-6. you don't get that kind of bipartisan vote around here very often. so i think it sends a very strong message. this measure simply requires companies to notify treasury of investments in specific sectors, including advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and hypersonics. this is not a broad bill that prohibits investments in the people's republic of china. this is designed to provide information to congress' policymakers about where that money is going in particular sectors where we are in the greatest level of competition with china.

this is all about visibility, about transparency. it will help us understand where the money is going and allow us to take appropriate action, if required. our colleagues in the house are overwhelmingly supportive of outbound investment transparency. though there isn't the same level of consensus that there is here in the senate. members of the house have suggested everything from notification requirements to sanctions to outright prohibitions on some investments. we worked very diligently with stakeholders here in the senate to try to build consensus, and i think we've achieved that on our outbound transparency provision. but i do expect our colleagues in the house will have a thorough debate about various options, and i have to say we're fortunate that we have two experts on this topic in the

conference committee of the house. chairman michael mccaul leads the house foreign affairs committee and is a powerful and trusted voice on matters related to china. he recently introduced his own outbound investment legislation and is committed to providing a strong outbound provision in the ndaa. the conference committee for the defense authorization bill also includes chairman mike gallagher, who leads the house select committee on the chinese communist party. his committee has been investigating problematic investments in chinese companies, and he's been clear, based upon those investigations, that congress needs to enact strong guardrails around investments in china. but before you do that, you need good information, which is what our outbound investment transparency provision provides. i'm glad chairman gallagher and

chairman mccaul will bring their expertise to the defense authorization bill conference committee, and i'm optimistic they can work out with our senate colleagues a provision that will earn strong bipartisan support. after three and a half months of waiting, i hope the senate will finally vote to begin the ndaa conference committee process this week. once that happens, the two chambers can work together in earnest to reach an agreement on the final version ever the bill. here in the senate, i appreciate chairman reed and ranking member wicker for their leadership throughout this process, and their support of this amendment with senator casey. i also want to express my gratitude to senator sullivan, of alaska, for his support and his commitment to putting a strong outbound investment provision in this year's ndaa.

there's a lot of work that remains to be done, but there's clearly, clearly an overwhelming bipartisan desire to counter threats from china through an outbound investment measure. as i noted, this bill, this amendment passed the senate by 91-6. in the house, members on both sides have endorsed varying proposals that address the same problem from different angles. i don't understand why anyone would be opposed to outbound investment transparency. all we're asking for is information that may or may not require us to take further actions. this information is key to our national security and will help the u.s. manage risks related to china, and i hope we can get the job done soon. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i'd note the absence of a quorum.

mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the

shop now or anytime at >> house speaker mike johnson held a news conference to outline a strategy for passing a two-step continuing resolution and avoiding a government shutdown. this is about 20 minutes.