you need to believe in this great russian -- great people of russia. and this faith is key to rebirth and strengthening of russia. thank you. [applause] >> spution if spution. >> translator: please, don't be cross with me if i didn't answer all of your questions, but indeed it's high time to wrap it up. thank you very much. good bye. [applause] >> and the senate returning now to close out legislative work for the year. you're watching hive coverage on c-span2.

will be in danger in gaza strip.

>> when president biden took office, he promised to reinvest in america's greatest sources of strength, and since day one, that's exactly what we've done. we've done it at home by making historic investments in our military, in our infrastructure, in our technology, in our manufacturing base. we've also done it around the world, revitalizing and reenergizing our unmatched network of alliances and partnerships. in 2023, we continue to show that the strategy's working. in the year of to found tests, the world looked to the united states to lead, and that's just what we did. it was also a year when our friends and partners took significant, at times each unprecedented steps to share with us the respondent of -- the responsibility of leadership. as we head into 2024, we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who share our vision for a free, open,

prosperous and secure world because that's what delivering for the american people demands. first, we will continue to rally countries around the world to support ukraine's freedom and independence and to insure that russia's aggression remains a strategic failure. putin's already failed to achieve his principal objective in ukraine, erasing it from the map. it's been a hard year on the battlefield, but once again ukrainians have done what no one thought was possible, they stood toe to toe with one of the world's biggest militaries. they conceded no territory despite multiple russian offenses, and they pushed russia's navy back in the black sea and opened a corridor to allow them to export their grain and other products to the world. finish russia is weaker militarily -- militarily, economically and diplomatically. nato is bigger and stronger and

more united than at any point in its nearly 75 a-year history. this year we had -- added our 31st member of gnaw toe, finland. and sweden will join soon, bringing even greater potency and capability to our defensive alliance. international support has been critical to ukraine's success. europe has contributed more than $110 billion to ukraine compared to about a $70 billion from the united states. so we have, with ukraine and in ukraine, maybe the best example of burden-sharing that i've seen in the time that i've been engaged in the issues. just last week the european union also agreed to starting talks with ukraine. japan, korea, australia, ohs in the indo-pacific, they've stepped up too. from helping rebuild ukraine's energy grid to providing major military and humanitarian assistance. like us, they know that

supporting ukraine is vital to showing would-with aggressors every where that we will stand the up to those that seek to redraw borders by force. our support hasn't just helped ukrainians. 90%over -- of the security assistance that we provided to ukraine has been spent here in the united states; that is in american businesses, communitie- [inaudible] our nation's defense. president putin -- [inaudible] and i quote, ukraine has no future. while sending wave after wave of young russian soldiers pay off. on one and only one point, i agree with putin. america's ongoing support is critical to enabling ukraine 's great soldiers and citizens to keep up their fight, to insure that russia's war remains a

strategic failure and to help continue moving ukraine to standing strongly on it own two feet militarily, economically and and democratly. -- democratically. we have proven if long before, we will prove putin wrong again. second, we will continue to engage with china from a position of strength. our partnerships in the indo-pacific have never if been stronger. in 2023 the president held his historic summit at camp david with japan cementing a new era of trilateral cooperation. what we're doing with the united kingdom and australia, we launched new comprehensive strategic pickups with vietnam and indonesia, new trilateral lateral relationships with the philippines and japan, new embassies in tonga. we're deeening our partnership

with india. the united states is more closely aligned, more closely aligned than ever with the g7, with the e.u., with other allies ask and partners on the challenges presented by beijing with. and we're working together to address them. we're with deepening cooperation and coordination between nato and our indo-pacific allies. these efforts have allowed us to engage more effectively when tackling areas of concern like china's course of trade, peace and stability in the taiwan straits and the east and south china seas and human rights. at the same time, our efforts to restore high-level diplomacy starting with my trip to beijing in july have allowed us to take practical steps to reduce the risk that competition veers into conflict as well as to make progress on issues that matter in the lives of our fellow citizens. that was on full display when president biden met with president xi last month and made tangible progress on issues that

matter, that matter to americans as well as to people around the world. we secured china's cooperation on are reducing the flow of precur cursor chemicals that arg crisis, reducing the possibility of miscalculation and conflict. and we've agreed to discuss risks and safety around artificial intelligence. i look forward to continuing these discussions in the year ahead. we will keep shaping and leading coalitions to solve the problems that demand working together with others for the good of our people and for people around the world. that's exactlily what we did in 2023 -- exactly what we did in 2023, allowing businesses, civil society she, regional and multilateral institutions to tackle food inch security, to -- insecurity, to promote safe, secure, trustworthy a.i. products, to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars to build

physical, timal, clean energy -- digital, clean energy and health infrastructure across developing countries including some of the most fragile ones. at the same time, we championed reforms to make the international system more inclusive, more effective, more response i to advancing these issues. prosecute world bank to the g -- from the world bank to the g20 which will now have the african union as a permanent member. on every one of these priorities and on many others, delivering to the american people means improving the lives of people around the world. the reverse is also true. leading on these global channels is good for americans. when we help reduce the flow of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs, we're not only tackling the number one killer of americans aged 4 to 29 -- 14 to 29, we're rooting out the criminal organizations that profit from families' suffering. when we rally democratic partners and allies to build

clean energy infrastructure in countries that can't afford to build it on their own, we're pree serving our shared planet and creating new opportunities for american workers, american businesses, american investors. when we team up with other countries to hold accountable and deter governments that arbitrarily detain foreign nationals, we can apply more effective pressure to bring our fellow citizens home, and we make people in all nations less vulnerable. fourth, in the conflict between israel and hamas, we will continue to focus intensely on our full priorities. helping israel ensure that what happened on october 7th can never happen again, bringing the conflict to an end as a quickly as possible while minimizing the loss of life and suffering of civilians, getting the remaining hostages back home to their families, preventing the conflict from spreading and, once and for all, breaking the

devastating cycle of violence and moving toward durable, lasting peace. we continue to believe that israel does not have to choose between removing the threat of a hamas and minimizing the toll on civilians in gaza. it has an obligation to do both, and it has a strategic interest to do both. we're more determined than ever to end sure that off the to this horrific tragedy comes a moment of possibility -- ensure. for israelis, for palestinians, for the region to live in lasting peace and lasting security. that out of this darkness comes light. realizing that possibility require all parties to make tough choices about the steps that they're willing to take including the united states. we will test this proposition with the urgency and the creativity that it deserves and that america's interests demand.

this is the spirit that has long animated president biden in the face of seemingly intractable conflicts. as vice president, he helped oversee the end to the iraq war. as president, he send -- ended the longest war in america's history in afghanistan. he helped secure and later extend -- [inaudible] conflict. he's bringing that same focus to bear right now across every one of our priorities. america has been. maria: effective because of the steps we've taken to build a stronger, a more agile, a more diverse state department. there too we continued the effort in 2023. in partnership with congress, and i note this department participated in 106 # hearings this year which by our count is a record. we secured new authorities to rapidly fill critical staffing gaps and crises. we established a new bureau to elevate and integrate work on global health security across

our diplomacy. we added hundreds of positions to the department's trading -- the. [inaudible] we created does -- dozens of new courses and development opportunities. we established a -- for locally employed staff, boosted access to student loan repayment programs, expanded positions for ineligible family members among many other steps we've taken is people. you've heard the president say i know this might be one of the last presiding duties of the year, so i appreciate you spending time on the floor before you get to go home, and i want to talk about two issues here on the senate floor. one is a really important one. it's a policy issue that we have to solve. and what i'm trying to do today is just make sure my colleagues, because a lot of them get kind of fed some misinformation on this issue, and then the

american people at large know what's going on, so we can fix this issue. i'm hoping that the white house, the administration, the treasury department, everyone's watching, because this is an easy one. imagine this, madam president. if someone came to you and said, let's see, is there legislation that we could pass that would help end slave labor in china with the uighurs, help make sure that we have a strong environment for our oceans and fiduciaries -- fish ris, and medicare -- help make sure that we keep strong american coastal communities, and help promote the great american fishermen, who work so hard over the great nation, doing it well before the

founding of the great republic. if there's legislation that can do all those things, wouldn't you want to support it? by the way, undermine our two big adversaries, the two big adversaries we have, russia and china. is there legislation pending in the u.s. senate that can do all these things? the answer is yes. hell, yes. i want to make sure my colleagues know because when i bring this to the floor when we come back in the new year, i just want to make sure everybody supports it because it's a no-brainer. it is a no-brainer. so, madam president, what am i talking about? well, it's my u.s. russian federation seafood reciprocity act. got a bunch of cosponsors, democrats and republicans. senator cantwell is one big promoter of this, as one example. let me give a little background.

people are saying, you've got a piece of legislation that can do all of that? yeah, sure do. and why anyone would not support it, well, once they get educated, they'll support it. let's talk about it very briefly. madam president, what's the background here? i'm going to go way back, ten years, the russians invade crimea, you have vladimir putin who is trying to invade everybody, we've got to make sure that he doesn't win ukraine. the obama administration smacks themming with sanction -- them with sanctions, i wasn't there then, but that's what happened, i supported that and then the russians retall eighted. one -- retaliated. what they did was ban the importation of russian seafood. russia said no american seafood

could come into russia. by the way, my state is the superpower of seafood. the great state of alaska is responsible for the harvest of over two-thirds of all fish and seafood in america. two-thirds, 66%. we are the superpower of seafood. there's other great states export sea foods, i'm not sure the great state of nevada does, but that's a whole other topic. this is important to my constituents. tens of thousands of my great constituents are involved with this. so imagine that, russia is still allowed to import in the united states almost duty free and we can't export one fish. that's been the situation since 2014. right there that's just unfair. okay. so i tried to work with the obama administration, the trump administration, the biden administration to fix this. unfair, by the way the russian seafood guys were eating into our fishermen's market in our

own home, in our own u.s. market. not fair. and, by the way, we have -- american fisher bemen -- fishermen, alaska fishermen have the highest standards by far, on the environment, on the sustainability of fiduciaries -- fishry's -- so the high standards on the planet right in america, right in alaska, russia, china, i will get to them, the lowest in the world. keep that in mind when we talk about this issue. so then it literally takes a war to fix this. russia brutally invades ukraine. the biden administration is putting together a sanctions package. i call the white house and say, hey, look, how about including in your sanctions package a way to fix this unfair trade situation where russia won't

allow us to import one fish and they can export in the united states all they want. so to his credit, president biden said, i agree with senator sullivan, let's smack them with sanctions on fish. so the initial biden sanctions order said that russia can't import in the united states. i said, great. it's only fair. so what happens? these -- these sneaky authoritarians, by the way, this is funded by the oligarchs, money going to fund the putin war machine from fisheries. so putin and xi jinping are

working together and say, let's avoid the american sanctions, let's take the russian seafood caught by russian fishermen and send it to china and we'll have slave labor in china transform it and then we'll send it to the united states. we'll sneak around those sanctions, big loophole using slave labor. so that's what they're doing right now. they're doing it every day. hundreds of millions of dollars, if not in the billions, are avoiding these sanctions by saying, let's take the russian seafood, worse environmental standards in the world, we'll send it to china, we'll use slave labor by the uighurs to transform it and we'll call it chinese fish, and then we'll send it into the american market. that is happening right now. right now. so my legislation is simple. it closes the loophole. by the way, madam president, it's a really good idea because

word's getting out that the chinese fishing industry is a disaster. they take these big fleets, they go all over the world, they ravage the high seas, they ravage fishe rifrn er-e -- fisheries where ever they go, they destroy the high-sea fiduciaries -- fisheries, they're lit like the abuser of the ocean in the world, china, okay, and then they use slave labor. how do i know? because there has been article after article just in the last several weeks "politico" did a great article, i'd like to submit for the record after my remarks, madam president, it's in "politico" magazine, how

wigsers make im -- uighurs make imported seafood that ends up in american schools. this is entitled the crimes behind the seafood you eat, that's from the new yorker, americans little know about their seafood and how it is sourced. much it comes from chinese fish, human rights abuses are rampant. i would like to submit that for the record. another one from the new yorker, the uighurs used to process the world's fish. slave labor, you know the chinese, they try to dominate everything. they try to dominate the fishing, uighurs are forced to process the world's fish. this is from the new yorker, the

subheading, china forces minorities to work in industries from around the country and as it turns out this includes much of the seafood sent know, and europe. i would like to submit that to the record, madam president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: so this is what is going on. now, look, there's always a few companies out there, including in our great nation, and i'm not besmir shalling -- besmirching them or anything. they happened at the beginning of the ukraine war. you might remember, madam president, a lot of us, democrats and republicans are like, let's stop the russian war machine because right now america is importing a lot of russia oil and the europeans and the germans are saying, we're importing a lot of russian gas. some of us are saying, let's cut that off. let's cut that off. let's nail them. at the beginning of the war, even in this country, the biden

administration saying well, we can't cut off the russian oil. that will hurt the american economy. what about the importers in america, those refineries that use the russian oil, what about those guys? and germany is saying the same thing, we can't cut off the importation of russian gas because we use it. a lot of those people are not buying those arguments. i wasn't. the way we got around the arguments was, wait a minute, we know it's going to be a little painful. here's an idea. let's not use russian oil. let's use american oil. let's use oil from alaska. we have way higher environmental standards than they do. we will send you lng from american, the germans, the biden administration is like, that's a good idea, what do we do?

we cut off russian oil. in germany, they cut off russian gas. what did we do, we said let's fill it up with american oil and gas. why am i using that as an analogy. we have a couple of companies -- i get it -- i said to senator markey, it's not a good business model. it's not a good business model to use slave labor uighur labor from china and captain diez, it's going to catch up with you. i know there's a few companies out there saying, we don't like the sullivan bill. shoot. really? so what's the answer? it's the same answer. we have great american fishermen who can make sure you guys, captain diez, or who ever else,

you can fish. it's a higher standard. i learned today that a lot of the russian fish sent to china, it gets injected with 40% phosphates and water to plump it up to make it look more plump. that's disgusting and then it gets sent to america. maybe to captain diez. my point is we're not out to hurt you. we can say, use american producers, use great american fishermen. from all over, alaska, maine, you know, virginia, california, oregon, washington state. use them. don't block this legislation. don't be a putin lackey. don't help fund the war machine. don't help xi jinping's forced slave labor with the uighurs. buy american.

stand with the american fishermen. so when we come back, i'm going to work this hard. and for all of you -- and there's not many, but a few importers, i hope that nfi is not doing this either. never supposed to promote the exporters too, that's the national fishery institute. this is a freight train and it is going to pass. you want to get out of the way and help. stand with american fishermen, let us in alaska supply your company. don't reply on -- reline slave -- rely on slave labor china fish, don't rely on russian aggression, putin-backed seafood from russia with low american standards. they are flooding the government globally and they're hurting americans for sure. my state is hurting right now.

this can help them. so, madam president, we've been working on this hard. a lot of my republican democratic colleagues are 100% with me. like i said, there's a few importers working the halls here. my answer is, come on. be patriotic. stand with america. stand with american fishermen. let's do legislation that can -- what did i say at the beginning of my remarks? now you can understand. help defeat slave labor. help the environment. help worker rights and go after russian and chinese abuses in the seafood industry. it is all over the place. it's only going to grow more widespread in terms of the knowledge. the american people are saying wait a minute, do i want to eat fish -- slave labor fish? putin-oligarch fish? no. i want to buy fish -- by the way, the highest standard in the world by far. we don't inject 40% phosphates

into this fish, make it disgusting. i want to stand with american fishermen and buy seafood from americans. so that's what we're going to do. we're going to close that loophole, madam president. it's a big issue. thanks for listening. i sure hope when we get back that my colleagues will fully support it. i think 99.9% of them already do, and that's the right answer. it's the right thing for our country. and the right thing for america's fishermen. okay, madam president, i'm going to end my remarks today on a high note. i have a very important one. it's thursday. i'd -- i like to come down thursday and do what we call the alaskan of the week. i can see the pages are already kind of excited. let's face it, this is the most exciting speech of the week. and certainly the most

interesting. so what i like to do is come down -- by the way, i know the press generally likes it because they -- it's normally a signal that it's the end of the week. everybody is going home. this is usually the last speech of the week. i think this might be the last speech of the year this year. so what we do with the alaskan of the week, we talk a little bit about what's going on in alaska. i'll get to that. i like to highlight someone who is doing something great for my state. might be someone local, our first alaskan of the week i think was a librarian who had been a librarian for 40 years. amazing woman. and then we have, you know, superstar world athletes, you know, gold medalists and swimming and things like that. so we just cover the whole gambit. now, usually there's a poster board. i made this a very special alaskan of the week poster board. this might be the first time ever it's got santa on it. you're going to see why. santa oriented speech. so of course right now i'm

getting ready to head home in a couple of hours. i was just home over the weekend. no worries in alaska right now about a white christmas. anchorage, my hometown, i think we've had close to a hundred inches of snow already. now, look for us that's a lot. i'm talking about november. so we had a -- we have a white christmas coming for sure. it's magical of course in alaska. we've got reindeer. we've got one that actually lives in downtown anchorage. we have visitors coming. and we've got a great town called north pole, alaska. north pole, alaska. and we have the santa claus house in north pole where santa lives. by the way, this is true. this is what my alaskan of the week speech is all about. if you write a letter to santa addressed to the north pole, your letter will end up at the santa claus house in north pole,

alaska. why wouldn't it? by the way, this house is not to be confused with the abode of a north pole city councilmember, north pole, alaska is a city a little north of fairbanks. and this city councilmember, by the way, his name is santa claus. his legal name is santa claus. he is a member of the city council. i know him well. look, i'm not ripping him. he's a bernie sanders socialist. true. now why wouldn't he be? you know, the guy gives out free gifts to everybody. so that's true. it's true. he's a good guy. santa, if you're watching, hello, santa claus, city councilmember, north pole. madam president, in all seriousness, interior alaska, this is in the interior part of our state has the greatest, most kind people, generous and in keeping with the spirit of christmas, our alaskan of the week is the miller family who is

the owner of santa claus house in north pole, alaska. which has been a fixture in our state and really for the country for over 70 years, 70 years the miller family who founded santa claus house has been running it for 70 years making north pole, alaska, literally what it is today. they built the whole community. so let me help you get into the holiday spirit by describing just how magical the santa claus house in north pole, alaska, really is. you drive down st. nicholas drive, okay. not kidding. by st. nicholas catholic church, by the way. you'll see a huge house lined with red trim and murals of a reindeer and santa's sleigh. just outside is a barn with real reindeer, a massive decked out christmas tree, and a 42-foot

tall santa claus statue welcoming you to santa's wor workshop. now, the badgic does not -- magic does not end there. inside the house you're greeted by a christmas degree decorated with every ornament you can imagine. a live countdown to christmas day, of course. why wouldn't there be one? every day of the year. and a professional santa claus ready to hear every christmas wish from the thousands of visitors -- and i'm not just talking alaskans -- americans, people from all over the world who visit santa claus house in north pole, alaska, every year. and you're also likely to meet and see several members of the extended miller family working to make the santa claus house the winner -- winter wonderland it is. madam president, they've been doing it for four generations to keeping the spirit of christmas alive. let me take you back four generations to the original

founder of santa claus house that's con and nellie miller. born in 1914, con and his mother didn't see eye to eye. they decided it was best he join the navy. now, madam president, he joined when he was 15. a little young. and this is just in the great alaska spirit. you know, i've talked a lot about it over the years. we have more veterans per capita than any state in the country. so being in the miller and a veteran is very normal in alaska. it's a great part of our culture. and this young guy con left colorado, spent three years in the navy starting at the age of 15. how he got in i have no idea. he was on a gun boat in china. then he got out. then pearl harbor happened and of course he's a patriot so he rejoined the navy. he fought in the south pacific during the second world war. so great american, greatest generation individual. con miller.

after the war ended, con and his wife nellie ended up in fairbanks with the goal of running a clothing store. to supplement their income, con sold clothes in the surrounding rural villages. often donning a red santa suit each christmas. he quickly earned celebrity status as the local santa claus in interior alaska, the first that many children had ever seen, ever in rural alaska. in 1952 the millers built a trading post, 13 miles south -- sorry, i said north. south of fairbanks in the newly named north pole, alaska. so just a little south of fairbanks the big city in the interior. one day while working hard at his new store, a young alaskan boy recognized con and asked well, hello, santa. are you building a new house? inspiration clicked and con

thought, hey, why not. let's do this. and so the santa claus house was born. in addition to purchasing groceries, locals could mingle at the soda fountain and pick up their daily mail at the santa claus house and under the direction of post mistress nellie miller, con's aka's santa's wife was a mail contract station that served as the first post office there for almost 20 years. there you have it. north pole, alaska, became a post office for america. the miller family lived above the store and were essential to its brags. all three kids, terry, mike, and mary -- yes, mary, christmas spelled m-e-r-r-y, worked alongside their parents. despite their insight behind the scenes as employees, current owner and manager mike said they believed in santa as much as

anyone else. of course they did. everybody believes in santa. as north pole grew and it has ground. it's a great community like i said just a few miles outside of fairbanks. the santa claus house grew with t. inside the store's emphasis on christmas delights slowly replaced the aisles of canned goods. meanwhile, the miller family established themselves as pillars of the north pole community. not only north pole but all of interior alaska. con miller served as the mayor of north pole for 19 years. the city's longest serving mayor. while nellie miller acted as a marriage commissioner for the community. now, back then that was a real job. marriage commissioner. eventually both of their sons terry and mike also found politics. the latere miller was a state legislator. he was president of the state senate and was elected to be our

lieutenant governor in 1978. mike who is helping around the santa claus house also served in the legislature as senate president from 1983 to 2001. this is a dominating political family in alaska, two-state -- two state senate presidents. i knew the millers. they're a great, great family. both miller brothers very highly respected, crossed the aisle. this is and was and has been a great family committed to public service. mat madam president -- madam president, begun over 07 years by con and nellie miller, the santa claus house continues as following generations of millers keep up that christmas spirit and keep it thriving in north pole, alaska. and it's still a family-run bus business. mike miller is looking forward to the next generation continuing to run the family

business with his daughter carissa and son-in-law paul and staffed by several grandchildren. isn't this just a wonderful story? really warms your heart as we head into the holiday season. we all know santa's job is a hard one. and it's also no small job running the santa claus house for the world. in addition to the family, there are between 40 and 60 employees year round working there. besides being a delightful tourist attraction worldwide, the santa claus house understands the true meaning of christmas and uses its name for recognition -- uses its name recognition for good works in the community. organizing food drives for the fairbanks food bank that is used throughout interior alaska and many other issues of charity. mike said i think we've -- i think we have really worked hard

to bring the spirit of santa to our community. the sprirpt of giving -- the spirit of giving and family and caring about one another. i hope we have done a small slice in this service of helping realize -- helping people realize that christmas is about caring, about giving to one another, and about being good neighbors. that's mike miller. well, they've done that, madam president, in a huge way. they've done more than give a small slice. for the past 70 years they've given their all towards spreading the magic, the wonder, and the joy of christmas to alaskans, to americans, to a people all over the world. so thank you to the miller family and to the incredible institution of the santa claus house in north pole for making our state a more jolly place, a more generous place, a more caring place, and for keeping

the spirit of christmas alive, not just now during the holidays but year round in the great state of alaska. and of course to the millers and santa claus house, congrat congratulations on being our alaskan of the week. i yield the floor.

mr. sullivan: madam president the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: i ask unanimous consent that the senate stand in recess subject to the call of the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. objection.

exploring the people and events the tell the american story. at 4:30 p.m. from this year's george washington symposium at mount vernon a discussion about the united states constitution and how it has evolved over more than two centuries. at 7 p.m. eastern a tour of the smithsonian national portrait gallery 1890 exhibit with portraits of the major players in the spanish american war illustrating the expansion of u.s. interests and influence abroad in that era. at 8 p.m. eastern on lectures in history market university political science professor of the life and presidency of jimmy carter. at 9:30 p.m. on the presidency a

lunch in remembering first lady pat nixon and betty ford who served back-to-back terms in the white house from 1969-1977 posted by the gerald ford presidential foundation. speakers include mrs. nixon's son-in-law and mrs. ford to daughter. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schule on your program guide o watch online any time at c-span.org/history. >> i'm guessing that harry didn't expect to be here today. i'm also guessing that he didn't expect to be on the speaking survey, let alone write a book. he's been saying in interviews he would rather the unknown. he didn't at first expect to be a police officer on the congressional beat or -- on that later. most of all he didn't expect to be on the front, didn't