National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021--Conference Report
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. 189, S. 1151. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise to speak again today about the crisis in Venezuela, a defining human rights issue of our time.
Nicolas Maduro is starving his own people, and innocent children are dying. It is a genocide right here in our hemisphere. Every day that passes, the situation in Venezuela grows more dire.
This weekend, the world watched as Maduro orchestrated a sham election. No one was fooled by this pathetic attempt. The appearance of democracy is not democracy. Maduro is a murderous dictator who doesn't respect human rights or the will of his people. He must be stopped.
The Trump administration has taken decisive action to hold Maduro accountable, sanction the Venezuelan regime, and cut off the funds Maduro uses to hold on to power. But the United States and all freedom- loving countries around the world must do more.
As Governor, I strictly prohibited the State of Florida, including all State agencies, from investing in any company that did business with Maduro's repressive regime.
It is simple. Why would we ever use taxpayer money to support a regime that is killing its own people?
My bill, the Venezuelan Contracting Restriction Act, does the same thing on the Federal level by prohibiting Federal agencies from doing business with anyone who supports Maduro. Last year, we included a targeted version of this measure in the NDAA that prohibited the Department of Defense from doing business with anyone supporting Maduro's regime.
Now it is time for us to be clear and united in our support for the Venezuelan people and prohibit every agency in the Federal Government from doing anything that would support Maduro and his genocide.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
I stand with the people of Venezuela and will always fight for freedom and democracy in Latin America.
Mr. President, what I have proposed is a simple action we can take as Americans to help end Maduro's genocide.
I am completely disappointed with my Democratic colleague's objection to my request today. This bipartisan proposal cleared the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee with unanimous consent.
I am eager to resolve my colleague's concerns quickly, and I hope that he and the other Senator who objected before will work with me to get this done. Unfortunately, they have not been willing to meet with me to fix this and to get this done.
I am not giving up and plan to bring this up again and again. We don't have time to delay. We cannot lose sight of the fact that Nicolas Maduro is killing his citizens. We need to take every action we can to say to Maduro that the United States will not stand and let this continue.
Even though my bill was blocked today, I will never stop fighting until Venezuela and all of Latin America can begin a new day of freedom.
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