Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, the Senator from New Jersey and, indeed, all of the Senators in this Chamber know precisely why these nominees have not moved forward, and the reason is because the Biden administration is currently engaged in open defiance of the U.S. Congress and is doing so in a way that is working serious and material harm to the United States national security.
Over a year ago, December of 2019, this Senate and, indeed, the full Congress passed legislation imposing strong sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline is a pipeline between Russia and Germany designed to carry natural gas. It is a deep sea pipeline.
Vladimir Putin desperately wants this pipeline completed. If the pipeline is completed, it will give billions of dollars to Putin to use for malign efforts in Europe and throughout the world.
This Congress is overwhelmingly convinced that completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is terrible policy. It is bad for the United States; it is bad for Europe; and it is good for Russia and Putin. Accordingly, the Congress passed overwhelmingly bipartisan sanctions legislation that I authored, along with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and that legislation proved tremendously successful.
How successful was it? When the President signed it into law, if my memory serves correctly, at 7 p.m. on a Thursday, construction on the pipeline halted at 6:45 p.m. on that Thursday. Fifteen minutes before the sanctions went into law, they ceased building the pipeline. And for a year the pipeline lay dormant. It lay as a hunk of metal at the bottom of the ocean.
We had succeeded together. This body had won a bipartisan national security victory for the United States.
Then, in November of last year, Joe Biden was elected. When Joe Biden was elected, President Biden and his foreign policy team immediately began signaling weakness on Nord Stream 2 to Putin, and that signal was heard. Putin commenced preparatory efforts to begin building the pipeline again within days of the Presidential election in November. And Russia began building the pipeline again in January, just days after Joe Biden was sworn in.
Existing laws that this body has passed, not once but twice, mandate sanctions to stop the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Unfortunately, the Biden administration decided to waive those sanctions. Waiving those sanctions, I believe, will prove to be a generational geopolitical mistake. If we continue on the current pace set out by President Biden, Putin will complete the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.
If that happens, for decades, Putin and the next dictator in Russia and the next dictator in Russia will get billions of dollars every year from this pipeline. They will use it for military aggression. They will use it for spying on America. They will use it for attacking their enemies.
Not only that, Europe will be captive to Russian natural gas. It will be subject to energy blackmail. We don't have to hypothesize this because Putin has demonstrated his willingness to use energy blackmail on Europe going forward. This undermines the interests of Europe. It undermines the interests of America. And by the way, it also hurts jobs in the United States of America.
I have made clear to every State Department official, to every State Department nominee, that I would place holds on these nominees unless and until the Biden administration follows the law and stops this pipeline, imposes the sanctions.
As the Senator from New Jersey knows well--he and I worked together closely on these sanctions legislation that the Biden administration is refusing to follow--I have been negotiating with the Biden administration in good faith for a month, months, laying out a path to move these nominees forward. But unfortunately, to date, President Biden has insisted on giving a multibillion-dollar gift to Joe Biden benefiting Russia, hurting America, and hurting our national security interests.
That being said, there is a path where I would readily lift these holds, and it is a path I am in a moment going to propound a unanimous consent resolution--a unanimous consent request to take up and pass legislation that I have introduced that would impose the sanctions that are already required by law that the Biden administration refuses to follow. This legislation is legislation that both of the Democratic members of the Foreign Relations Committee have voted for substantially similar legislation in the past.
If this legislation passes the Senate, if it passes the House and is signed by the President, the day it is signed by the President, I will lift these holds. I ask unanimous consent that 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 talking point from the Biden administration as to why they have given this gift to Vladimir Putin is they say the pipeline is almost completed; that it is over 90 percent complete. The problem with that argument is it is demonstrably false because it was equally true in December of 2019. In December of 2019, the pipeline was over 90 percent complete. And, indeed, at that time, there was a massive Russian disinformation campaign throughout Europe, where the Russian Government was putting out: These sanctions will never pass, and if they pass, they will never work.
Why? Because the pipeline is over 90 percent complete. Well, a pipeline that is 90 percent complete is a pipeline that is zero percent complete. Until it is 100 percent complete, it transmits zero natural gas. The pipeline doesn't work until you finish it, and that Russian disinformation we discovered the day the sanction legislation was signed was exactly that, was utterly false, nonsense.
Why? Because the day it was signed they stopped construction, and they stopped it for a year. And Putin only began construction after Joe Biden was elected, after he was sworn into office, and after his team indicated weakness, that they wouldn't enforce the sanctions against Russia.
So their talking point that it was 90 percent complete, that was true a year ago. And we knew we could stop it then. We can stop it now. The only reason Putin is building this pipeline is because the Biden administration is unwilling to stand up to Russia. Accordingly, I object.
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Mr. CRUZ. The Trump administration issued a series of sanctions, and they worked. They stopped the pipelines.
So I have demonstrated a perfect willingness to stand up to a President of my own party on this issue, and we succeeded in stopping the pipeline. Now, when there is a Democratic President, we have yet to see Democratic Members of this body willing to stand up as vigorously to their own party's President, who is actively and eagerly facilitating the building of this pipeline.
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Mr. CRUZ. national security, and because Joe Biden and the Biden administration are defying U.S. law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security interests,
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Mr. CRUZ. nationality security interests, will endanger U.S. service men and women, will weaken America, will weaken our allies, and will strengthen our enemies and our adversaries, because I believe that Joe Biden giving a massive multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin to make him stronger and more aggressive is enormously harmful to America,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security, I object.
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Mr. CRUZ. law, disregarding the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of both Houses of Congress, because Joe Biden should not be giving a massive multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin that constitutes unilateral surrender to Russia in a way that strengthens Russia, weakens America, and endangers our Nation, undermining U.S. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. law, to weaken U.S. national security interests and to strengthen Russia at our expense,
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Mr. CRUZ. law, in contravention of the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of Congress, which hurts America, strengthens Russia, and endangers the people of this Nation,
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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, reserving my right to object, because Joe Biden is giving a multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin, which weakens America's, strengthens Russia, and endangers our national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. I have lifted my hold pursuant to discussions and negotiations. The same is true with respect to former Senator Ken Salazar, who has been nominated to be Ambassador to Mexico. My understanding is he is going to be confirmed momentarily. I don't have a hold, and I don't believe there are any other holds or blocks to his confirmation. So that will occur momentarily.
And, indeed, there have been several other nominees at the State Department where I have lifted the holds in negotiations, including at the request of the Senator from New Jersey. I have worked with my colleagues, but at the same time used the leverage that we have as Senators to try to pressure the Biden administration to follow the law and to defend U.S. national security interests.
With regard to this particular unanimous consent request, because Joe Biden is giving Vladimir Putin a multibillion-gift, which is a generational geopolitical mistake, because it strengthens Russia at the expense of America and it undermines U.S. national security interests,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. The Senator of Texas spoke of revisionist history. Perhaps it was fitting that he did so because we proceeded to hear quite a bit of revisionist history.
The unfortunate reality is the Democratic Party in this Chamber has been reluctant to stand up to Russia and reluctant to stand up to the Soviet Union before that, for decades. The Democratic Party consistently has embraced weakness on Russia and the Soviet Union.
I am old enough to remember President Barack Obama in debate with Republican nominee Mitt Romney when Mitt Romney said we need to stand up to Russia. And President Obama stood up and said: Mitt, the 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back because the Democratic Party position was weakness to Russia.
I am old enough to remember President Obama leaning over to Medvedev caught on a hot mic saying: Tell Vladimir--that would be Putin--I'll have more flexibility after the election.
It was only when Donald Trump was elected that the Democratic Party suddenly discovered Russia is a menace. I welcome that. I welcome that sudden discovery. I think Russia was a menace before and after.
But for too many Senate Democrats, it is purely political. Russia, Russia, Russia was a stick to beat up on Donald Trump and the substance of it didn't matter
So the Senator from Connecticut said: Well, gosh, Donald Trump--he thinks--was terrible on Russia.
Here is a simple fact. Under President Trump, we stopped the pipeline the day this sanctions legislation was signed into law.
Under President Biden, Putin began building the pipeline again. Those are facts. You want to talk about who is weak on Russia? Those are simple facts, and those facts are dangerous.
Because Joe Biden giving a multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin was a generational geopolitical mistake because it strengthens Russia and it weakens America because it endangers U.S. national security interests,
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Mr. CRUZ. Just a few moments ago, the Senator from Connecticut said something bad is going to happen. Let me tell you, he is right. Something bad is going to happen, and there is a reason for it.
The Biden foreign policy, in just 7 months, has been the most disastrous foreign policy we have seen of any administration since Jimmy Carter. To every enemy of America, they have projected weakness.
On Russia, Joe Biden has given Vladimir Putin what he wanted most: A multibillion-dollar pipeline to let him extort Europe.
On China, the Biden administration has been projecting weakness over and over and over again, including kowtowing to China and reversing the State Department policy on Taiwan, prohibiting Taiwan from displaying their flag or wearing military uniforms on U.S. Government property; kowtowing to the Communist Party of China.
On Iran, the Biden administration said their top foreign policy objective is sending billions of dollars to the Ayatollah Khomeini, even as he is the leading state-sponsor of terrorism to the world and chants, ``Death to America.''
And on Hamas, the Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority, much of which has found its way to Hamas and has been materialized in rockets raining down on Israel.
So is something bad going to happen?
Yes, because when you show weakness to our enemies, it encourages our enemies and they get more and more aggressive.
Where I differ with the Senator from Connecticut is I don't think the way to avoid something bad is to keep showing weakness and give Putin what he wants. The way to stand up to our enemies is to demonstrate strength, not weakness. I believe in peace through strength. I think appeasement invites conflict.
Because Joe Biden's multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin is a generational geopolitical mistake, because it strengthens Russia at the expense of America, and because it undermines U.S. national security interests,
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Mr. CRUZ. I would note one of the efforts that the State Department has endeavored to do to try to force these nominations through is planning a whole series of articles in papers, which they somehow believe would pressure me. The most abusing of which was an article, I believe, in POLITICO, if I remember correctly, that began ominously: The mansions in Europe where our ambassadors reside are sadly empty due to this one Senator's objections.
I will confess, my heart is not broken that some rich Democratic donor is not wining and dining people in a grand ambassadorial mansion. I am sure that is an enormous crisis in Georgetown.
What I think is a crisis is making Putin stronger and Russia stronger and weakening Europe, weakening our allies, and weakening America.
And because Biden's multibillion-dollar gift to Putin weakened America, strengthened Russia, and undermined our U.S. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. I would note there is irony in the Senator from Connecticut expressing deep concern about China just an hour or 2 after this Chamber voted on an amendment I introduced that said we should not be importing electric vehicles that were made in China using slave labor in concentration camps. The Senator from Connecticut and every single Democratic Senator, save one, voted to reject that amendment.
The consequence is that the Biden administration is preparing to import millions of dollars of electric vehicles that were built--or parts of them were built--using slave labor in concentration camps in China.
You want to talk about what is encouraging and empowering the Chinese Communist regime?
It is the willingness of the Democratic Party to overlook their murder, torture in concentration camps because of their commitment to the Green New Deal.
Because Joe Biden giving a multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin strengthens Russia at the expense of America and it undermines U.S. national security interests,
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Mr. CRUZ. Because Joe Biden's multibillion-dollar gift of this pipeline in defiance of U.S. law and contravention of the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of Congress, because it strengthens Russia at the expense of America and it undermines U.S. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. national security,
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Mr. CRUZ. 1, the Biden administration is defying three separate Federal laws: two different Nord Stream 2 sanctions, both of which I authored, along with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, both of which passed the Senate and the House and were signed into law, both of which enjoyed massive, near-unanimous bipartisan support. In addition to that is CAATSA--strong Russia sanctions that are mandatory, that are designed to force a President to sanction Russia even if they are reluctant to do so like Joe Biden is.
Right now, the administration is defying the law, and so the message that I have conveyed to the administration repeatedly is, follow the law. I am not asking for a change in the law; I am saying follow the law. That is No. 1, if you have an administration that is openly defying the law, but No. 2, that is openly defying an overwhelming bipartisan consensus of Congress.
This is not a narrow partisan issue. And I would note, after Joe Biden waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I introduced an amendment to reverse his decision. Every single Senator but one on that committee voted in favor of my amendment. The Senator from Connecticut voted in favor of my amendment. The Senator from New Jersey voted in favor of my amendment.
The Biden administration is telling all of Congress, essentially: Jump in a lake. We don't care that every Democrat and virtually every Republican has a dramatically different assessment of this situation than they do.
Third is the national security magnitude of this issue. This was a major national security victory.
When I met with the Biden administration, with each of their successive national security officials, I said: Look, I understand the instinct of any new administration to say, ``Whatever the old guys did must be wrong.'' I get that the Biden guys want to say, ``Whatever Trump did must be wrong.'' And by the way, the Trump guys, by and large, said, ``Whatever Obama did must be wrong.'' That is not a new thing. Whenever you have a change in an administration, that tends to be a default position. But what I urged them to do is, just because that is your knee-jerk instinct, this was a massive bipartisan victory for America, a national security victory that we won that Joe Biden is on the verge of throwing away.
The Secretary of State sat in my office and promised to fight to sanction Nord Stream 2. The Deputy Secretary of State sat in my office and promised to fight to sanction Nord Stream 2. The Under Secretary of State sat in my office and promised to fight to sanction Nord Stream 2. They did, in fact, fight to sanction Nord Stream 2, but unfortunately they were overruled by the White House, which made a political decision to give in to Putin.
In those circumstances, when you are defying explicit U.S. law, when you are defying the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of Congress, and when you are endangering U.S. national security and, indeed, turning a victory into a loss, I think it is appropriate to use the tools we have in front of us.
That being said, I have engaged in active negotiation with the Biden administration. In the past week, I have had conversations on this topic with the Secretary of the Treasury, with the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, with the National Security Advisor. I have had conversations with multiple Democratic Senators about a path forward.
But I will tell you what the path forward is not going to be. It is not going to be, let's roll over, give Putin his pipeline, and accept a massive national security loss for America. If that is where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to go, they can go there, but they are not going to go there with my acquiescence, and I am going to use every tool I have as a Senator, elected by the people of Texas, to prevent that outcome.
Accordingly, because Joe Biden's decision to defy U.S. law; to defy the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of Congress; to surrender to Vladimir Putin; to give him his No. 1 priority--a multibillion-dollar pipeline that will provide billions of dollars of rewards for Russia for decades to come--because that decision is a generational geopolitical mistake on the order of magnitude of Jimmy Carter giving away the Panama Canal--that even 50 years later, the consequences of that geopolitical mistake still reverberate--50 years from now, Russian dictators will benefit from Joe Biden's weakness on Russia.
Because that strengthens Russia, because it empowers Russia to attack our enemies, to extort our enemies, to engage in economic blackmail against our enemies--our allies, rather--because our allies are begging us not to do this--I have met with senior officials of the Ukraine. The Ukrainians are begging us not to do this, and the Biden White House is threatening Ukraine: Keep your mouth shut because we have a political objective here.
Because that strengthens Russia at the expense of the United States, at the expense of Europe, at the expense of our allies, because it destroys jobs in America, and because it endangers U.S. national security, I emphatically object.
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