Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I would like to discuss now how Nord Stream 2 is an unprecedented example, a contemporary example, of bipartisan unity. Democrats and Republicans both know that Nord Stream 2 is a terrible idea. It is a terrible idea for Europe, and it is a terrible idea for the United States.

Here are several examples of the bipartisan agreement we have. It has been commonplace to say that bipartisanship doesn't exist, but Nord Stream 2 refutes that.

The first wave of sanctions authored by me and by Senator Shaheen goes back to the summer of 2019. At a July 31 hearing, several Democrats spoke out against Nord Stream 2 and its support of the Cruz- Shaheen sanctions to stop it.

Here are some of the things they said. Senator Menendez said:

I think the international community must stand firm against opening more doors and creating new opportunities for further Kremlin aggression in Ukraine leading to the loss of life. The Russian Federation has repeatedly used its energy resources as a lever of power, and I believe Nord Stream 2 is no exception. Not only will it considerably strengthen the Kremlin's stranglehold on Europe, but it allows Moscow to further undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and stability.

Senator Shaheen said:

We have heard in our office directly from other countries in Eastern and Central Europe, and the Baltics, and many of the Nordic states, and of course especially Ukraine, who understand that this pipeline is an effort to increase reliance on Russia among Europe. And I would argue that this does nothing to strengthen the transatlantic alliance, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In fact, it actually decreases support for the alliance.

Here is what Senator Coons from Delaware said:

I, like many of us, have been to Ukraine, remain gravely concerned about Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the ways in which Russia finances its aggression through the use of its sole remaining export of any interest, which is energy.

Senator Menendez was right. Senator Shaheen was right. Senator Coons was right. That consensus has held for over 2 years, Democrats and Republicans, even through the Biden administration's catastrophic decision to green light the pipeline and to give a multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin.

This issue was central to a June 8 meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after Biden had defied U.S. law and given a multibillion-dollar gift to Putin.

Here is what Senator Menendez said after Biden acted:

I think many of us on a bipartisan basis were deeply concerned about the administration's decision to waive sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG. . . . I would have thought that one of the most significant ways to show strength is to ensure that the pipeline is killed.

Senator Menendez was right.

Senator Merkley even condemned the pipeline for issues he said were directly related to climate change, which is something Biden officials claim is utterly sacrosanct in this administration.

The consensus, even after the Biden administration formally announced that it had struck a deal surrendering entirely to Russia on the pipeline--nonetheless, we saw the bipartisan consensus remain.

On July 21, Senator Kaine said:

I'm not happy about it. . . . I'm not happy about it in terms of Russian politics, and I'm not happy about it in terms of climate change.

Senator Kaine was right.

Senator Shaheen said she was ``skeptical that [the agreement] will be sufficient when the key player at the table--Russia--refuses to play by the rules.''

Senator Shaheen was right. She was right to be skeptical that the agreement from the Biden administration, mind you, will be sufficient when the key player at the table--Russia--refuses to play by the rules.

And I would note that the consensus wasn't limited to the Senate. On the other side of the Capitol in the U.S. House of Representatives, that same sentiment was broadly echoed both during the previous administration and during the current administration.

At the beginning of my push for the Cruz-Shaheen sanctions in 2019, Democratic Representative Engel said:

Russia has weaponized its energy resources, expanding into European markets and creating greater and greater dependency, particularly with projects such as the Nord Stream 2.

Representative Engel was right.

Several years later, after the announcement of President Biden's complete surrender to Russia on Nord Stream 2, Representative Kaptur told a Polish newspaper that she and much of the House of Representatives were disappointed with the deal. She said:

I am very disappointed by the Biden administration's willingness to allow Russian gas to reach the heart of Europe via Nord Stream 2, endangering energy security. . . . We consider this a dangerous project from a security point of view.

Representative Kaptur was right.

Supporters of the Biden administration will say: Well, of course, everybody opposes Nord Stream 2, but there is no way to stop it.

That excuse is disingenuous. That excuse is laughable on its face. Now, why is that? Because it is the identical excuse that was central to the Russian disinformation 2 years ago. In the summer of 2019, when I first authored the bipartisan sanctions to stop Nord Stream 2, the Russian disinformation campaign in Europe was predicated on the proposition that the pipeline was 95 percent complete, and they said: Gosh, you can't stop it. There is nothing you can do to stop it.

They halted construction of the pipeline 15 minutes before our bipartisan sanctions were signed into law, and for over a year, the pipeline lay dormant as a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.

So every time the Biden administration says ``It was too far along; we couldn't stop it,'' you know what--it was just as far along in December of 2019, and we stopped it then. It was just as far along in January of 2020, and we stopped it then. We stopped it in February. We stopped it in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. And it wasn't until January, January 24--4 days after Joe Biden took the oath of office--that Russia resumed building the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.

The only reason they couldn't stop it is because Joe Biden wanted to surrender to Putin, because the answer is, Republicans and Democrats in this Chamber had stopped it for over a year, until Joe Biden came in and turned victory into defeat; until Joe Biden came in and offered complete capitulation--and might I note, in exchange for nothing.

Let me ask you, what did the Biden administration get in exchange for a multibillion-dollar gift--and not a one-time gift; a gift every year for decades in perpetuity? What did the Biden administration get? Not a damn thing. Nothing. It was simply a complete capitulation. Surrender.

Now, defenders of the Biden administration will say: Well, maybe we could have stopped it a few months ago, before the pipeline was complete. But in between January and this month, the Russian efforts built the pipeline, and they just announced it is complete. So now we should surrender, right? There is nothing that can be done about it.

Well, that, in fact, is not true. That is a second wave of disinformation. Now, why is that true? That is not true because before the pipeline can go online, there are a series of certifications that are required. Nord Stream 2 AG, the company that is responsible for planning, construction, and eventual operation of Nord Stream 2, needs to be granted formal permission as a gas transmitter. There are many regulatory hurdles in their way--hurdles that have not yet been cleared. The process at a minimum should take many months, and the process could be derailed at any time.

First, there has to be an inspection process. Each of Nord Stream 2's strings has to be inspected to make sure there are no leaks, and part of that requires confirming that the pipelines were installed correctly. Part of that has already begun with air. Nobody knows how it has been going.

Then, there has to be an additional technical certification. This will be extremely difficult for Nord Stream 2 AG because the bipartisan sanctions legislation that I wrote and passed with Senator Shaheen and that Congress passed imposes mandatory sanctions on anyone who certifies the pipeline for operation.

Now, pause and think about that for a second. The pipeline can't go into effect unless it is certified. U.S. law passed overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans in this Congress, signed into law in the U.S. Code, says anyone who certifies it faces mandatory, crushing sanctions from the United States. The company that was originally going to certify it withdrew after the sanctions became law. The only way that a different company would dare to certify is if they believed the Biden administration would look the other way, would bless their certification in outright defiance of U.S. law.

Then, apart from the technical issues, Nord Stream 2 AG still has to be certified as a gas transmission operator as a matter of regulation and law. That should take at a minimum many months and require delicate negotiations between the company and the regulators.

You know, what is striking is, everything that I am saying has been said by the Biden administration. So right now, their talking points are ``There is nothing we can do. It is a done deal. We have surrendered. We have given up. There is nothing we can do,'' but when they were in the process of surrendering, they said everything I just told you.

Until recently, even the top officials of the Biden administration acknowledged that physical completion of Nord Stream 2 didn't make its activation a fait accompli.

On June 8, Secretary of State Blinken testified that ``even when the pipeline is physically complete, for it to go into operation, it still requires insurance, it still requires various permits, and we are looking very carefully at all of that.'' Secretary Blinken said that ``it was too late to stop the joining of those pipes. Its operation is another matter.''

Secretary Blinken was wrong when he said it was too late to stop the joining of the pipes because we stopped them for over a year, until Biden surrendered to Putin, but he wasn't wrong when he said we could still stop the operation of it.

Given these requirements and this time line, the path for America is obvious: We should sanction Nord Stream 2 AG, the parent company of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. That will automatically isolate the company, and it will signal our readiness to follow the law, to impose more sanctions, and to ensure that everyone knows that involvement with Putin's pipeline brings with it crippling, company-ending sanctions. Indeed, that is exactly why Congress has repeatedly passed legislation--bipartisan legislation--to stop this pipeline. But instead of obeying the law, President Biden decided brazenly and willfully to defy Federal law--to defy Congress's mandate.

In May, President Biden transmitted a communication to Congress that acknowledged, yes, he was obliged to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG for violating the sanctions that Congress had passed and passed overwhelmingly, but instead of imposing those mandatory sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, given the clear and unequivocal intent of Congress, the Biden administration chose instead to waive them. It was a disastrous decision. It was a decision based on weakness and capitulation to Russia. It hurt our friends and allies in Europe, and it hurt the United States of America.

It is a decision that can be reversed. Right now, the pipeline, if this pipeline goes into effect, will be the Biden-Putin pipeline. It doesn't have to be. This was designed at the outset to be the Putin pipeline, and when it was the Putin pipeline, we stopped it. Republicans stopped it. Democrats stopped it. We came together at a time of partisan division and we said together: Giving billions of dollars to Putin, to Russia, for aggressive military hostility, subjecting Europe to energy blackmail, making Europe dependent on Putin's gas, and destroying American jobs is bad all around.

Congress succeeded. It was the Putin pipeline until January 24, 2021. Joe Biden had just been sworn into office, and Putin, after a year of dormancy, began building the pipeline again because Biden had already signaled he intended to capitulate.

When we convene next week, I am going to discuss in greater detail the compromise that I have offered to the Biden administration and Senate Democrats to move forward on more of their nominees if they accept a compromise solution on Nord Stream 2. The Biden administration has had this compromise offer for 2 months, and they have done nothing with it.

But I would suggest something right now. In the course of my remarks, I have read quote after quote after quote from Senate Democrats. Senate Democrats know this pipeline is a disaster for America. Senate Democrats know that surrendering to Putin is bad for America. But Senate Democrats are scared to stand up to a Democratic President.

I can tell you, when we had a Republican President, President Trump, there were some in the Trump administration who resisted these bipartisan sanctions, and as a Republican, I was perfectly willing to stand up to a Republican administration for those who were resisting these sanctions and to press them hard.

So my request to my Democratic colleagues is, show that you actually believe what you said in 2019 and 2020 and 2021. Show that you care about U.S. national security. Let's stand together, and let's reclaim that bipartisan consensus we have had for 2 years that Nord Stream 2 is bad for America and bad for our allies.

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