National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, as I have been saying, it has been so difficult to get people to realize what we are facing from the Chinese Communist Party. They are an adversary, and seeing the evidence of genocide in Xinjiang didn't seem to be enough to persuade people.

Then you have the reports that Beijing manipulated multiple international organizations when it comes to the origins of the COVID- 19 virus. That wasn't enough.

Hearing the Chinese officials threaten our pharmaceutical and medical supply chains in the midst of a pandemic--that didn't seem to be enough.

Watching in horror as the Chinese Communist Party threatened the Hong Kong freedom fighters and as they have threatened our friends in Taiwan--that didn't seem to raise the attention for them that this is not our friend.

They are not a competitor. They are an adversary.

We have seen these effects of the Belt and Road Initiative on the global balance of power. They still haven't said: We have to deal with China.

Not even Beijing going out here and pushing their nuclear power has seemed to push some of our colleagues across the aisle, as they have not paid attention to what is happening with our nuclear deterrent capabilities and what China is doing.

So it leads a lot of Tennesseans that I talk to say: What is it going to take for Joe Biden and his administration to take these global threats seriously?

If you look at what is going on in China and that doesn't do it, are you looking at Iran? Are you looking at Russia and how they are posturing troops on the Ukrainian border?

What is finally going to get them to say: China is an adversary, the new ``axis of evil''--with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. These are adversaries. They are intent on global dominance and taking us down.

You know, and I have to tell the Presiding Officer, I think that the answer to that question, if we look at these threats, it really frightens a lot of people.

When I talk to our veterans, as I did last week, many of them--it frightens them when they see the nonchalance in attitude of this administration as we talk about these issues that are threatening our Nation's security and freedom at home and abroad. When you talk about inflation, when you talk about crime in the streets, when you talk about what is happening in our schools, when you talk about what is happening globally, people see this as a threat to their life here. They see it as a threat to our security abroad.

My hope is that what we will see is real governance and real leadership that will come from the Senate. And also we would like to see this come from the administration, that people would see decisions made in good faith, not decisions made in bad faith or trying to dismantle the institutions of this government.

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