Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, Russia is waging war, the likes we have not seen since World War II. They are waging war on freedom and democracy.

Over recent days, the world has watched in horror as Russian troops have invaded and brutally attacked Ukraine and Ukrainians. So far, estimates are that 350 Ukrainians have been killed. We really don't know what the number is, but we do know that countless civilians have been injured, and more than half a million Ukrainians, including women and children, are now refugees.

This invasion was not weeks or even months in the making; this has been Moscow's plan for years. Putin has made no secret of his desire to redraw the maps of Europe and to restore the Russian Empire. That is why in 2008, Russia invaded the nation of Georgia. In 2014, it invaded Ukraine, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, taking the Crimea region. So the current invasion of Ukraine is really the second invasion we have seen from Vladimir Putin's Russian Federation since 2014. Putin's appetite has not been satisfied. If anything, these invasions have made him hungrier for power.

The people of Ukraine have lived under the shadow of Russian aggression for years, and it has always been a question of when, not if, Russia would finally act. For months, Russia has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border, with numbers growing from a few thousand to more than 150,000.

Defenders of freedom and democracy everywhere look to the United States for leadership. But, sadly, they were let down. That is because when it comes to projecting strength to authoritarians like Vladimir Putin and President Xi, to the Ayatollahs in Iran and Kim Jong Un in North Korea, the Biden administration repeatedly projects not strength but weakness.

First of all, when it comes to Europe and Ukraine and Russia, President Biden should not have waived sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline last year. He should have never suggested that certain Russian attacks would be disregarded by the United States. A minor incursion, he said, might be overlooked.

And he should have taken swift action and imposed paralyzing sanctions on Russia before--before--an invasion to give them a taste of what might come, in an effort to deter Putin from invading in the first place. And we should have earlier sent greater defensive weapons to the Ukrainians. Strong action was called for before the war started, but unfortunately, we have been playing catchup since it did start.

But now, we have a critical task ahead of us. Between this crisis and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan stranding thousands of Americans without consultation or communication with any of our NATO allies that were discouraged and shocked to find out that we would leave them hanging, President Biden has repeatedly given our NATO allies reason to doubt our commitment and our credibility.

I am sure Vladimir Putin is taking notice. I am sure President Xi and the People's Republic of China has as well. In fact, Xi Jinping has already expressed approval of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Putin has now put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, threatening to escalate to the unthinkable--something that hasn't happened since 1945--the discharge of a nuclear device. He has also ordered his soldiers to fire on residential neighborhoods, a clear-cut example of a war crime.

There is need of decisive action to counter Russian aggression. With the eyes the world looking at the United States for leadership, it is time for us to step up in defense of this democracy. President Biden needs to follow through on his promise to make Putin a ``pariah on the world stage.'' The Biden administration has put harsh sanctions on Russia, but its most valuable asset remains virtually untouched, and that is Russia's oil and gas sector.

Even as Russia wages a brutal war against the people of Ukraine, it is exporting energy to the rest the world and using the profits--$100 oil and higher--to fund the war against innocent Ukrainian citizens. Sanctions against banks and oligarchs are crucial, but we should not ignore Russia's single largest economic asset.

The United States must identify ways to offset the global demand for Russian energy, both here at home and with our oil-producing allies abroad, so we can cut off Putin's biggest stream of revenue. That would be the biggest and best sanction of all.

Our friend John McCain used to joke that Russia was a gas station masquerading as a country to make the point that their oil and gas sector is the single most important part of their economy. And yet so far, the U.S. Government has left it relatively untouched and unscathed.

In addition to economic penalties, we must provide additional materiel support for Ukrainian forces to sustain their heroic and inspirational fight against Russian aggression. A few weeks ago, I began working with a bipartisan group of colleagues on a far-reaching bill to counter this aggression. This package included legislation that I introduced called the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, reminiscent of what the United States did when Britain was hanging by a thread under Nazi aggression in World War II.

Just as we did in World War II for our allies in Britain, this bill would ensure that Ukrainian forces and the Ukrainian citizenry had the defensive weapons, the air power, the ships--whatever they needed--in order to defend their sovereignty. It also included security assistance, as well as sanctions on Russia.

And even though we agreed on a bipartisan basis on the vast majority of what was being discussed, the administration's oppositions prevented us from reaching a final agreement.

I am disappointed that we were unable to act and send a strong and united and bipartisan message as Congress to Vladimir Putin, but the fact that we were unsuccessful then doesn't eliminate the need for us to take further action now.

Thanks to the leadership of the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Risch from Idaho, I was proud to join my Republican colleagues in introducing legislation that will kneecap Russia's efforts. The Never Yielding Europe's Territory Act doesn't just support Ukraine or impose economic consequences on Russia on counter Russian aggression, it does all of the above.

This legislation includes a range of measures to strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself, including my lend-lease bill. It imposes harsh economic consequences on the Russian economy through far-reaching sanctions.

As we all know, Senator Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Risch, the ranking member, negotiated for days and indeed weeks upon weeks, but were unable to come up with a bipartisan package.

I am especially disappointed that today, when Senator Risch offered to take up and pass this bill by unanimous consent, that it was blocked by one of our Democratic colleagues. I wonder what kind of message that sends to Vladimir Putin--not a good one.

America stands with Ukraine, and we must do everything in our power to help Ukrainian forces defend their freedom and their democracy. Through the devastation that we have seen over the past couple of days, we have all been inspired by the strength and courage of the Ukrainian people. They are on the frontlines of the war against our values, against their sovereignty, against democracy, and they deserve our unequivocal support.

As the conflict--indeed, as the war--in Ukraine wages on, strong American leadership is desperately needed on a bipartisan, monolithic basis.

This evening, President Biden will have a chance to provide his State of the Union message, and I hope that he sends a clear message to the world that Russia's belligerence and hostility will not be tolerated. The American people, our friends and allies, and our adversaries will be paying close attention, and President Biden should not pull any punches. He should not mince words. He should say that America stands with Ukraine, and we will not tolerate as civilized nations--as democracies--a blatant attack on a fellow democracy.

In addition to the many challenges abroad, the American people are facing the failures of the President Biden's domestic policies here at home. Families are being battered by the worst inflation in 40 years, up 7\1/2\ percent so far this year alone. It is more expensive in Texas to heat your home, to stock your pantry, or fill your gas tank.

I spoke to cotton producers in Abilene, TX, just last week. They told me their single biggest problem is the cost of inputs, of fuel, fertilizer, and other things they need in order to grow their product, their commodity.

Anyone who has a need to make a big purchase--things like a car or home appliances--has likely experienced extreme sticker shock.

Business owners, too, have been hit with a double whammy as supply chain issues make it even more difficult and more costly to produce, sell, and ship their products.

Wages have increased some, which would normally be good news, but wage growth is still being outpaced by inflation; meaning that for the average American family, their purchasing power is shrinking, not growing because of inflation. That means our workers have essentially gotten a pay cut because of the flawed policies of the Biden administration.

Economists said that if our Democratic colleagues had proceeded with their nearly $2 trillion partisan spending spree at the beginning of last year, that it would cause inflation. I still remember Larry Summers, a Democratic-leaning economist who served in Bill Clinton's Cabinet, warning that all of this money that Congress is spending--not the money we were spending for public health purposes or to mitigate the economic consequences of COVID-19, but the money spent on other items in our Democratic colleagues' outbox--he said that we are risking the return of inflation like we haven't seen in the last few decades. Despite the warning from people like Larry Summers and others, our Democratic colleagues forged ahead and now America's working families are paying the price.

I hope President Biden has a plan he will announce tonight on how to attack inflation. But that plan cannot--cannot--involve his ill- conceived ``Build Back Broke'' agenda. This is another $5 trillion spending bill that, thanks to bipartisan opposition, did not go anywhere, but which threatened huge tax increases and huge inflationary spending. This is not time to pile on and make the American people's pain worse. We need to do everything we can to reduce inflation, to increase their buying power.

I would like to also hear the President's strategy to address another crisis, and that is the crisis at our southern border. My State has 1,200 miles of border with Mexico, and, last year alone, we have seen 2 million people show up at the border, either to be returned to their country of origin or, more likely, to be welcomed into the United States and be given a slip of paper that says: Show up for your immigration court hearing in a year or 2 years.

We know that the human smugglers are getting rich smuggling people into the United States. They understand our system. They know how to exploit the flaws in our system, and they are getting rich doing so. And by flooding the border with so many people, including unaccompanied children at one time, it takes Border Patrol off the frontlines while the drug smugglers move their illicit cargo into the United States. And it is those drugs that have contributed to the loss of more than 100,000 American lives due to drug overdoses last year alone.

I want to hear President Biden's answer: Why haven't you done anything about it? Why haven't you welcomed or asked for the help of bipartisan Members of Congress to try to address this crisis at the border?

Instead, the Biden administration made it worse. They revoked many of the policies of the previous administration that deterred an influx of migration, and they failed to anticipate the obvious consequences. When you lay out the welcome mat on the U.S. border, people will come, and they come not just from Mexico and Central America. They come from around the world.

I remember early on during the Biden administration talking to the chief of the Border Patrol in the Del Rio Sector. He said: In the last few weeks, we have detained people from 150-plus countries.

The reason for that is obvious. Illegal immigration is the way that international criminal networks get rich and do business. And if you have enough money, they will get you across the southern border, exploiting the laws that we know need to be changed but we cannot seem to muster the support from President Biden nor our Democratic friends to fix.

Local governments and my constituents in the Rio Grande Valley and along the border, who are largely Hispanic themselves, understand the difference between legal and illegal immigration, and they are being inundated with illegal immigration and the burdens that are associated with that. They are looking to Washington to do something about it, but those calls are not being answered. So the burden falls on State government--Governor Abbott and the Texas Legislature--to try to step up. But this is the Federal Government's responsibility, not the State government's responsibility. Leaders in Texas have begged the Biden administration to step up and do its duty. They have asked for more staff, better resources, and policies that put an end to these pull factors, but the administration has done nothing. The only conclusion I can draw after all this time is they just don't care.

As we head into the spring, which is typically the busiest time at the border, the Biden administration needs to take action. The President cannot continue to ignore this humanitarian crisis. We need a concrete plan to address this chaos and ensure that migrants are treated fairly and humanely in accordance with U.S. law.

But, sadly, the border crisis isn't the only problem the administration has shown complete and utter disregard for. Communities across the country are worried about alarming increases in violent crime.

This morning alone, we had a hearing in the Judiciary Committee on carjacking, the violent theft of an automobile using a gun or other weapon to steal it from a person who may be driving their kids to school or to work or to church, only to have their car stolen and their life threatened or taken.

In 2020, murders rose nearly 30 percent from the year before--30 percent--the single largest increase on record. We are still waiting for the rest of the data from 2021, but, so far, the picture is no brighter. A number of major cities experienced their deadliest years on record. Of course, this was in the wake of this boneheaded idea called ``defund the police,'' which destroyed support for the police at the local level and demoralized the men and women who are doing their duty in an honorable and necessary way each and every day. This is the price that you pay for such misguided efforts as defunding the police.

The American people are paying attention, as you would expect. A poll in November found that more than half of those surveyed believe that local crime had gotten worse--a 13-percent jump from the previous year. Concerns at the national level are even higher. Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe that crime is up nationally. They believe that because it is. This is bad news for families, for communities, for businesses, and for our dedicated law enforcement professionals, and the administration needs to take action.

American families are facing a host of crises at home, and democracy is taking a beating abroad. Tonight, I hope President Biden will outline a clear plan to address these many challenges and come up with answers that we can work on together in a bipartisan way. Trying to do things in a 50-50 Senate or at the 4-vote majority in the House of Representatives is destined to fail, as we have seen time and time again. The only way to get things done in a 50-50 Senate is to work to build consensus and get bipartisan support.

I hope we will see a midcourse correction from the administration on these many challenges that I mentioned today. I hope the President will finally acknowledge and commit to helping address the humanitarian crisis at the border, which he has ignored for more than a year now. I hope and I trust he will send a strong message to the world that America condemns Russian action and stands with solidarity with Ukraine. The American people deserve to hear their President explain his plan to address each of these looming challenges, and I hope he doesn't let them down.

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