Relating to A National Emergency Declared By the President on March 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I call on this body to support the people of Ukraine fighting for their lives right now, today. Our mandate to act is clear.

Here is a little bit of history for this body. In 1994, in the months following the end of the Cold War, Ukraine was very fragile, working through the challenges of establishing and sustaining democratic government, while sitting atop the world's third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, arms abandoned in the final days of the Soviet Union.

The United States intervened. In exchange for protection by the greatest superpower in the history of the world, Ukraine dismantled and surrendered their nuclear armament entirely. That agreement made the world a safer place, but Vladimir Putin called the United States to the carpet on our agreement last week. He gambled that America would again abandon our partners, as we did in Afghanistan. Putin gambled that U.S. treaties and agreements are no more valuable than the paper they are written on. He didn't bet against the Ukrainians, where he has every military advantage in a head-to-head conflict. His criminal invasion-- now a bloody war of aggression against Ukraine--was a bet against American supremacy.

We cannot allow Putin to get away with it. The American people don't want us to either. Over 80 percent of Americans want us to do more to bring down Vladimir Putin, stand with Ukraine, and end this conflict. They are not just feeling the impacts of the invasion at the gas pump, the grocery store, and in their retirement accounts; they feel it in their hearts.

We are the greatest Nation on the face of the planet. We stand for freedom. But our greatness and our standing are only as strong as our world. The American people know it, and they are looking for us to act.

Unfortunately, the U.S. response to this point is at best incomplete. It is tepid. It is halfhearted and impassive to the Russian bear that is looking to clamp down on the free world. This President and his administration are allowing the Germans, the Canadians, the Latvians, the Dutch, and the Swiss to lead in arming Ukraine.

This body, my colleagues, I implore you, we can do more, and we can do it better. We have seen the classified reports. We all understand, all 100 of us, that the Ukrainians are in dire need of our aid right now--not tomorrow, not next week, now. We also know the volume of not just combat capability but logistics supplies, secure communications equipment, and medical kits that we have purchased and staged all around the world to secure our partners.

My amendment does not spend another dime of taxpayer money; it calls on the Secretary of Defense to mobilize existing equipment, including provisions meant for Afghanistan, to arm Ukraine. This equipment will never be used by U.S. forces, but it is simply sitting in warehouses across the world. It belongs at the Polish border and in the hands of Ukrainians, who are fighting for their lives as I am speaking here on the floor today.

We know we have capabilities that we bought for the Afghans that could be loaded and flown to Poland to help our counterparts. That is open source. That information is out there. We have other capabilities as well that you all know belong in the hands of our Ukrainian friends. This administration's doctrine of appeasement has provided more arms for the Taliban than for the sovereign nation of Ukraine, and it is not even close.

The administration's abandonment of Afghanistan drew deserved condemnation from Democrats and Republicans in this body, but today and every day we don't act to arm our partners in Ukraine, we will be held to account. If we don't act now, this body's lack of immediate attention and action on this matter will be recorded in history.

We took an oath to ``support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'' That obligates us to secure the homefront but also to stand with our allies and partners. Our oath demands Congress--just as it demands our men and women in uniform--protect the American people. That vow compels us to honor our commitments abroad, stand with freedom, and do what the American people sent us here to do.

The fight for Ukraine doesn't end today. I will continue to advocate for already procured equipment and capabilities that are programmed, budgeted, contracted, purchased, and sitting in containers unused to go to those who need it the most.

Let's execute our oath today.

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