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Floor Speech

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Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, 2 weeks ago, Russia initiated the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II. Millions of men, women, and children fled their homes to safety. Countless others have taken up arms in the name of freedom.

President Putin's unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine did not happen overnight. The warning signs were very, very clear. The response from the Biden administration was anything but. The administration had false hope that strongly worded statements would be enough to deter an unprovoked war.

President Biden waited until after Russia invaded Ukraine to level any sanctions at all. And even then, sanctions came in waves, and they are still coming.

President Biden was slow to hit Putin where it hurts. He refused to penalize the Russian energy sector until roughly a week--1 week--after the invasion took place. The President refused to act, and the world now sees the heart-wrenching results.

President Biden has shown weakness on the world stage throughout his 40-plus years in politics--40 years. His foreign policy caves to adversaries, undermines our allies, and devalues the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform.

In his first year of office, he abandoned 20 years of effort in Afghanistan and emboldened Putin to attack his neighbor. As I speak, the White House is reviving Iran's hope of developing a nuclear weapon.

Originally brokered when Joe Biden was Vice President in 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly known as the JCPOA or the Iran deal, was a deeply flawed agreement aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In reality, it did the exact opposite.

Nuclear security can't be achieved with wishful thinking, watered- down sanctions, or by sending our adversaries planeloads of cash, which we did. Years later, we all know the result. The Iran deal did not work.

President Biden wants to revive this disastrous deal, and this time it will be even worse. The Iranians don't even want to negotiate with America and President Biden's administration so we are allowing Russia to join at the negotiating table negotiating for the United States. It doesn't make any sense. Many Americans are likely asking why? The United States cannot trust the Russian Federation in any capacity. If working with and propping up Russia isn't bad enough, Iran is poised to receive billions of dollars from frozen assets in this new agreement, including funds from renewed oil exports.

Rather than unleashing the power of the American energy industry and allowing Americans to drill, drill, drill on our own soil, the Biden administration would rather do business with Venezuela and plead with Saudi Arabia to turn on the spigots.

The administration is, again, leading from behind, held back by their pledge to their false climate gods. Yes, the climate has changed, and it has been changing for decades, but we can't let the far-left extremist wing push us to buy oil from convicts and criminals just because they would rather hamstring our economy than unleash American energy.

The administration is letting Russia and Iran and China dictate the rules of the game, and they are letting an unelected bureaucrat who was not Senate confirmed, by the name of Rob Malley, conduct these talks through Russia. His now-former colleague resigned. Malley's former colleague resigned in protest over Mr. Malley in conceding to Iran.

The Russian negotiators are bragging about Iran's huge wins in this would-be deal. I have a long list of concerns about how these negotiations are unfolding, but at the top are the limited sanctions the administration appears to be open to in exchange for a short-term pause on the development of Tehran's nuclear program.

Let me be clear. These short-term sanctions are not the solution. They weren't a few years ago, and they are not today. The administration must not allow Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon. The Iran deal was a bad deal in 2015, and it would be a worse deal today. The Biden administration should immediately--immediately--walk away from the negotiating table before these discussions lead to yet another Biden foreign policy disaster.

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