Providing for Consideration of S. Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend- Lease Act of and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the House Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1065 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 1065
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (S. 3522) to provide enhanced authority for the President to enter into agreements with the Government of Ukraine to lend or lease defense articles to that Government to protect civilian populations in Ukraine from Russian military invasion, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to commit.
Sec. 2. House Resolution 1035 is hereby adopted.
Sec. 3. House Resolution 188, agreed to March 8, 2021 (as most recently amended by House Resolution 1017, agreed to March 31, 2022), is amended by striking ``April 29, 2022'' each place it appears and inserting (in each instance) ``May 13, 2022''.
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. general leave
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, the Rules Committee met yesterday and reported a rule, House Resolution 1065 providing for consideration of S. 3522, the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act under a closed rule.
The rule provides for 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The rule provides for one motion to commit.
The rule extends recess instructions, suspension authority, and same day authority through May 13, 2022. Finally, the rule deems H. Res. 1035 as passed.
Mr. Speaker, Vladimir Putin's criminal war of aggression and atrocity against the sovereign nation of Ukraine has dismembered the second largest country in Europe. Putin's soldiers have killed more than 2,700 Ukrainian civilians and more than 100 children in Ukraine. They have raped and murdered untold numbers of women, leaving their bodies in the street. They have wounded thousands of civilians. They have displaced 10 million Ukrainians, creating the largest exodus of displaced persons since the Nazis rampaged through Europe. They have traumatized a nation.
It is a sobering thing to canvas the damage today, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Putin's invasion is intended to deal a fatal blow to democracy in Ukraine and around the world. Putin's lurch into fascist aggression has actually unified and galvanized the democratic world, the democratic nations, and peoples and movements of the world.
I concede that Putin still has his cheerleaders for his homophobia, his corruption, and his white nationalist racism around the world. I concede that some people, even in this body, continue to chant the filthy words ``Russia hoax'' to describe what we know from our own intelligence community of Putin's unceasing efforts to subvert democracy all over the world. I concede that Vladimir Putin has been called a genius by a former twice-impeached President for his assault on a sovereign democratic nation.
The vast majority of Americans and vast majority of democratic societies around the world reject Putin's atrocities against democracy. President Zelenskyy and President Biden have rallied the world against Putin and in defense of the heroic people of Ukraine standing strong against this aggression--people who have more courage in their pinky than Vladimir Putin and his thugs will ever be able to understand.
Mr. Speaker, NATO members have sent or promised at least $8 billion in weapons to Ukraine. The billions we have sent from the United States of America has made a key difference in allowing the people of Ukraine to defend themselves. The people of America paid for anti-tank and anti- air systems, for helicopters, for drones, for grenade launchers, for 50 million rounds of ammunition, and more.
Today, the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 comes before Congress as an important part of the effort to defend Ukraine. This act is rooted in the lend-lease program of World War II, which President Roosevelt proposed in January of 1941, which allowed our government to lend or to lease war supplies and equipment to any nation whose security was defined as vital to the defense and the security of the United States.
Passage of that act enabled Great Britain and Winston Churchill to keep fighting and to survive the fascist Nazi bombardment until the United States could enter the war.
President Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine needs weapons to sustain themselves, and President Biden has answered that call with billions in military assistance since Russia's full-blown invasion began on February 24, a day that will live in infamy in the freedom-loving world.
On April 21, last Thursday, President Biden announced that we will be sending an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, the eighth such installment, which will include 72 howitzers, 144,000 artillery rounds, 72 tactical vehicles, and more than 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones. Today, I understand President Biden has asked for an additional aid package for the next several months.
But S. 3522 will streamline current legal authorities under the Arms Export Control Act that allows our government to lend defense articles needed to defend civilian populations. We will eliminate red tape to make it easier for our government to lend or lease necessary military equipment in this struggle to defend Ukraine.
The legislation requires the Biden administration to establish expedited procedures for delivering military equipment to Ukraine and other affected Eastern European countries to defend populations made vulnerable by Vladimir Putin's aggression. It also facilities the provisioning of loaned and/or leased defense articles to Ukraine, easing a myriad of administrative regulations and processes.
Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to hear from my friend from Pennsylvania that he supports S. 3522, the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. This is a moment of grave emergency in Ukraine as Putin's army continues to bomb hospitals and schools, rape and assault women, and murder the civilian population.
I am, of course, disappointed that even when we agree, the minority caucus insists upon disagreeing and bringing up matters that are utterly extraneous to this resolution. But my friend mentioned authoritarian lockdowns, oppressive procedures, and dangerous and radical policies. I didn't know if he was referring to Vladimir Putin or to the prior President whose dangerous, radical appeasement of Vladimir Putin empowered and emboldened him as Vladimir Putin has tried to undermine NATO; and the last President did everything in his power to undermine NATO and to weaken NATO. But at this point we have the opportunity to rally the democratic world, the democratic nations of the world, the democratic societies, peoples, and movements against Putin's bloody, imperial invasion of Ukraine.
That is what is on the table right now. That is what is on the table in the world today. That is where democracy is on the line.
Mr. Speaker, I think that all of these efforts to distract us from the issue at hand are meant to cover up the very clear pro-Russian and pro-Putin faction at the heart of their side of the aisle.
Last month in March of this year, the very distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia went on a radio show called the ``Voice of Rural America,'' and she followed Donald Trump's sickening appeasement of Vladimir Putin and blamed Ukraine for the situation.
She said:
You see, Ukraine just kept poking the bear and poking the bear which is Russia, and Russia invaded. There is no win for Ukraine here. Russia is successful in this invasion.
When Members of Congress are cheerleaders for Vladimir Putin and are voices of nothing but defeatism, fatalism, and pessimism for democracy in Europe, then they try to distract us with a lot of phony rhetoric about other issues.
She also said:
NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them. What the hell is going on with these NATO Nazis.
Mr. Speaker, we have to decide which side we are on.
When Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Americans looked at what was happening in Europe during World War II and they saw Nazis marching down the street, they did not see very fine people on both sides of the street. They did not start cheerleading for Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco. Yet we have people here who go out and speak on the side of Vladimir Putin and on the side of Russia.
Let's pass this Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act to show where America is. We are not cheerleaders for Vladimir Putin. We are not going to follow the Trump-Putin axis down the road toward autocracy and kleptocracy and sedition and insurrection and corruption and coups in the United States. That is not where we are going.
This is the land of the free, the home of the brave. We stand for democracy here, not Vladimir Putin.
Scanlon), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I find this astounding. We are here to talk about aid to Ukraine, how to streamline and expedite aid to defend the people of Ukraine, and they will talk about anything but.
I was willing to believe that the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia and several other Members were isolated in their Conference. Now, I am starting to think that maybe they are speaking for the whole Conference.
I wonder if my good friend from Pennsylvania would explicitly repudiate some of these statements made by the gentlewoman from Georgia.
Does the minority Conference agree that NATO has been supplying the ``neo-Nazis in Ukraine'' with powerful weapons?
Does the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania support or dissociate himself from the argument that the aid that we send to Ukraine falls ``into the hands of Nazis,'' a statement made by the gentlewoman from Georgia, echoing Putin's filthy claim that his war on the sovereign democracy of Ukraine is, in fact, an attempt to denazify the country?
Of course, we hear distinct echoes in everything that we get from the erudite gentlewoman from Georgia.
Does the minority agree that Putin invaded because Ukraine repeatedly poked the bear?
I mean, I can't understand why they won't talk about defending Ukraine. That is what this legislation is about. That is what this rule is about. They want to talk about anything other than that.
We can debate all of those other important issues in other contexts at the right time. This is how the House of Representatives works. But why are they covering up for the pro-Putin faction within their Conference? I would like them to dissociate themselves from the people who are blaming Ukraine for Russia's bloody imperial invasion and war of human rights violations and atrocities against the people. Please do that.
Mr. Speaker, the United States of America just witnessed the most astonishing spectacle. We are here to debate aid to the people of Ukraine defending themselves against a massive invasion by Vladimir Putin and his army. Then, the minority puts up the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia, who does not mention Ukraine once.
She does not mention the thousands of Ukrainian civilians who have been slaughtered by Putin's army. She does not mention more than 100 Ukrainian children who have been shot and killed by the Russian army. Instead, she talks about a massive invasion at the border, a massive invasion, which their own speakers have said, today, hundreds of thousands of people have been apprehended in.
That is very different from a military invasion, the one in Ukraine. Of course, the gentlewoman is not going to talk about that. She had a lot to say the other day when she heckled me continuously. When I came to the floor, it was like ``The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' in here with her chanting about the Russia hoax and Russia this and Russia that.
Now, she had the opportunity to tell the world what her views about Russia are. I put them out there, exactly what she has said. She said that the aid that the taxpayers of America are sending to the people of Ukraine to defend themselves against Vladimir Putin and the Russian army falls into the hands of Nazis.
I want to see her proof.
Where is her evidence?
She talks about NATO Nazis. Does the minority believe that our allies in NATO, who are trying to defend the people of Ukraine, are Nazis? Has it come to this?
The gentlewoman talked about massive invasion. We had a massive invasion of our own Chamber. * * *
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, the House rules do forbid engaging in personalities. I accept the advice of the Parliamentarian that I used unparliamentary language to make my point, and I certainly respect the necessity for parliamentary decorum.
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close when my friend from Pennsylvania is prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, my good friend from Pennsylvania suggests that this is something that we didn't actually need to bring to the floor, that it could have been done on a suspension vote. And yet, I am certain that my dear friend is aware that a number of suspension votes on things as simple as post office renamings have been voted down by the minority.
There was a distinguished judge who a post office was going to be named after and that was sabotaged on a suspension vote. There have been multiple votes like that.
In fact, we have a resolution that we put forward to affirm support for NATO and its democratic principles. And that was rejected by 63 Members of the minority caucus; 63 Members voted against a resolution expressing unequivocal support for a strong NATO and for the democratic principles underlying it.
Mr. Speaker, I would love if it were as simple as he was suggesting, that we could all agree to this, but they are not agreeing with the things that we are putting forward about the need to unite for democracy around the world. That is why we are precisely in this situation we are in.
Even when we are trying to talk about the importance of this new lend-lease expediting program to allow the U.S. Government to lend military equipment, to lease military equipment to Ukraine and to get it done quickly, it seems like our friends keep on wanting to change the subject to talk about anything other than that.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know what to say other than I wish we were unified in supporting this rule for the legislation that we are bringing forward to make it a lot easier to get support to the people of Ukraine, the support they need to fight off the bloody military invasion being conducted by Putin's army.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for his service, of course, and also for his clarification about his particular vote.
The House Resolution we are talking about is 831, calling on the United States Government to uphold the founding democratic principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and establishing a center for democratic resilience within the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Of course, everyone in the majority voted for it. I think the vast majority of the people on the gentleman's side of the aisle voted for it, but there were 63 Members who did find this or that clause objectionable and, therefore, voted against it. But that is precisely my point.
My good friend from Pennsylvania takes me to task for saying, Why didn't we just do this on a suspension vote basis, just bring it up here and let it glide through. Because nothing is simple when we are talking about these issues.
There are some people who are out there on the radio calling NATO Nazis and saying that the money that Americans are putting into Ukraine is going to support Nazis. I haven't heard anybody renounce or repudiate that point of view.
Then there are others who find far more substantive and defensible problems with what we are doing.
In any event, they have been voting against it, so we were not able to do a suspension resolution. So we bring it up to have a discussion about Ukraine to see if we can get unity and then they take us off in 50 other directions.
It is a sad thing to see that when President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine have demonstrated democratic courage, bravery, and valor to the entire world, and democratic societies are trying to get together to mobilize behind democracy to oppose what Vladimir Putin and his gang of thugs in Moscow and their allies in different places, like Orban in Hungary and--well, I don't want to get into the whole rogues' gallery of tyrants and bullies that they have gathered to support them.
We have got to be building the democratic forces. We should be together on this. We should be able to think about this in a far broader way than just talking points for the next election.
I thank my friend for our lively discussion today. And I am glad to hear, again, that he supports the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, S. 3522. I wish we could have focused on the meaning of this legislation, rather than for them to fight about the rule and to raise subjects that are not part of this legislation.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have been forced out of their homes; have been forced to flee in the worst mass exodus of refugees since World War II. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed. More than 100 Ukrainian children have been murdered by Putin's Army.
And I have heard the word authoritarian uttered on the other side of the aisle today, and it applies to whom? Not Vladimir Putin. They used it to apply to Nancy Pelosi, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, because they disagree with some interpretations of the rules of the House.
Well, this is a serious moment for people who are serious about democracy in the new century. If allowed to continue, Vladimir Putin will spread his rampage beyond Ukraine into neighboring countries in Eastern Europe, and then other authoritarian and autocratic leaders around the world will decide they will be able to do to their neighbors what Vladimir Putin was allowed to do to his neighbor.
This legislation is named after what President Roosevelt made happen during World War II, the Lend-Lease program that, without declaring war, America would come to the aid of its allies by lending and leasing military equipment to our allies in order to secure the democratic world. And that is where we are again.
So we need to streamline all of the red tape. We need to expedite the delivery of equipment to our allies in Ukraine. And I hope we will hear the end of the constant statements of defeatism and pessimism and surrender that we get from so many people who are out there and continue to take the position of the former President Trump that Vladimir Putin is some kind of genius for invading his neighbor. He is not a genius. He is a mass murderer. He is not a genius. He is a human rights violator, and he is a perpetrator of war crimes.
The world needs to know where America stands. And we should stand, if we could, unified, for the people of Ukraine, for democracy in Europe, and for democracy all around the world.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.
The material previously referred to by Mr. Reschenthaler is as follows: Amendment to House Resolution 1065
At the end of the resolution, add the following:
Sec. 4. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the bill (H.R. 471) to prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from lessening the stringency of, and to prohibit the Secretary of Homeland Security from ceasing or lessening implementation of, the COVID-19 border health provisions through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 5. Clause l(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 471.
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