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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I want to begin by responding to a particularly disgusting comment made over the weekend by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. As the Russian Army continues slaughtering civilians, Foreign Minister Lavrov did what many others who now reside in the dustbin of history have done before him--resort to anti-Semitism to defend his nation's action.
As the highest ranking, Jewish elected official in the United States, I take particular umbrage at what Mr. Lavrov said. Asked on Italian television yesterday to defend his nation's invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Lavrov repeated the deranged conspiracy that Ukraine is dominated by Neo-Nazis and dismissed President Zelenskyy's own Jewish heritage by saying:
I believe Hitler also had Jewish origins.
He also added:
We have been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves.
I have only one word for this: ``sickening.'' It is sickening. Mr. Lavrov's comments are just sickening and deserve to be condemned by all who oppose the dangers of anti-Semitism. They tap into the very old and very poisonous notion that the Jewish people themselves were the architects of the worst human atrocities in modern history even when they were aimed at Jews themselves.
Mr. Foreign Minister, you are fooling no one. The war crimes committed by Russia are as plain as day for the world to see. And to justify Russia's violence with appeals to anti-Semitism is sickening; it is dangerous. It is chilling to see Russia's top diplomat--he should not be called a diplomat after saying that. It is chilling to see Russia's top foreign policy person so casually spread disinformation about the history of the Holocaust in order to advance Mr. Putin's political and military agenda.
I condemn Mr. Lavrov's comments in the strongest possible terms, and every individual who wishes to guard against the poisons of anti- Semitism should do the same.
Now, Madam President, over the weekend, Speaker Pelosi led a delegation of House Members to Ukraine and met with President Zelenskyy to pledge our country's support for the Ukrainian people.
We have the obligation to demonstrate that support by approving another round of Ukrainian emergency funding. Now that President Biden has made a formal request for $33 billion, our appropriators are hard at work turning the request into legislation. It is my hope that a bipartisan agreement can be reached very soon and that the Senate can begin processing this aid package on the floor as early as next week.
Quickly approving this emergency funding for Ukraine is essential to helping the people of Ukraine in their fight against Russia. Again, I expect both sides to work quickly, decisively, and with bipartisan cooperation to get this aid out the door and onto the President's desk, just as we did for the first round of aid back in March.
I will also work to include a provision that arms the Federal Government with the tools needed to liquidate assets the United States seized from Russian oligarchs, such as yachts, mansions, private jets, art collections, and the like.
Specifically, the Senate should expand existing forfeiture laws that will turn up the heat on these corrupt individuals who made their own ill-gotten gains from the vicious, evil, dictatorial Vladimir Putin. We need to go after these crooked oligarchs. They have gotten rich off Putin's regime. Their ill-gotten gains should have no safe refuge within the United States, and it would be great if the proceeds from these assets would be used to support the Ukrainian people. I think that is the right way to go, and I will work to see that the Senate acts in this space.
Two months into the war, it is clear that support from the United States and our allies has been essential in helping Ukraine resist Russia's invasion. But the bloodshed is very likely far from over, and the cost borne by the Ukrainian people has been immense. According to the U.N., at least 3,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the war, and the true number is unfortunately, sadly, far higher than that in all likelihood.
The United States thus has a moral obligation to give the Ukrainian people the tools they need for as long as they need them, more money for Javelins, Stingers, howitzers, Switchblade unmanned aerial munitions, and much more. And make no mistake, the Senate will move swiftly to get an emergency funding package passed and sent to the President's desk.
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