Providing for Consideration of H.R. Ukraine Security Assistance and Oversight Supplemental Appropriations Act, Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Department of Defense Appropriations Act, and Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, my good friend, the chairman of the Rules Committee, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in 57 hours, this government will shut down. Federal workers will be sent home. Members of the Armed Forces will defend our country without pay. Programs that feed hungry moms and newborns will stop. Travelers will face airport delays. Critical research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's will grind to a halt.

You would think that last night, when the Rules Committee held an emergency meeting, that it would be on stopping the shutdown. That is the actual emergency, Mr. Speaker, that is facing our country. You would be wrong. Instead of a bipartisan CR that can pass, we are back at the eleventh hour to amend a rule, the first rule this majority passed in weeks, because, once again, Speaker McCarthy is letting extreme MAGA Republicans blackmail him.

What we are doing here is absurd. This assistance for Ukraine has been in the Defense bill for years, well before the latest invasion by Russia. This isn't even the Ukraine funding that President Zelenskyy asked for or the funding the administration requested. This shouldn't be controversial.

First, it was in the bill, then it wasn't, then it was. Then, yesterday, we had a standalone vote on Ukraine funding, and the House voted overwhelmingly, 339-93, a majority of the majority, an overwhelming vote against stripping the Ukraine assistance in this bill.

Instead of accepting that loss, extreme MAGA Republicans are blackmailing Kevin McCarthy. Here we are, rigging the rules to undo that vote.

They want to overturn the will of this House. They refuse to accept the fact that they lost. What is it with Republicans refusing to accept when they lose? Why can't you accept a loss? Why can't you respect the vote?

I guess there is a pattern here. We saw it when they didn't want to accept the Presidential election. Here on the House floor, we see when extreme MAGA, rightwing Republicans don't get their way, when they lose overwhelmingly, they can't accept a loss. They go to the Rules Committee and say: Rig the process.

Did Trump call them and tell them to do this? I mean, this is so unbelievably wrong.

The gentleman from Oklahoma has said some Members have very strong moral objections to assisting Ukraine. Okay. I have strong moral objections to the billions and billions of dollars of blank checks that were given to the Pentagon.

I have strong moral objections to the fact that we refuse to ban the transfer of cluster munitions to other countries around the world, but guess what? It is our job as Members of Congress to weigh the pros and cons and vote yes or no. If people do not want to make those tough decisions, don't run for Congress.

I appreciate that the gentleman from Oklahoma voted for and supports giving Ukraine the tools they need to defend themselves, but what the gentleman is doing here is making it exponentially more likely that this Ukraine funding will not become law.

Because if this doesn't make a difference, if these bills are moving together and this is all just about giving people yet another chance to vote on something they already voted on, what is the point?

The rule provides 30 minutes of debate on this sidecar Ukraine funding bill, 30 minutes, 15 minutes on each side. What a debate that is going to be.

I will tell you what the point of all of this is. Let me read you the words of our colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene when she left the Republican Conference meeting this morning. She told the reporter: ``We are not funding Ukraine. That is what I heard in there.''

Let me inform the gentlewoman: We all had a chance to vote our conscience, up or down. Those who voted to strike Ukraine aid can go home and tell their constituents that they voted to strike Ukraine aid. It is not that complicated.

What concerns many of us is the signal these extreme MAGA Republicans are sending to Putin. Putin is an authoritarian thug. What he is doing in Ukraine is sick. His troops are shelling nuclear power plants, killing civilians, bombing hospitals, abducting women, massacring people. My MAGA colleagues want to send him a message, and that message is: Just hold on a little longer. Wait a little longer and you can do whatever you want.

This House had a vote, and we are here to overturn it, all because Speaker McCarthy is letting extreme MAGA Republicans blackmail him because he cares more about keeping his job than doing his job.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my good friend from Oklahoma, and he knows I have great affection for him, but I am dizzy from all the spin, quite frankly.

First, about the CR, what we know is that what may or may not pass in the House, based on the fact that the Freedom Caucus seems to be calling the shots, will never pass the Senate. We know whatever will come out of the Rules Committee in the next 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever, if anything, if ever, will not be able to get the votes not just amongst Democrats but amongst Republicans in the Senate.

Secondly, we do know that the Senate is working in a bipartisan way. They already have clotured and moved forward with the process to bring up a CR, with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, but we know what they pass would pass this House if put on the floor. The reason why this government will, in all likelihood, shut down is because the Speaker of the House is so beholden to a small group of the most extreme Members that he won't put that on the floor. He will rig it so that we do not have a chance to be able to vote on it. That is how this government will shut down.

My good friend talks about how this is really no big deal. It is just another vote, and everybody should be happy, but let me ask, if this were good for Ukraine and Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia's illegal war, then why would members of the pro-Putin caucus even agree to this? If everyone genuinely thought there was no difference between keeping the funding in the Defense bill and moving it separately, why insist on all of this?

The answer is really simple: Republicans who seem to be enamored with Putin want this funding sent separately to the Senate because they know that is their best shot to prevent this money from going to Ukraine at all.

In fact, when Marjorie Taylor Greene left the Republican Conference meeting this morning--I quoted her already, but I will quote it again. She said: ``We are not funding Ukraine. That is what I heard in there.''

Plus, we all know that there are Senators like Rand Paul and Tommy Tuberville who will block a separate Ukraine funding bill from moving forward. They are actively preventing the Senate from completing its work as we speak. This is not a flaw in the sidecar plan. It is a main feature and a goal.

Let's be clear. This funding that we are talking about here is longstanding security assistance. It has been in the Defense bill for years, even before Putin invaded Ukraine. This is not the supplemental funding that President Zelenskyy requested when he met with Speaker McCarthy last week. This is not the supplemental funding the administration requested in their emergency funding request. It is not the supplemental funding that the Senate is trying to put in their bipartisan CR.

Spare me the argument that somehow this is a good thing and gives everybody a chance for their voice to be heard on this topic. If everybody wanted their voice to be heard on this topic, you would have speaker after speaker right now speaking on this bill and speaking about their concerns about our Ukraine policy. There is no one over there.

Let's all be real about what is happening. The House already had its voice heard, and it overwhelmingly voted to support funding in the Defense bill, a three-fourths majority. You can't get that many people to agree on lunch in this place, and it is a majority of your majority. The pro-Putin extremists didn't like the outcome, so they talked the Speaker into rigging the vote. That is what this is all about.

Mr. Speaker, I am here to offer the House the opportunity to demonstrate for a third time that we stand by Ukraine in their time of need, and I urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment that would strike the provision of the rule eliminating security assistance funding for Ukraine.

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Mr. McGOVERN. McCollum) to discuss this proposal.

Mr. Speaker, I have nothing but great affection for the gentleman from Oklahoma, but we have to deal with the reality that we are now living in.

This quote from Minority Leader McConnell was just tweeted out today with a message to the House Republicans on how a shutdown would impact the border. Mr. McConnell says: ``Shutting down the government is a choice, and it is a choice that would make the crisis at the southern border even worse.''

He says it is a choice because he sees what is happening here. He sees that the Republicans in this Chamber have made a choice to shut the government down. We didn't hear anything today about the border, but yesterday or the day before we did hear a lot about the border. Senator McConnell says that it would make the crisis at our southern border even worse.

He is concerned. He is the Republican leader in the Senate. He is concerned by the action of the Republicans in this House. He sees that a small group of Republicans are calling the shots. They don't even represent the majority of the majority here. It is really quite extraordinary that we are at this moment.

Rather than moving in a direction where we can get a bipartisan CR passed in both the House and the Senate and one that will be signed by the President, my Republican friends in the House are going in the wrong direction. We are running out of time.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of Democrats were sounding the alarm bells over the debt ceiling issue because our credit was actually downgraded. That is not a good thing. After we got a deal, which thank God we did, the extreme MAGA Republicans blackmailed the Speaker of the House into not respecting that deal. We have a problem right now.

I should also point out that we had a long discussion on the border, and I am still puzzled why you are bringing a Homeland Security appropriations bill to the floor that actually cuts funding for border security. I don't quite get that.

You added a provision that says that if you pass an appropriations bill on Homeland Security, it is kept at the desk, and it can't go to the Senate for a vote unless this crazy bill, H.R. 2, is passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President, without even changing a comma. I don't know what brilliant legislative mind thought that up. The bottom line is, this is not serious.

Let me again read a quote from Senator McConnell. He said: A vote against a standard short-term funding measure is a vote against paying over $1 billion in salary for CBP and ICE agents.

I don't know how my Republican friends are going to defend the border. Maybe with volunteers. Come on; I mean, at some point we have to get serious.

Let me also just say--and, again, you can't make this stuff up-- Republicans are holding their first impeachment hearing today with just hours to go until a shutdown.

What is wrong with them?

Breaking news indicates it was a failure. The hearing was a total failure. Republican staffers are telling reporters that it was, ``an unmitigated disaster.''

Another GOP staffer says, ``Comer has lost control.''

Another GOP person said, ``Comer botched this bad.''

This was supposed to be their big bombshell, and it was a total dud. Not a single one of their witnesses could come up with a shred of evidence against the President.

Let's see what they said. Their lead witness, Jonathan Turley, who they roll out every chance they can, was on FOX News constantly, said: I do not believe that the current evidence would support Articles of Impeachment. That is their star witness.

Their other lead witness, Bruce Dubinsky, said: I am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing.

The list of Members on the other side saying this impeachment inquiry is a sham is getting longer and longer by the hour, and the clock keeps ticking toward a shutdown. Instead of a bipartisan CR that can pass, here we are wasting time.

Again, the gentleman mentioned what is wrong with sending this separate bill to the Senate. I thought I explained that. Let me explain it in two words: Paul and Tuberville. I mean, these Senators are unhinged. Tuberville is holding up military promotions and Paul delays everything. We see that he is trying to delay Senate consideration on the CR.

Sending this over and expecting that there is quick action? I mean, we all know what is going to happen, and we all know that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who insisted on this, did so because they think they have a better chance of derailing everything.

I find it interesting, Mr. Speaker, that nobody put their name on this amendment. I don't know whose idea this was. I don't know who the author of this particular provision is to strip out Ukraine money, but anyway, that is a mystery that we will have to try to solve.

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Mr. McGOVERN. How much time do I have remaining, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma. I think he did the best job he could defending this. He is very skillful in utilizing the English language. I always appreciate listening to him on these matters, but we all know what this is really about.

We all had a chance to vote our conscience up or down. Those who voted to strike Ukraine aid can go home and tell their constituents they voted to strike Ukraine's aid. It is not that complicated.

The fact of the matter is, Republicans have not done a single productive thing this week. They passed only one appropriations bill all year, and they are sitting here wasting time while the clock runs out.

It is not just me saying that. Listen to our Republican colleagues. Listen to Mike Lawler. He said, ``This is not conservative Republicanism. This is stupidity, the idea we are going to shut the government down when we don't control the Senate, we don't control the White House. If the clown show of colleagues that refuse to actually govern does not want to pass a CR, I will do everything we need to do to make sure a CR passes.''

Congressman Marc Molinaro says, ``The goal here is to avert a shutdown.'' Guess what? This procedural vote is his chance to stand up and show the extremists. Instead of wasting our time in the clown show, vote against this rule.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito says he is ready to explore each and every option possible to make sure that we don't shut the government down. If Mr. D'Esposito is watching, vote against this rule.

Congressman Dusty Johnson says, ``The government should not shut down. That would be an exceptionally stupid thing to do.'' Well, I agree. He should vote down this rule so we can get to work on preventing a shutdown.

I am going to say directly to all of my colleagues, this vote is their chance to end the clown show. The only thing that matters around here is their votes. Everything else is BS. Maybe they should focus less on getting quotes and more on how they vote. Vote against this clown show. Vote against this rule.

By the way, it works. It works for the Freedom Caucus and for the most extreme elements of this Chamber. They vote down rules, and they get these crazy things put into rules. They get everything they want. It is enough of the talk. If there are moderate Republicans out there who do not want this government to shut down, now is the time to put their vote where their rhetoric is. Enough of the talk. We need action.

Finally, let me say to the chairman of the Rules Committee, the chairman said 5 days ago, ``We will see how this week unfolds.'' Well, this week has unfolded, and the Republican Party is still at war with itself. We are still no closer to avoiding a shutdown.

What is happening here is so painfully transparent to anyone that is watching. It is because all Kevin McCarthy seems to care about is keeping his job. He should care about what a shutdown would do to his constituents, but he doesn't. He appears to care more about keeping his job than doing his job.

As I said last night, and I will say again, calling Republican leadership a clown show is doing a disservice to actual working clowns. This process is one of the most rotten, corrupt, rigged things I have seen in all my time here. Shame on the Speaker. I have never seen anything like this: Using the rules to overturn a democratic vote on the House floor. Again, the vote was 339-93. 339-93. I mean, we don't get votes like that around here. Yet, one Member--we don't even know who is responsible for the language that we are dealing with here today. No one put their name on it, but this is awful, and I strongly reject this whole process.

I again make an appeal to the moderate Republicans, if there are any out there, you know, stand with us, show us with their vote that they want things to change now, that they do not want a shutdown. Vote down this sham rule and force the leadership to go back up to the Rules Committee and do what they should have done a long time ago, work on a CR that can get a bipartisan vote in the House, a bipartisan vote in the Senate, and we can avoid a shutdown, and we can prevent a lot of misery for millions and millions of people in this country.

Shutdowns, contrary to what you hear by many on the other side of the aisle, are a bad thing. It represents a failure of this institution to do its most basic job, and that is keep the lights on. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

A recorded vote was ordered.

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