-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate has spent months considering supplemental action to meet serious, connected threats to America's national security.
As I have said from the outset, our work needs to address four urgent challenges: Putin's war on a sovereign democracy in Europe; the terror campaign against Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East; China's aggressive escalation against Taiwan and peaceful nations in the Indo- Pacific; and the Biden administration's continuing failure to contend with the crisis at our southern border.
Senate Republicans' focus on securing the border didn't just begin this fall. We have watched for 3 years as the border descended into chaos on President Biden's watch. And for 3 years, we have urged his administration to fulfill even its most basic responsibility to enforce our immigration laws.
Anyone who suggests that Senate Republicans are injecting the issue of border security into this discussion at the last minute either isn't serious or hasn't been paying attention.
Continuing to pretend that upholding American sovereignty is any less urgent than helping our allies and partners defend theirs is reckless. Borders in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are every bit as inviolable as those in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. And the sooner our Democratic colleagues realize it, the sooner we can deliver on urgent national security priorities.
Now, needless to say, America's adversaries aren't waiting for us to get serious about our own security. In the South China Sea, for example, the PRC is increasingly using aggressive posturing and outright force to disrupt peace, stability, and lawful maritime commerce.
Beijing now greets lawful passage in international waters with threatening, unsafe conduct and hyperventilating bluster and continues to undermine the long-established territorial claims of sovereign nations throughout Southeast Asia.
Unfortunately, China is not the only adversary stepping up its aggression in the maritime domain. Iran and its network of terrorists continue to illustrate the failures of the Biden administration's deterrence in dangerous detail. On Sunday, a U.S. Navy destroyer and Israeli-flagged commercial vessels came under fire from the same Houthi rebels this administration had inexplicably taken off--off--its list of terror organizations when it took office. This was, of course, a concession to Iran.
Of course, terrorist violence at sea is only the latest in a laundry list of Iran-backed attempts to kill Americans in the region since October 7. At least 77 times, Tehran's proxies have used lethal force against U.S. personnel in Iraq and in Syria, just since October 7.
By any objective standard, the Biden administration's response has been woefully inadequate. Tehran remains demonstrably undeterred. As President Obama's former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta put it last week: ``I would be much more aggressive.''
So effective deterrence requires both capabilities and credibility. And America can't hope to deter our adversaries if we signal hesitation and fear of escalation.
Consider the enemy we are up against. One of Hamas's top terrorists in Gaza told the media recently that the slaughter of Israelis on October 7 was ``just a rehearsal''--a bloody rehearsal that left 1,200 innocent people dead and hundreds more in terrorist captivity.
These savages--savages--mean what they say about erasing Israel from the map. But this is not just Israel's fight. Today, at least eight Americans are still being held hostage in Gaza. And if Iran and its proxies get their way, there will be more Americans killed and captured.
This is not--not--a time to go soft on terror. This is not a time to put constraints on Israel. This is a time to support your friends and stand up to your adversaries.
As the Senate considers urgent national security for priorities, our adversaries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are watching closely what we do.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source