Durbin Urges Republicans To Pass The National Security Supplemental Funding Request To Aid Our Ukrainian Ally

Floor Speech

"Thirty-six years ago, President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate that separated East from West Berlin and he said to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' Only a few years after his historic speech, the Soviet Union collapsed, bringing in decades of freedom and prosperity in Eastern Europe and a welcome end to the Cold War. Now, there comes a man named Vladimir Putin who is clumsily and dangerously trying to regain that dystopian Soviet glory with a bloody war in Ukraine. So, I can only wonder what President Reagan would be thinking now with so many of his Republican Party members refusing to support critical military assistance to keep Ukraine from falling to Russian tyranny.

Yes, we have other legislative needs in Congress. But refusing to support the forces of freedom in Ukraine in a war against a resurgent evil empire in the name of partisanship is nothing short of reckless. It is not hard to understand how we got here. Putin gambled and lost a botched attempt to quickly overthrow Ukraine. Now he has to juggle a formidable Ukrainian resistance, huge losses of Russian conscripts, isolation on the global stage, a struggling economy, domestic opposition, and an upcoming election in Russia he needs to rig again to stay in power… And so, given his tenuous position, what is one of his greatest opportunities for clinging to power? His hope that the partisan chaos in the United States Congress will stall or end support for Ukraine.

The White House was clear in warning that the United States is "out of money to support Ukraine in this fight.' And President Zelenskyy told us the obvious: Ukraine will lose without American support. So, this is not abstract political theater. What we do has consequences--global and historic consequences. As such, I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to think long and hard about what President Reagan would say today about showing weakness to Vladimir Putin. Let's not flinch when it comes to standing up to such obvious threats to freedom. It's time to pass President Biden's national security supplemental request."

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