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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, two or three times lately, I have been coming to the floor to have a conversation with my colleagues on the subject of national security.

Remember, all of us, that wars are being waged right now in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and I presume elsewhere on this globe. We have uncertainty and unrest looming on the horizon in the South China Sea and the Horn of Africa.

There are also serious national security concerns right here in the United States. For the last 3 years, our own southern border, hundreds of thousands of migrants from around the world have come to America without our permission, including people on the Terrorist Watchlist.

Earlier this month, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of NATO, the most successful military alliance in modern history. Winston Churchill sowed the seeds for the idea of NATO. He did this in the aftermath of the failed League of Nations. He delivered his speech called ``Sinews of Peace''-- he did this in America's heartland--a famous speech at a college campus in Fulton, MO.

Churchill spoke of two great dangers that imperil the hearth and home of common people. Those two dangers are war and tyranny. In his speech, he called for a military coalition to build what he called a ``temple of peace'' that would be, as he said in a quote, a ``force for action, and not merely a frothing of words.'' That was Churchill's way of saying a blueprint for peace that actually worked.

No European NATO member was invaded post-World War II because of NATO. By contrast, the nations that wanted to be very aggressive during the Cold War, particularly the Soviet Union, instigated conflicts in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but they didn't mess around with Europe. Churchill's words of wisdom, then, stand the test the time.

I would like to further quote Churchill:

From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.

The fall of the Iron Curtain opened the lane to freedom, symbolizing victory over tyranny that we must never take for granted. It is no secret that Russian President Vladimir Putin--remember, a former KGB officer--wants to resurrect the Soviet Empire from the ash heap of history. You can consider Russia's recent timeline of aggression.

In 2008, Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia. In 2014, Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine. And then 3 years ago, Putin launched what we now know as a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Appeasement was a key ingredient in Putin's recipe for Russian expansion.

Let's not forget that Russia marked NATO's 75th anniversary-- celebrated here in Washington, DC--by, at that time, launching 40 missiles into Ukraine, targeting a children's hospital, killing scores of innocent civilians. Putin very much has hitched his horse to America's foreign adversaries by getting supplies for his war efforts from China, Iran, and North Korea--kind of the 21st century axis similar to Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. Just as dangerous for us now as that other axis was dangerous and brought great conflict during World War II.

With global conflicts and terrorist threats in mind, history must inform our Nation's path forward. History shows a strong U.S. military is an impenetrable instrument of peace. A weakened U.S. military is, for sure, an invitation for our foreign adversaries to keep pushing the envelope.

Now, make no mistake, Russia and Russian allies' mission is to do whatever it takes to undermine the United States as a leader of the free world. We didn't seek that title--being leader of the free world-- but we learned the hard way that allowing dictators to get away with aggression eventually threatens American freedom.

This brings me back then to square one. The core responsibility of the Federal Government is national security, and that fundamental responsibility begins and ends with a strong national defense. An impenetrable U.S. military safeguards America's food security, energy security, infrastructure security, and cyber security.

In a nutshell, the U.S. Armed Forces are the nucleus for peace and prosperity at home and abroad. So when the Senate takes up the must- pass National Defense Authorization Act and the Defense appropriations bill, I urge my colleagues to invest in America. Doing so will cement our national security interests for generations to come.

First, we must enhance pay and benefits for members of the military and their families. Next, we must restock America's arsenal and boost our military preparedness.

In recent decades, Washington has allowed our Armed Forces to lose their wartime footing. When we lose our footing on any one of those rungs, know that our enemies are circling the waters to take us down a notch.

My colleague from Mississippi, Senator Wicker, serves as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I reviewed his plan that outlines where the U.S. military most needs defense dollars.

As it stands, the United States is ill-equipped to meet the emerging global threats to our national security. Senator Wicker's blueprint would put us back on the right path to secure peace through strength. The plan estimates that the annual defense budget needs to grow to 5 percent of gross domestic product.

Our defense spending as a share of GDP has been falling and is nearing a historic low. Meanwhile, many of our European NATO allies have been dramatically increasing defense expenditures because they see how dangerous the world has become.

Another key NATO metric is the percentage of defense funds going toward equipment--in other words, warfighting capability. The United States is in the bottom of the pack among our NATO allies on this very score.

It is no coincidence that the United States became the leader of the free world by leveraging its commitment to peace around the world through unassailable military power.

In the first quarter of the 21st century and a key period in history, America stands at the crossroads. We cannot bury our heads in the sand when China's spending on defense is on a pace to match our own country. And that is according to estimates from our intelligence community.

To be sure, China is plotting to leapfrog America as the global superpower: China leveraging every tool at its disposal, China infiltrating our education system, China manipulating data on TikTok, China deploying debt-trap diplomacy, and, finally, China unleashing military exercises in the Taiwan Straits and even close to Alaska, in the Bering Sea.

We can't afford to ignore what is really obvious: A diminished military puts our national security at risk and our troops very much in harm's way.

Today, I call upon my colleagues here in the Congress to stand by our duty and our constitutional obligation of national security being the No. 1 responsibility of the Federal Government. We must stand shoulder to shoulder to meet this moment. In fact, we have a responsibility to do so on behalf of our constituents and, more importantly, getting future generations protected, and that is a long-term responsibility.

As Senator Wicker's report details, we must modernize U.S. nuclear programs, revive homeland defense sites, and restore the U.S. Navy and fleet readiness. And we need to bolster the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, bring Cyber Command up to speed, and provide our servicemembers better training, technology, and modernized munitions to fulfill their missions.

There is no time for dillydallying. Right now, our foreign adversaries are cobbling alliances to skirt sanctions, undermine freedom, and secure their own self-interests.

In closing, I will finish with three messages. First, we can avoid war by anticipating war. Second, preparing for war does not mean writing a blank check to the Pentagon. You can be sure that I will continue my oversight work to get the most bang for our defense buck. Thirdly, we must respond to the writing on the wall. If we allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security about our military power, historians will write about America's twilight instead of an American-led 21st century.

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