Provision of Costs of Loan Guarantees for Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member of the full committee, Mrs. Lowey, for yielding me this time.

I am very proud of the Appropriations Committee at this moment for bringing the first bill to the floor that stands with freedom-lovers in Ukraine and around our world. We know a threat to liberty anywhere is a threat to liberty everywhere, and I rise in heartfelt support of this loan guarantee legislation to allow Ukraine time to stabilize and secure its liberty.

This money will be repaid, and I commend the bipartisan leadership of this House in acting with dispatch. President Obama and Secretary Kerry have been working overtime on Ukraine's crisis to exert every effort to bring the nations of the free world together in their mutual self-interest, and that interest is liberty.

There are some Russian violations of international law in treaties that are so abhorrent they demand the strongest action. Russia's invasion of its undefended neighbor, Ukraine, cannot be allowed to stand. The now-20-year-old Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurance, signed in 1994 by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine, set the path for Ukraine to give up thousands of nuclear weapons, and she remains undefended because of it.

The Budapest Accords welcomed the accession of Ukraine to the treaty of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons as a nonnuclear weapons state, so her inability to defend herself against such a powerful neighbor is very clear.

This week, in a joint statement, leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and our country said:

We join together today to condemn the Russian Federation's clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in contravention of Russia's obligations under the UN Charter and its 1997 basing agreement with Ukraine.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.

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