Motion to Discharge--S.J. Res. 77

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, later today, we will vote on whether to go forward with the arms sales that the administration notified the Congress of a few weeks ago. These would be arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, equipment sales. These sales clearly would continue the 20 years of growth in our relationship, working side by side against common concerns and common enemies.

This really goes back through three different administrations, going back to 9/11 and beyond, where the UAE has consistently been willing to stand with us in at least six long-term deployments. They come; they stay. They are side by side with us in the field. They have been with us in the air. They are flying what has previously been our best piece of aircraft at a level that we would share it with other countries that are friends of ours.

This sale will continue that. It continues to allow even more interoperability between the United States and the UAE and Israel.

Israel, by the way, is totally supportive of this sale. The Ambassador from the United Arab Emirates and the Ambassador from Israel earlier this week had a public event where they both talked about the support of Israel for this sale.

As you know very well, our law requires a quantitative advantage for Israel when we sell them equipment. We have even a slightly different advantage, but being able to continue this relationship is important.

The F-35 jets, the MQ-9 unarmed aerial vehicles, advanced munitions-- I think the total sale is about $23.5 billion. And this is not any kind of gift from the United States to the UAE. This is the UAE making a purchase totaling $23.5 billion for equipment that is made by American companies and almost always by American workers.

In August, we had the first breakthrough in a diplomatic sense in the Middle East in a long time. President Trump deserves credit for that. Israel deserves credit for that. But the UAE deserves credit for that. The Abraham accords, where the UAE formally recognized Israel, began to have flights back and forth and other things that were significant in changing the environment in the Middle East, the most difficult part of the world--the greatest breakthrough in 40 years. But that followed a number of breakthroughs that weren't quite as public, where this relationship has grown--the Israel relationship with the UAE--just like our relationship has gotten stronger over time.

To see the recognition of the two governments together, to see Bahrain follow that--I think we are going to see other countries in the area decide that a region that lives in peace with Israel is a good thing for everybody involved, not a bad thing for anybody. So it is important.

I think how the Congress deals with this is significant. We have been notified as the law requires us to be notified. Under this notification process, I don't believe any sale has been denied, and only one sale has been altered.

The President has to agree. So if we debate this for hours and somehow it narrowly passes and the President vetoes it and we don't have the votes to override the veto, which I am confident we would not have--in fact, I think we very likely have the votes to go ahead and deal with this right here, right now. It is the right thing to do. It is the right time to do it. We will never have more of a long-term runway of how things under the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and the Trump administration have continued to progress to where the UAE has become a trusted ally.

Now, they have become a trusted ally and a trusted diplomatic partner in this important breakthrough. Having this kind of equipment not only allows us to be interoperable, but frankly, it creates the opportunities for American military and American technicians to be working with them every time you have an upgrade, every time you have a significant maintenance issue. That just further enhances, as does working through how that equipment is used afterwards--all of that further enhances the constant dialogue, the constant reinforcement of our friends who see common enemies and are working directly to move their country and their region in a much better direction.

I hope that the Senate today does what it needs to do and sends that message that we understand what Israel would like to see happen, what the UAE would like to see happen, and, frankly, what will happen and happens better if this debate focuses more on what that outcome produces, rather than a debate that makes people wonder exactly what do you have to do to continue to be a trusted partner of the United States.

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