Providing for Consideration of H.R. Rights for the Transportation Security Administration Workforce Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding.

This Ukraine supplemental in this rule authorizes an additional $40 billion to provide defense articles and services, humanitarian aid, and financial support.

I do believe it is important that Western countries continue to support Ukraine in its fight against its barbaric aggressors, but honestly, do we not deserve a plan? Does the administration not need to come to us with where we are going with this?

This is an additional $40 billion on top of the several billion dollars that have already been spent.

Look, it was just 10 months ago that we were all on a conference call with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. They assured us that the government in Afghanistan was solid, and they were going to be okay. At the same time, we are all getting alerts on our phones that the government in Afghanistan is headed for the exits with all of our money.

Then it was October of this year with the clear signs that Vladimir Putin was amassing on the borders around Ukraine, and there was no solid discussion about whether or not this was important for the United States and whether or not we should do anything to counteract that.

Indeed, there were approvals for some transfer of weaponry, but it was slow to get there. Then the President made the unfortunate statement that a small incursion would perhaps be okay. The same Secretary of Defense and the same Secretary of State told us that this all would likely be over in 3 days' time, but they didn't take into account the nationality, the spirit of President Zelenskyy and his countrymen, who said: No, this is not going to happen in our country.

Look, none of us can predict the future, but truly the Biden administration really does need to justify the use of American resources as this conflict unfolds.

Is there a plan for when this supplemental funding runs out?

Will the United States defense production keep up with Ukrainian demand?

Who is keeping count on the number of Stingers and Javelin missiles that are leaving our stockpiles that should be defending our homeland? Are we depleting those so severely that we wouldn't be able to respond should we need to?

Are we providing resources that will give Ukraine an asymmetric advantage to eventually win this war? If we are not doing that, how long are we going to ask the American people to continue to fund the status quo?

Look, Russia advancing beyond Ukraine's borders into NATO territory would almost certainly also draw the United States into a war in Europe. But let me stress: That is a war in Europe. Where is the rest of Europe in this? We all want to prevent that outcome. We cannot let Vladimir Putin create this new world order in which he is the new tyrant of the world. To defeat him, we have to be united in our goals, united in the expenditure of American resources in support of those goals, and we have to have a plan that we are confident is being followed.

It is not lost on me that this amount of money that we are asking to appropriate in an emergency fashion today is exactly one-half of the dollar amount of the weaponry that was abandoned in Afghanistan, abandoned to our enemies. Let's not find ourselves in that situation again.

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