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Floor Speech

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Mr. RISCH. Madam President, I rise to speak on behalf of amendment No. 1055, and I am happy to be a cosponsor with Senators Wicker, Kennedy, Hawley, and Sinema. I am pleased we are able to come together on this. Everyone on this floor wants to see that not a penny is wasted in Ukraine or goes where it shouldn't go.

We have several audits going on there right now, as all of us know. This really strengthens the audit function we are doing. These are enhancements that do not duplicate or undermine the current IG structure. The IG structure is currently run by State, USAID, and DOD. This brings them together and puts them under one head.

Unfortunately, the Paul amendment, which we are going to vote on side by side next, would undermine their work. It duplicates the current oversight structure, creates permanent bureaucracy, extends to areas far outside of Ukraine, and tries to superimpose a structure designed for Afghanistan, which was a very different war than what we are involved in now.

Thanks to efforts of Members of both parties, in the past year, we have enacted 39 legislative oversight provisions covering all money that has been appropriated to support Ukraine since the war began. These provisions have led to the completion of 35 oversight evaluations thus far, and another 67 more are planned or underway. To date, there has not been any substantiated evidence of illicit weapons transfer or misuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The special inspector general for Afghanistan that Senator Paul's amendment proposes does not make sense for Ukraine. There are no U.S. forces fighting in Ukraine. Ukraine does not have the same security and defense concerns that Afghanistan did, and the war in Ukraine is dramatically smaller than the other war.

The State, DOD, and USAID have the capacity to do this.

This amendment is a good amendment. I would urge you to vote for this and against the next amendment.

I yield to Senator Wicker.

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