Ukraine Security Assistance and Oversight Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

The Speaker and this House have catered to the extreme right again because they refuse to write a Defense bill that can get bipartisan support. So, here we are again, debating Ukraine security assistance.

As I said during the rules debate, we debated this funding twice yesterday. The Biggs amendment was rejected by the House by a vote of 104-330, and the Gaetz amendment was rejected by this House 93-339.

We debated this. This House considered similar amendments in the National Defense Authorization Act earlier this summer. At that time, the Greene amendment was rejected by a vote of 89-341, and the Gaetz amendment was rejected by 70-385.

These amendments were rejected because a majority of this House stands for preserving democracy. We stand for working with our democratic allies in preventing Vladimir Putin from seizing land through force, and these amendments were rejected because of the strong, bipartisan support for including consistent funding for Ukraine in the base Defense bill.

The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative has been part of the base bill since fiscal year 2015. The support has included training for Ukrainian troops, munitions, spare parts for vehicles, weapon systems, and medical supplies, and the Department of Defense has mechanisms in place to monitor our assistance.

That is the work of the DOD Security Assistance Group-Ukraine. I also have traveled, and I traveled with subcommittee Republicans and Democrats to review how the training and equipping the Ukrainians were moving forward because, I agree, congressional oversight is important.

The funding has been critical to ensure that Ukrainians could withstand Vladimir Putin's invasion last year. Congress began this support after Russia's unprovoked, illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Five different chairs of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee across both parties have consistently included this funding in the base Defense appropriation bill, and that includes Chairman Calvert, myself last Congress, and Chairwoman Granger when she chaired the subcommittee.

We included this funding because Vladimir Putin is a bully. He threatens just not Ukraine but global stability. Putin uses paramilitary groups like the brutal Wagner organization to destabilize African nations using murder, rape, and torture to achieve his foreign policy goals.

In February 2022, Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine and overthrow this democratically elected government. Russia deliberately fired cruise missiles into apartment buildings, shopping malls, schools, daycare centers, and even hospitals.

It is clear: Putin is a war criminal, and he must be confronted. That is why this Congress has consistently included funding as a priority in this base bill--to help Ukraine fight back against this illegal, unjust invasion of their territory. It is important that we, along with our allies, continue to support their fight for freedom.

The rest of the world is watching, including other authoritarian nations, as to how the United States, NATO, and other allies continue to support Ukraine.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me and others bipartisanly to support this bill one more time again and vote for supporting Ukraine.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. DeLauro), ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Kaptur), a leader in the Ukrainian Caucus here in the U.S. Congress.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times this week, this Congress has consistently provided this funding for the last 9 fiscal years. I hope we will work hard to make sure that this funding returns in conference back to the base bill in the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

Providing training and equipment to Ukraine has helped them withstand Russia's full scale invasion, and continuing this support in the base bill on a bipartisan basis is important to maintaining that effort.

I had the privilege of meeting women from Ukraine who are in the Ukrainian ambulance corps. They drive around in subcompacts. They drive around without bulletproof vests and whatever first aid equipment they can find firsthand to save lives.

I have had the honor and privilege of meeting people who are going through our training courses that we do with NATO in Germany, as the chair was referring to. I had the privilege before the invasion happened in February 2022 of meeting the mayor of Kyiv where he was just asking if he could make sure that the United States had the right caliber bullets for the hunting rifles and some of the guns that the Ukrainian citizens in Kyiv and the surrounding areas had so they could support their military should the invasion occur. We did that. It was an honor to work with those who made sure that that happened.

Mr. Speaker, recently I had a friend in Nisswa, Minnesota, who was returning home from Kyiv where she had not only time to spend with her mother and go mushroom hunting and watch firsthand the post-traumatic stress that her family is dealing with, but saying goodbye to a cousin who is returning to the front lines after healing from a wound.

Ukrainians are fighting. They are fighting for their very existence, and they are fighting for their strongly held democratic values that we share and, as I said, for their very existence. They are standing up to an authoritarian bully, and we should continue to stand up with them and support them in the ways we have been doing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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