Providing for Consideration of H.R. Ukraine Security Assistance and Oversight Supplemental Appropriations Act, Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Department of Defense Appropriations Act, and Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, if you support Ukraine, you cannot support this rule. My overarching concern here is for Ukraine. I mean, let's start with the fact that there is a Ukrainian supplemental that is needed to continue our support that the House Republicans are refusing to bring to the floor in any form, and they have given no indication whatsoever that they are going to bring that bill to the floor.

That is frustrating because we have had a number of votes on support for Ukraine, and it is very apparent that over 300 Members of this body support that, an overwhelming majority of Republicans. Yet, as of October 1, our ability to continue to support Ukraine also dies.

For all those Members on the other side of the aisle who support Ukraine, why are you letting that support die? Why aren't you insisting on moving forward with some kind of vote on the supplemental to help them?

Let's focus on this particular rule. What this rule does is it takes out the funding for Ukraine. If you support Ukraine, you can't vote for this rule because it undoes the vote that we did yesterday. It very publicly, for Putin and all the world to see, shows the U.S. House voting to cut the funding for Ukraine. That is what it does. The only reason it is here is because the people who don't support Ukraine want it to be here.

Now, tip of the hat to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and all the other folks who don't support Ukraine, who seem sympathetic to Putin for reasons that I really don't want to think about, are forcing this vote to advance their interests, and that is fine.

However, for all the people who claim to support Ukraine on the other side of the aisle, how can they vote to take out the money that they voted in favor of yesterday? I share the chairman's mystification at what is going on here.

Now, I know there is a separate bill that will then fund Ukraine except that that separate bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. It is not going anywhere. Also, the vote on the rule, the rule strips out the money from Ukraine. That is what it does. It undoes the vote from yesterday.

Believe me, the Russians are good at propaganda. I have seen this propaganda, and I guarantee you that what they will use and what a lot of our allies will wonder about, why did the United States House vote to strip the money away from Ukraine that it had voted for the day before? It will be played as America backing off of its commitment from Ukraine.

If you support Ukraine, you have to vote ``no.'' The people who don't support Ukraine are the ones who brought this motion. It is a free world. If you want to not support Ukraine, that is fine. Good for you for advancing this. However, the people who support Ukraine standing up here and voting for this? It is just unbelievable to me that we would undermine the support for Ukraine given how important that fight is.

We should support Ukraine. Please vote against this rule.

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