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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I don't expect this to be the best formed set of remarks that I have ever made on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and I would guess that they could be refined and improved--and maybe somebody will edit them and make them in a better form--but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to express my views in regard to several things that occurred in the U.S. Senate, in the Congress, in this country last week.

I think our country faces perhaps the greatest challenges ever faced in my lifetime, certainly in my time as an elected official. It seems to me that the array of challenges from our adversaries are real, are increasing, and are threatening.

I have always been an optimist. I expect us to be able to do the things necessary to change the course of history, to make sure that the United States remains the country that it is today.

Perhaps my fears arise because Robba and I are now grandparents. Perhaps it is this love of another generation and the desire to see that they experience the things that I have been able to experience in my lifetime.

I want to highlight a recent and important essay penned by a former Secretary of Defense. Robert Gates, a fellow Kansan, warns of our government dysfunction at a moment in history in which our Nation confronts graver threats to its security than it has in past decades-- perhaps ever.

Our constituents, from time to time, pay attention to what we do here, but I want us to recognize that perhaps even more intently, our adversaries pay attention to what we do or don't do here.

What we do and how we do it either strengthens or harms the future of the United States. It can increase the trust placed in us by our allies or it can embolden our adversaries because if I am right, our future is in the balance, and we need to work to increase those who decide to be on the side of freedom and liberty, of stability, of a better life for all people. We need to be the leader of a coalition that understands the values and the American ideals and how they alter lives, and we need to make certain that those who should be on the side of right are not sitting on the fence.

During my time in the U.S. Senate, I have never been more angry or more sullen than those few days that week or so in which our country left Afghanistan. Our unprepared actions and void of leadership resulted in the deaths of Americans, American servicemembers, and it stranded thousands of Afghans--Afghan allies--behind enemy lines. I raise this because I want to tie it to what may now be happening here. Those few days may have been among the most costly in emboldening those who seek our country's demise, and I fear today that we are about to again demonstrate to the world our feckless ambivalence to lead. I don't want us to lead as a superior or to be in the face of our allies, but I want people who care, countries that believe in peace and prosperity and freedom around the globe to be part of an alliance that the United States is an important component of.

Normally, when we think about the challenges we face from adversaries abroad, we would think: Well, it is time to increase defense spending. We need more assets. We need to make our military stronger. My view-- and I believe the correct view--is that is true. But of equal importance, we need to demonstrate resolve, resolve in the support of allies and resolve in the resistance to enemies.

When I say that I fear today we are failing, I speak of the ambivalence of our commitment to support the efforts to repeal, repulse, remove the Putin invasion across the borders of Ukraine. Should we fail to live up to the necessary deeds and actions that need to be taken, in my view, we are once again replicating the message that we sent in our chaotic and unfortunate manner in which we withdrew from Afghanistan. To my colleagues who might criticize one but look the other way to the other, I think it is a view that cannot be sustained. Failure to do right, to do things right, is the same, and the consequences are the same. Leadership depends upon reliability.

Today, Americans cannot go it alone. We are not the only power in the world. The burdens of today's challenges are too immense to carry alone. Our allies are force multipliers, and failing to lead in Ukraine lets those most in danger--those in the neighborhood of Ukraine--change course and look elsewhere for a path forward.

It is always easier to duck responsibilities, but almost never is it the right course of action.

Our European allies and those elsewhere in the world continue to look to the United States of America for leadership. The end of American support to Ukraine would be another indication--just as I believe it was in our withdrawal from Afghanistan--that we are not the leaders that are necessary in today's dangerous world. Never do we want to be seen by those waiting to pick a side--we would never want them to reach the conclusion that the United States cannot be relied upon.

Another Cabinet Secretary just like Robert Gates--this one is from Wichita, KS, as well--former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and I penned a joint opinion piece. We made the case of helping Ukraine. While I pointed out how it matters to the world, what we pointed out is how it matters to America, to the American citizens and to the future of our country, and that we benefit, the United States, by the Ukrainians' success in their country.

All of this discussion last week about whether Ukraine should continue to receive funding was surrounded by another development in our body politic--in the way that we do business in this Congress and in the way that we make decisions about the right course forward. So let me tie to the concerns I have about the decision that was made in regard to Ukraine to the difficulties we had in what should be straightforward: funding the government into the future.

Every county commission, every school board, every city council in Kansas can come up with a budget and make decisions about the funding of their business, the funding of their purpose into the future, and we turned what should be routine decisions--I say ``routine,'' but they are decisions made with care and thought. There is no question that the spending path we are on is not sustainable. We are on a different path. Even the appropriations bills--the 13 that have passed the U.S. Committee on Appropriations--are on a different path than what we have been on in increasing spending.

Those are important decisions, but we don't need to manufacture a crisis to make a point. The crisis doesn't solve the spending problem. Yet, in so many instances, we look for the highlight, the television time, the social media responses that sometimes seem to reward the behavior that is the most disruptive and the least effective.

The challenges we face require setting aside unnecessary disagreement and disunion. Last week demonstrated our system as creating disunion when we need unity and common ground in a dangerous world. Of all the times that I would expect Americans and their elected officials to come together would be when we see the actions, when we know the dangerous nature of our world: when we see what China is doing and what its intentions seem to be; when we know what is taking place in Iran and their efforts around the globe; when Russia invades a neighboring country's borders; when North Korea fires missiles.

We have united as a nation numerous times in our history, and we need to return to those circumstances. When things are so different, Americans need to pull together, and that can happen if there is leadership here in Congress to do so.

Again, one would think--if you believe those challenges are real, as I do, and if you care about the next generation of your own family and Americans whom you will never meet, it seems to me that now would be the time to lower the temperature and to find that common ground that puts us in a position that we can be optimistic about our Nation's future. It doesn't mean that we don't face challenges, and it doesn't mean that we don't have disagreement. It does mean that there is value in finding a solution as compared to accentuating the differences on the evening news. It means explaining to our constituents why, yes, we disagree with a colleague from another State, why we disagree with the Democrats and we disagree with the Republicans and we think we are right. It doesn't mean giving up what you believe in or what you know to be right, but it means, isn't there a path by which we can turn down the fire and pull people together?

So last week--I am giving these remarks because I spent the weekend rethinking what transpired last Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and really what has transpired over a much longer period of time. I concluded that, at the first opportunity, I wanted to make the case that our future is bright, but it is only bright when we work together.

I would say that it is incumbent upon us to send a message--but it is more than that--send a message that we are a reliable partner, to encourage allies around the world to be helpful to Ukraine. The Europeans are now a little bit ahead of us in the support that they now envision now that they plan for support for Ukraine. We have asked for that. They have now moved in that direction, but it will disappear and disappear quickly if we don't demonstrate that we are going to do what we set out to accomplish.

By the way, we had a conversation about our borders. Our borders need desperate attention, and it is another national security issue. As we work to right the cause for America's well-being, enhancing Ukraine's chance for success in defeating Putin, we should also resolutely move forward in ending the failure to protect our own country on our own border.

We have work to do. We can look the other way or we can decide that we are going to do what, over the long period of time, is right. We can decide that it would be nice to be popular at the moment but that it would be better to be right in the long term.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in the U.S. Senate, and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve with the colleagues I do. Last week was a discouraging moment in my time in public service, but I am an optimist. And this week and next week and the next week that follows--the next 47 days--can be times of good work for the American people and a safer and more secure United States and world.

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