Moment of Crisis in Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, in a moment of crisis, the people of Ukraine and around the world are looking to the United States for support and leadership.

After an 80-day hiatus, Russia launched a wave of cruise missile attacks on Ukraine on the Remembrance Day of the Holodomor, which is a reflection of when the Soviet Union imposed a famine and killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933.

These attacks come just days after the Senate Republicans blocked funding for Ukraine and Israel. Putin is watching. He is enjoying these political fights, which is only giving him an advantage, he believes. His propaganda machine is celebrating the legislative blockade that is occurring as the first step to withdrawing total support for Ukraine. Believe it.

The United States must send a strong message to Putin that we stand strong and united with the people of Ukraine.

I have met with brave Ukrainian soldiers and their families who shared that our support has given them hope that Ukraine will win this fight. They will. Those who say Ukraine is losing the war are wrong. Putin's goal to conquer Ukraine has failed. Ukraine has regained 50 percent of the land Russia originally took and has reopened the Black Sea to allow them to export grain.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military has depleted the Russian army. From a total of over 480,000 soldiers, Russia has lost over 320,000 who have either been wounded or killed--think about that, over half their army-- forcing Putin to take coercive actions for new and inexperienced personnel, even people from prison, and has desperately turned to North Korea for supplies--all this at a cost for the United States of less than 1 percent of our GDP and all without U.S. troops on the ground. That is a very good deal.

Less than 10 percent of our annual defense budget has gone to assist Ukraine's military, and it has destroyed almost 50 percent of Russia's army. Compared to our allies in Europe, we rank 20th in giving to Ukraine, when you factor in GDP. We need to pass a supplemental aid package to provide immediate assistance, and we need to do it in an overwhelming bipartisan way as we have before.

We are living during a seminal moment in the history of America and the world we live in. Historians will look back years from now and determine whether or not we made more good decisions than poor decisions. This is an opportunity to make a good decision. We need to pass the supplemental package to provide immediate assistance that our ally Ukraine needs now.

We must provide humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians that have been afflicted by the war and for Armenian refugees who have been removed from their historical home in Nagorno-Karabakh.

We need to pass a package to let our European allies know that the United States is reliable and consistent in support of democracies around the world. The passage of this supplemental package also provides support for Taiwan and restores American military inventory that is so critical.

There is nothing more that Putin wants than to see this Congress and our country divided. The Congress in November and December seemed to have time for baseless impeachment inquiries but not the time to do the most important things like provide funding for national defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and, most importantly, resolving our differences and passing a budget.

I ask my Republican colleagues: What have we done? What are we doing? When we gather around the holiday tables in the next 2 weeks and we ask for good tidings in the new year, as Members of Congress, I think we must ask ourselves: What have we done? What have we done to work together in a bipartisan fashion to pass these critical bills? The answer is nothing.

We must do more important things to provide for the American people and the world that we live in. This is a seminal moment, as I said before, in world history, and the world is watching. We cannot lose sight of what is at stake. If we do not stop these threats against freedom and democracy, we will fail. This, make no mistake about it, is the test of our time.

I also wish for one and for all a happy holiday season. May the new year bring us good tidings. Let us not forget about our responsibilities as the world's lone superpower. We have responsibilities. We are still, as President Reagan said, the beacon of light on that shining hill.

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