Congress Stands Silent in This House

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, we leave today a day early. We essentially have 4-day weeks. That is, 25 percent of the work that we were planning to do, we are not going to do. We leave, I think, because we either can't do our work or we won't be allowed to do our work.

Madam Speaker, I rise again, as I have so many times when we were leaving without doing the critical business of America and the world. I rise, again, for our allies in Ukraine and Israel. I rise for the defense of democracy and freedom of people who are fighting for their very survival as a democracy.

The other week, I read a story, Madam Speaker, about the desperate situation on the front lines outside Kharkiv in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Defense soldier positioned outside the city spotted a salvo of Russian missiles rising over the horizon. He stood there helplessly. His unit lacked the equipment and ammunition necessary to shoot missiles down.

Within minutes, the missile struck a residential complex, killing numerous civilians. Yet, we stand here ready to walk out of this Chamber, our work undone.

The soldier later told the journalist: ``I understood they would fly and hit people and that I couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening.''

He was right. There was nothing he could have done because he did not have the weapons that were necessary.

The Congress, of course, cannot say the same. We can do something. We must do something. This Congress stands silent in this House. The Senate has acted late, but it is never too late to do the right thing.

This Congress remains silent. For 413 days, our Congress has failed to secure additional aid for Ukraine. For 131 days, we have failed to do the same for Israel.

This inaction is born not of a lack of consensus because we have over 300 votes on this floor for either one of those bills and, I think, the Senate bill.

Instead, we see Trump's and the far right's astounding sympathy for Putin. Just the other day, Senator Tuberville said to blame America first, that it is our fault, that we made Putin, a war criminal, invade Ukraine.

All seven times supplemental aid for Ukraine came to the House floor in recent months, over 300 Members supported it. So, it is not that we do not have consensus. It is that the Speaker will not allow consensus to be spoken.

The Senate just passed a bill to provide this aid to our allies with 70 votes. Seventy percent of the Senate sent us a bill. The question is not whether this legislation would receive enough votes to pass this House. The question is whether Speaker Johnson will give us the opportunity to vote on it at all. The Speaker's refusal to do so is causing Ukrainians to die.

The Speaker is preventing the people's House from working its will as the Senate did. The Speaker should give the victims of Putin's war crimes a vote and hope. Tell Putin: ``Nyet.'' Every minute that we don't signals retreat instead of a resolve.

Incomprehensibly, Trump amplified that dangerous message over the weekend, explicitly saying he would not only refuse to defend our NATO allies but would encourage the Russians ``to do whatever the hell they want.''

Is that America? Is that the leadership we want to portray to the world? Is that the leader of the free world? Mute. That, Madam Speaker, is aid and comfort to our enemies.

Those aren't the words of someone who seeks to lead the free world. They are the words of someone who would turn his back on the free world. Every Republican, no matter what office they hold or seek, ought to go on record and condemn those comments.

Governor Christie would agree with that statement. Putin salivates, Madam Speaker, at this inaction and division sown by the isolationist, authoritarian-loving factions of one of our parties that leads this House. That is why he recently sat down with Tucker Carlson.

The Speaker should give us a vote. We have the votes. Ukraine and Israel cry out for America's help and leadership.

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