Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) for his compelling presentation with his colleagues on an issue of extreme importance to our whole society, and that is combating the chronic challenge that so many of our families…
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) for his compelling presentation with his colleagues on an issue of extreme importance to our whole society, and that is combating the chronic challenge that so many of our families face from diabetes. I thank my friend for his leadership here on the House floor.
Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to address an important topic also confronting this Congress and our American citizens, and that is the continued U.S. financial support for the free country of Ukraine.
I say ``financial support'' because U.S. citizens overwhelmingly oppose Putin and his illegal, murderous invasion of his sovereign neighbor. Also overwhelmingly, Americans believe that our continued support of Ukraine is imperative to stop Russian aggression. Further, Americans believe that Putin poses a threat to our own interests and that withdrawing our support would be a sign of weakness to our allies.
With that said, and large Federal deficits and over $33 trillion in debt, along with pressing needs here at home, some Americans question continued financial support. Specifically, what is the strategy tied to our economic support?
I will outline why it is in America's interest to support Ukraine in its powerful, committed fight to eject Putin from its unprovoked, illegal invasion of their sovereign nation. I will also work to clear up misconceptions or even myths about our current and past level of support for military security assistance, humanitarian aid, and direct financial support to the Government of Ukraine.
Mr. Speaker, it is longstanding U.S. policy as a founding member of NATO and the indispensable partner in the transatlantic military, diplomatic, and economic alliance to support a peaceful Europe safe from external threats from invasion or nuclear attack. Formally, since World War II, we have performed this multipronged mission against the Soviet Union, against non-state and state sponsors of terrorism, during the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and even more recently with Putin's previous illegal incursion into the country of Georgia.
In 1985, some 40 years ago, President Reagan addressed the U.N. General Assembly and asked the rhetorical question: What kind of people will we be 40 years from now?
His hopeful answer: Free people whose governments rest upon the consent of the governed who do not wage war on their neighbors.
Sadly, Reagan's hopeful prediction remains untrue four decades later and, frankly, just as in 1985, still at the hands of the Russian leader.
For me, President Kennedy's inaugural charge perhaps said it best: ``Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to ensure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more.''
Under President Obama, despite promises made by the United States to Ukraine in the 1990s, America failed to live up to President Kennedy's pledge. Instead, President Obama pursued appeasement of Russia in Syria and Ukraine, fully tempting the megalomaniac Vladimir Putin.
This wrongheaded approach was partially reversed by President Trump, but the damage, Mr. Speaker, was done. Putin took President Biden's catastrophic decision to precipitously pull out of Afghanistan as the final failure of American policy resolve.
Mr. Speaker, this matters because, aside from past obligations or the moral case, U.S. workers, U.S. farmers, and U.S. consumers are better off when Europe is prosperous and free. There are more choices on our shelves at better prices, more jobs producing goods and exporting them, more jobs from billions of dollars of European investment here at home in the United States.
Every day I hear that Europe is not paying their fair share to boot out Putin. They are not paying their fair share on military equipment, supplies, humanitarian aid, the monthly budget in Ukraine. Mr. Speaker, this is a false assertion.
Let's look at the facts. Since February 2022, the European Union and the countries of Europe have contributed $32 billion in security assistance.
The United States, as the world's largest military superpower with the largest industrial base and the largest military inventories, has contributed $44 billion in security assistance. Additionally, we have increased defense production here at home, spending close to $20 billion on new inventories of supplies that we need and improvements in our industrial base.
With the opening of new facilities and second and third shifts, granting new career opportunities from Vermont to Arkansas to Arizona, American workers are manufacturing ammunition, Javelins, Stingers, Patriots, and HIMARS.
On the nonsecurity aid side of humanitarian and economic support, Europe's contributions dwarf those of the United States. Europe has contributed $42 billion for humanitarian and economic support versus $26 billion from the United States. The European Union has provided $18 billion in support for Ukrainian refugees in addition to taking care of those 4 million people from Ukraine registered as refugees and living outside their country in Europe.
Each month it costs over $7 billion per month to man the Ukrainian Government--civil and military. So far, American taxpayers have contributed $22 billion in that direct budget support. Europeans have contributed $26.5 billion and have approved by legislation $54 billion more covering 2024 to 2027.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, are in full support, and like America they, too, have been generous, with several countries using these institutions to guarantee billions of dollars in loans to Ukraine.
In addition to the United States and those countries in Europe, others are helping on their own. Canada, pledged $4.8 billion in assistance. Japan pledged $5.5 billion in assistance. We need more global leaders like Japan and Canada.
The United States is doing what we do best, using our military industrial base--the best military in the world--to provide more security and more training assistance to Ukraine than our allies. That is true when you take in all the contributions to this critical cause: security, humanitarian, and direct economic support.
It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that the U.S. is not alone in this effort and is surpassed by financial commitments from the countries of Europe, as it should be. The numbers speak for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago I traveled to Poland to meet with U.S. commanders overseeing the training of Ukrainians and coordinating critical military supplies. I followed up by traveling to Kyiv and met with President Zelenskyy and his foreign minister, his finance minister, and his defense minister.
Contrary to the myths I read in the U.S. press, the United States and our allies are not delivering pallets of cash or giving crypto to Ukrainian oligarchs. All the U.S. assistance is monitored and audited. The World Bank and the Deloitte CPA firm flyspeck every transfer to the Ukrainian budget or humanitarian causes, and the Department of Defense does that precisely the same for security assistance.
U.S. budget support is done on a reimbursable basis, meaning that the funds are only distributed to Ukraine following the World Bank's verification the money was spent on an approved activity.
The U.S. Government also has the Ukraine Oversight Working Group, which consists of more than 20 agencies led by the inspectors general from DOD, State, and USAID.
Now, there are some in America that spread conspiracy theories about this brutal war or even pedal Russian propaganda. Others are simply pacifists or isolationists. Mr. Speaker, I fully respect my fellow citizens and their differing views from my own, but, my friends, the past Obama appeasement or current isolationism does not make America safer or richer.
Failing to see Putin's megalomania stopped in Ukraine weakens our long-term economic prospects just like appeasing the Germans did in the 1930s. It increases the chance that our young men and women will have to respond to conflict on a battlefield. For if Russian wins, Moldova is next, the rest of Georgia, the Baltic states, and heaven forbid, Mr. Speaker, if the Chinese dictator Xi views our vacillation as his Afghanistan moment and attacks Taiwan, we will enter a global war and an economic depression.
For literally less than what America spends in 1 week, we can witness the unity and security of Europe and the weakening of the Russian threat to its neighbors and deter Xi in his South China Sea provocations.
Missing in all this is a lack of leadership from President Biden. He has slow rolled badly needed equipment to the Ukrainians, and I do not yet see a strong U.S. leadership ensuring that Ukraine has a realistic, strategic plan to defeat Putin and do so promptly and effectively. I do not see full U.S. leadership sufficient to the task of choking off the Russian economy. It is down, but it is not out. While our allies in NATO and the EU increase their defense spending and have rapidly diversified their sources of energy, we cannot let up and delay. We need to broaden and tighten sanctions, and we need to wake up.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and I collaborated last week on his REPO for Ukrainians Act, which was marked up and passed out of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
This legislation included key provisions from my Ukraine reconstruction legislation, which carefully takes title to all Russian sovereign assets in other countries, collectively pools these funds for filling the budget gap, and helping in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Importantly, this bill uses Russian funds, not American taxpayer resources, to aid Ukraine. It is critical that this legislation comes to the House floor and becomes one step closer to becoming law. Failure here, Mr. Speaker, means a more costly and horrific future.
Let's heed President Kennedy's pledge of nearly six decades ago by word and by deed, with time and treasure: Let every nation know that America and her global allies will bear any burden, meet any hardship, oppose any foe.
We must support our friend Ukraine in their support of liberty.
Mr. Speaker, last week in the House Foreign Affairs Committee we marked up Chairman Michael McCaul's bill Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act. At its core, the REPO Act utilizes Russian sovereign assets to pay for the Ukrainian current financing gap or its long-term reconstruction--or both.
It seems brutally obvious to everyone that Russia should be responsible for the cost of the damages stemming from its illegal invasion of Ukraine, not American taxpayers.
It is particularly offensive to the global community that a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council would blatantly and viciously destroy all aspects of global order, invade a sovereign neighbor unprovoked, repeatedly commit war crimes, and
violate too many international treaties to be named here.
The REPO for Ukrainians Act would give the President authority to seize, transfer, or vest Russian sovereign assets within U.S. jurisdiction into an international fund for the sole purpose of Ukraine's eventual reconstruction.
Considering most Russian sovereign assets are located outside the United States, it is important for our partners and allies around the world to introduce and pass companion legislation. Here, the United States may not act effectively unilaterally.
Recently, I met with Europe's rapporteur, Lulzim Basha. He fully understands the urgency of global action and action to be taken in Europe.
There is bipartisan recognition here in the Congress that the United States must be a global leader on this topic and through coordination with the G7 and our allies.
This bill is consistent with well-established international precedent where the United States worked with international partners to establish a fund like we saw with Afghanistan in 2022 or the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in 1981 or the U.N. Compensation Fund for Kuwait in 1991 following the invasion of Iraq.
According to legal experts like Professor Laurence Tribe, Russian objections based on claims of sovereign immunity are baseless, as using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine helps restore the principles of national sovereignty.
Russia cannot violate Ukraine's sovereignty while invoking its own as a shield.
Concerns that seizing Russian assets will undermine the U.S. dollar are also unsubstantiated. By working with our European colleagues, we will show that the seizure of assets is not a risk to doing business in dollars, but rather, is an international condemnation for unprovoked aggression by Russia.
In my view, the REPO Act, as marked up in committee, still has some room for improvement, such as clarifying that Russia's illegal war first began in February 2014 after its initial invasion of Crimea.
With that said, I thank Chairman McCaul and acknowledge several points from my text, the Ukraine Reconstruction Act, that were included in the chairman's revised REPO bill.
First, we made sure to hold Belarus accountable for its direct role in supporting Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. Next, we added controls to ensure good governance and standards around the international Ukraine Compensation Fund. Its mechanism includes audits by independent auditors and the Government Accountability Office.
Chairman McCaul also accepted that the bill should clarify important concepts, like judicial review and the definition of ``seizure'' to mean the confiscation of all rights, title, and interest in the sovereign asset.
Now, let me turn to some examples of how this legislation would work in conjunction with our allies and partners around the world.
First and foremost, it is generally accepted that the Russian central bank assets held outside of Russia are the first order of business. Public estimates of this funding are approximately $200 billion, mostly held in Europe, principally in Brussels.
Europeans have considered the use of interest on these assets as an immediate way to gain benefit for funding of Ukraine's war effort or covering a portion of their monthly budget. Thus, there are both short- term and long-term potential uses for the corpus of $200 billion in central bank assets held abroad or using the earnings on that total amount.
Additionally, I argue that state-owned enterprise assets outside the Russian Federation should also be considered as Russian sovereign assets, as well.
Mr. Speaker, nearly 40 percent of the Russian Federation's economy is owned by state-controlled companies. Russian public companies that are wholly owned by the Russian sovereign state, like being over 51 percent of their public shares, should be considered fair game for building assets necessary to rebuild Ukraine.
For example, Gazprom, the largest oil and gas enterprise in Russia, is majority owned by the Russian Federation. It has lots of operations outside Russia. Likewise, one of Russia's most prominent commercial banks is controlled with 51 percent of shares by the Russian Federation. That is Sberbank.
By including state-owned enterprise assets, this increases the leverage and negotiating authority of pressing Russia for change, to bring this war to an end, and utilize these assets for funding reconstruction.
I look forward to consideration of the REPO for Ukrainians Act by the House soon. I thank Mr. McCaul for working with me on making this a stronger bill. I hope that the Senator Risch and Whitehouse legislation can also be considered in the Senate.
Iran is a Partner in Terror
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the continued and growing threat of Iran to the region and the world.
This administration is committed to giving carrots to the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism and getting nothing in return. This goes beyond the $6 billion hostage payment or the release of $10 billion of Iranian oil purchased by Iraq.
Sanctions relief and appeasement under both the Biden and Obama administrations have resulted in sharp economic growth for the mullahs.
According to the World Bank, under President Trump and his maximum pressure campaign, Iran's GDP was about $333 billion per year, down from $550 billion under President Obama, a substantial drop.
Now, under President Biden, Iran's economy was back up to $359 billion in 2021. It was almost $390 billion last year and is growing.
We have let Iran back into the global economy when our sanctions were effective, and we should not be shocked that they are now involved in nearly every conflict around the world.
In Ukraine, Iran sells drones and arms to Russia.
In Israel, Iran is the primary financier of its terror proxy, Hamas.
In Syria, Iran is the principal financier of Hamas, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard units fight alongside Russia to prop up Assad's murderous regime.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq also claimed responsibility for recent drone attacks against U.S. forces in northeastern Syria and our base on the Jordanian border.
In Yemen, Iran is the primary financier of the Houthis, who have shown the capability to fire long-range missiles at Israel over the Saudi Arabian airspace and shoot down U.S. surveillance flights in the region.
Iran is directly involved in all these conflicts. As a partner with Russia and China, Iran is the linchpin in what the American Enterprise Institute calls the ``coalition against democracy.'' They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror and have been for decades.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, to cap it off, 91 percent of all Iran's oil exports go to China. Ninety-one percent of all Iranian oil produced goes to China.
Iran, along with Xi in China and Putin in Russia, have formed this new coalition that seeks to overthrow America's presence in the world, our values of democracy, rule of law, and freedom.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining?
Mr. Speaker, with Thanksgiving around the corner, central Arkansans and Americans are headed to the grocery stores, excited to shop for another holiday and to gather around the table with loved ones.
Unfortunately, they are still wincing at the price of turkey, stuffing, and the sides 3 years later, thanks to the persistent inflation due to President Biden and his failed economic policies.
In 2019, the average price of a turkey was 89 cents a pound. Last year's ``Turkey Day'' was up to $1.55 per pound. This is just another example of the negative effect President Biden's incompetent Bidenomics has had on the wallets of our working families and the detrimental effect it has had on our economy and our fiscal outlook.
Interest rates are at a 23-year high, and Arkansas families are spending an average of $8,400 more per year on the same things that they buy every year for their families. Mr. Speaker, that is $700 more per month on just basic
things, like back to school, Thanksgiving, Christmas presents, essentials, car payments, mortgage payments.
This administration, along with Democrats in Congress, have led on failed policies that have created a destructive domino effect on our entire economy, from driving 40-year highs in inflation to out-of- control government spending.
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low for too long and are now left playing catch-up in the hopes of beating inflation in the short run without causing too much damage to long-run economic growth.
To combat this, I recently reintroduced the Price Stability Act with my friend and colleague Congressman Byron Donalds. This legislation would ensure that the central bank focuses exclusively on its principal mandate of price stability, which is exactly what the Fed should be doing now more than ever, instead of focusing on various policy fads.
Over this past weekend, the United States rating agency Moody's downgraded the United States' credit rating from stable to negative, citing higher interest rates and another pending government shutdown.
This is another alarm bell that Democrats and the Biden administration should not ignore. We must get our fiscal house in order. This is another critical element in combating rampant inflation and helping the American people who have been suffering under these failed economic policies for far too long.
Reining in the outrageous spending we have witnessed over the past 3 years in Washington will help stop putting the burden of our record- high debt on our children and grandchildren and contributing to inflation.
President Biden needs to wake up to the alarm bells that continue to signal how his spending, industrial policy mandates, and the regulatory burdens are crushing ordinary families as we approach this Thanksgiving.
President Biden needs to work with Republicans in the House and Senate to get our long-term economy back on track. Let's work for American families, not against them.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.