Rob Portman

Madam President, I am here on the floor to congratulate my friend from North Carolina, the Tar Heel State.

We go back a few years. He is from Winston-Salem, where my wife is from. Our spouses actually waitressed together back in Winston-Salem during high school, and they are still buddies. Brooke and Richard are dear friends.

More importantly for today, Richard has been a terrific representative of the State of North Carolina--first, in the House of Representatives, where I served with him when I was a Member there from Ohio; and then he snuck over to the Senate, a little bit ahead of me, and kind of laid the groundwork.

We have had the opportunity to work on so much together, Richard.

I think of every major bipartisan achievement in this place, and you will see Richard's fingerprints on it.

So to his staff who are here, I know those are your fingerprints as much as his; so congratulations.

They haven't always been easy issues. Sometimes they have put Richard in a difficult political position, but he did what he thought was right for his beloved State of North Carolina and for the country.

Today, I have heard a lot about healthcare. I like healthcare. That is great to talk about it, but I want to talk about something else. But first, on healthcare, I must say, on Operation Warp Speed, it was remarkably successful. I think everyone has to acknowledge that now. No one in this Chamber was more responsible for laying the groundwork for that than Richard Burr. I am not sure people understand that. But on all the discussion about Richard's innovation and your work on healthcare, I think that is one that perhaps needs to be emphasized.

You have also done a good job in other areas, as we talked about today, and the Intelligence Committee, in particular. I will tell you that Richard and I have traveled the world a little bit together. We will go to some hot spot, and I will be dutifully going to the meetings, you know, with the political leadership of the country, and Richard will disappear, and he will show up a few days--no, a few hours--later. We will have a good conversation about things he is not allowed to tell me about. So he doesn't tell me everything. But the bottom line is, he is in touch with intelligence people not just here in Washington but around the world and expressing our support for them and our encouragement for them for the difficult jobs that they do on behalf of our country and, really, you know, keeping the world a less dangerous and less volatile place.

Richard, I have seen you in action on that, but I want to talk about something else, which is his love of the outdoors and his work on conservation.

We are cochairs of what is called the International Conservation Caucus. This is a group of Members, two Democrats and two Republicans-- Senator Whitehouse and Senator Coons for the Democrats, Senator Burr and I for the Republicans--who talk about international conservation issues around the world. These are issues that are directly related to economic development, directly related to security, to terrorism.

When you think about it, the wildlife trafficking that goes on in places like Africa, where people are trafficking in ivory or rhino horns and so on, so much of that is related to providing funding for terrorist groups over there and causing a lot of insecurity in those areas.

It is the same thing in terms of economic development. Many of these natural areas, once destroyed, don't provide the ability for clean water, for food, for ecotourism, which brings in money for these countries. So it is all related.

But, ultimately, I think Richard got involved because of his love of nature and the outdoors. And the biodiversity that he has helped to maintain around the world, not just here in this country, has been one of the beneficiaries.

There is a piece of this that I think also hasn't gotten enough notice today--that is my job to sort of clean up here--and that is not just his work on what is called the Great American Outdoors Act, and there were a number of provisions in there. One of mine was on the national parks, which Richard helped me with, restoring our national parks. But there is one piece in there that I believe would not have been successful without Richard's advocacy over many years.

He really wanted to make sure that we put our money where our mouth

was in terms of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF. If you don't know what that is, then ask any of your county commissioners or Governors or others who take advantage of it, township trustees, community leaders, and, certainly, conservation groups, because this is funding that helps with matching funding--typically, local, State, sometimes other Federal funding--to ensure that areas are protected, that parks can be built, and so on.

Congress is very good about saying: We are all for that. We are going to--what we call around here--authorize the legislation to do that, but then we didn't provide the money.

What Richard said over the years was: Well, if this is such a good idea, why don't we fund it like we are supposed to?

That was actually falling on deaf ears for quite a while, I think it is fair to say, but Richard was persistent.

I recall being at the White House signing ceremony for that larger legislation, the Great American Outdoors Act, knowing that one of the most significant elements of that was full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That was because of one Senator, and that is Richard Burr.

So, Richard, it has been a pleasure to serve alongside of you. I wish you and Brooke, William, and Tyler the very best going forward.

I suspect if you want to see Richard, you are going to have to go to his beloved North Carolina shore, particularly, the Outer Banks, where you might see him fishing for tuna or doing something else very productive.

So Godspeed, my friend.

Mr. President, I come to the floor for the 28th consecutive week since the Senate has been in session to once again discuss the war in Ukraine and why it is so important that all of us-- the United States and our allies--stand up for Ukraine at this point and provide them the military, economic, and humanitarian aid they need.

Over the weekend, I spoke at the annual holiday lunch of the Cleveland area's Nationalities Movement. As my colleague from Ohio knows, this was started during the Cold War to advocate for freedom for the former Soviet states. The group, today, includes people whose families have come from all over Eastern and Central Europe: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, of course Ukraine, and many other countries. All strongly support Ukrainian freedom and the right of Ukraine to chart its own course.

At the luncheon, I talked to some of my friends who were there, many of whom have family or friends in Ukraine. We talked about some of the hardships that their relatives and their friends in Ukraine are facing today and how, as we approach the holiday season here in America, we are thinking about Christmas shopping and putting up decorations and spending time with our families and friends over the holidays. They are thinking about something else. They are thinking about how they can survive. They are thinking about how to stay warm, whether they are going to have running water or electricity. They are living with fear and uncertainty in not knowing when the next Russian missile might strike.

The brutal, unprovoked, and illegal invasion of Ukraine has now turned into an outright attack on civilians and noncombatants.

This photo is something that we are seeing in communities all over Ukraine. This is some civilian infrastructure. You can see the power grid here and the power lines. This was the result of a Russian missile strike. All over, this is happening: drones, missiles, attacking infrastructure--killing civilians, by the way--and forcing people to live in the dark and in the cold as Ukraine's severe winter weather approaches.

Although these merciless Russian attacks are meant to weaken the resolve of the Ukrainians, it is not having that effect, actually. I have seen this from my recent trips to Ukraine. It is actually hardening people's resolve. The Ukrainians know that these are desperate missile attacks to the interior of the country. Why? Because Russia is losing on the actual battlefield.

As this map shows, the Ukrainians have shown courage and effectiveness in actually pushing out Russia from all of these red areas of Ukraine. This is where Russia was after February 24. Fifty percent or more of the country has now been liberated by Ukrainian troops. We forget about that. About 55 percent of Ukraine has now been liberated--again, thanks to the resolve and the courage and the military skill of the Ukrainians. Ukrainian soldiers continue to advance more slowly, but they continue to advance, giving the Russians no time to relax or to recover.

Here is where we are today. Remember, before, there was red all over the country of Ukraine. This is where the Russians are now. This striped red line is the part that Russia invaded back in 2014. The red part here is where they invaded on February 24 and are still occupying parts of Ukraine.

In the east, near Bakhmut, which is right here, Russian forces and Wagner Group mercenaries, who are fighting on behalf of Russia, are fighting a war of attrition. It is a grinding war of attrition with marginal gains to show for their massive losses in terms of manpower and equipment.

In its attempt to capture this town of Bakhmut, Russia has turned what used to be a quaint, tree-lined city that I visited back in 2018 into a bloodbath. This is what Bakhmut looks like today. It looks like something you would see out of a World War I film.

Ukrainian officials say Moscow is now losing 50 soldiers a day to maintain this slow, bruising advance to reach the city's eastern gates--all of this death and destruction over a city that has marginal strategic advantage for Russia. It appears to observers that Russia is willing to put their soldiers and mercenaries in harm's way in Bakhmut because it is the only place that Russian forces are genuinely advancing at all, and Vladimir Putin is eager--even desperate--to claim some sort of victory to try to salvage this failed military campaign that they are on.

I did go to Bakhmut back in 2018. It was then called the line of contact. I met with Ukrainian troops who were there holding the line, including the 54th Mechanized Brigade, which is still fighting there in that region. I saw men who were willing to die for their country, for their freedom, for their families. So I was not surprised by the bravery and resolve that the Ukrainian troops had shown since February 24. I was expecting it based on what I had seen in Bakhmut.

Those soldiers I met gave me this plaque when I was there. It is signed by a number of the soldiers whom I met.

It says at the bottom here:

Glory to Ukraine. Glory to the heroes.

``Slava Ukraini.'' ``Heroyam Slava.''

That is the rallying cry.

Of these troops who signed this flag to me, I am told, many of them are likely to be dead or injured now because the fighting in Bakhmut has been so intense.

So Godspeed to those troops who are holding the line against this Russian assault tonight as we talk on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The Ukrainians are making progress elsewhere. You see here in Kherson--this was the city that the Russians took on February 24. It was the only provincial capital that they took, the biggest city they took early on. They have now abandoned Kherson, and Ukrainian troops have taken Kherson and liberated it. The liberation has been extraordinary. You see people coming out of their homes and hugging the troops, and you see the war crimes that the Russians were committing. The withdrawal from Kherson that went through the west side of the river here has been a great victory for the Ukrainian troops. The relentless counteroffensive is actually working.

With this situation on the battlefield, the military outlook here for Russia looks bleak. It is precisely because they are not winning on the battlefield, though, that they are instead attacking civilian targets, these cowardly attacks we have seen all over Ukraine--electricity, natural gas, water--knocking out everything they can in order to try to break the will and the resolve of the people of Ukraine.

This past weekend, 1.5 million people were left without power after Russian airstrikes damaged the local energy infrastructure in Odessa. So 1.5 million people here were without electricity. Most of those people now have electricity again because the Ukrainians are moving quickly to try to restore it, but then it is bombed again and again.

Across the country, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal, after eight waves of missile attacks on the country, all thermal and hydroelectric powerplants in Ukraine have been damaged. In other words, every single powerplant--coal, natural gas, hydroelectric--has been bombed. Again, many have now been repaired again and again and again, but the bombings continue.

Last Friday, according to the deputy head of President Zelenskyy's office, 68 strikes in the Kherson region occurred--68 strikes across the line here in Ukrainian territory. This included a strike on a hospital in Kherson that damaged the children's ward. It included an attack on a morgue in this area.

In the northeastern part of Ukraine, up here near Kharkiv, there has also been great progress recently as you see where the Ukrainians have pushed the Russians toward the east. These Russian cross-border attacks on the city of Vovchansk, in that area, left thousands of people without heat in the midst of winter earlier this week.

I saw the effects of these missile attacks firsthand the last time I was in Ukraine. I visited Kyiv about a month ago with my colleague Senator Chris Coons from Delaware. We saw the destruction that these missiles were causing. In this case, it was at the headquarters of Ukraine's utility company.

We then, after that, actually had a dinner meeting with the Parliamentarians from Ukraine at a restaurant where the power had been taken out through these attacks. We had to conduct business with flashlights. It was incredible, later that night, to look at the city of Kyiv from an office building--a modern, 21st-century city completely dark.

Thanks to the dated air defense systems that they do have, the Ukrainians have been able to intercept and destroy a lot of these Russian missiles. They are intercepting, actually, most of them-- somewhere between 60 and 70 percent, probably, based on the information I have--but enough of them get through to cause this incredible damage to Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and to kill Ukrainians on the ground as these temperatures drop. The temperature in Kyiv tonight, as we talk here, is about 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ukraine isn't just trying to shoot down Russian-made missiles and Iranian-made drones--we know there are Iranian-made drones and these Russian missiles coming into Ukraine--but they also have to shoot down Ukrainian-made missiles. Why do I say that? Because according to Ukraine's Deputy Intelligence Chief, some of these missiles that Russia has fired recently have actually been missiles that Ukraine voluntarily gave to Russia as part of the 1994 Budapest agreement, the so-called Budapest Memorandum.

Recall that the Budapest Memorandum was a document that was signed by the United States, the UK, and Russia with Ukraine. This was after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the agreement, all parties, including Russia, promised to respect the independence and sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine's giving up its nuclear weapons but also providing missiles and strategic bombers to Russia. So now these very same missiles and very same bombers are being used by Russia in its ruthless campaign against innocent civilians in Ukraine.

There can be no clearer display of Russia's contempt for its international obligations and its total disregard for the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine gave up its weapons in exchange for peace, and instead they have war.

There can be no more urgent or important request from Ukraine today, of course, than that of a better air defense system. That is what they need more than anything else. Every day, vital infrastructure is being destroyed, and civilians are being killed.

The news from the Biden administration yesterday that they now may be thinking seriously about sending Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, which is our most advanced anti-missile air defense weapon, is very encouraging to me.

Here is the patriot missile system.

This one is actually in Poland. We have provided this to the Polish Government. We now need to provide it to the Ukrainian Government. I have called for this for months, as have others, and I hope this comes to fruition.

We need to get these weapons into the hands of the Ukrainians quickly before there are more civilian deaths recorded, before there is more destruction of key infrastructure.

If the administration does not do this, I fear that as winter sets in, more and more Ukrainians will be forced to leave their communities, compounding

the humanitarian crisis that is already there. As you know, there are 6\1/2\ million people displaced internally in Ukraine already and over 7 million people--probably close to 8 million--who are outside of Ukraine as displaced individuals in places like Poland, throughout the EU, and even the United States.

I continue to urge the Biden administration to take a more assertive approach on military assistance in general. There are about 50 countries helping Ukraine on the military side. All the free world is stepping up to help, but America leads, and we need to provide Ukraine with more of the weapons that Ukraine says they actually need, like the Patriot missiles. But, also, they have asked for fourth-generation fighter jets, like the F-16 or similar European models. They are in Europe already. We have provided them to European countries, but we have to sign off for the European countries or other countries to provide them to Ukraine. They want modern main battle tanks, like the Abrams tank that is made in my home State of Ohio. They want more long- range missiles, like the ATACMS missiles that can be fired through these what are called HIMARS launchers and would give Russian soldiers few places to hide in the illegally occupied territory.

When I visited the region in March and again in May and August and in November, I got to meet a lot of these displaced people in Ukraine and hear their harrowing stories.

We were at a World Food U.N. site in Kyiv on our last trip, and there were a lot of refugees there, displaced people, internally displaced people from Ukraine who were getting the basics just to be able to survive. Many of them sat down with us and talked.

Two women told me one of these harrowing stories. It was about a young man who was tortured by his Russian occupiers--this was near the city of Kharkiv--and taken to the main square and tied up on the main square. Then, when he wouldn't answer whatever questions they were asking him, he was taken down below into a dungeon, basically, a basement. They found these basement chambers all over Ukraine where there was occupied territory.

The young man actually survived, miraculously, but he was in terrible shape when he came out. But his mother didn't survive. The angst and the anxiety and the despair that she felt about her son resulted in her death.

These women were telling this with tears streaming down their cheeks, and, of course, we were crying, too. But that is happening all over Ukraine.

These war crimes behind enemy lines in occupied territories are revealed every time there is a liberation. It is positive there is a liberation, but then you get this negative, which is, this is what happened to these people. So we really don't know the extent of the atrocities and the war crimes because there is still so much territory that is occupied by Russia.

Anyway, these people have seen death and destruction that no person should have to experience.

Some of my constituents in Ohio have been very helpful. They know some of these refugees. They have personal connections--again, family or friends--and so they have helped. From Northeast Ohio, where we have a big Ukrainian community, Marta Licsynesky of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio and Andy Futey of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America--they are presidents of those organizations--they have both jumped in with both feet and helped. MedWish, which is a great organization up in Cleveland, provided a lot of medical equipment. They have provided everything--clothes, medicine, any kind of help for these refugees. They have provided armored vests from law enforcement all over Ohio, as an example, to the Territorial Defense Forces. So God bless them. They are doing what they can to help.

But unless we intervene with better ways to defend the air, there will be more and more of these displaced people and more and more humanitarian needs.

On that front, in addition to the possible news about the Patriot missile system from yesterday, I was also pleased to hear President Biden and President Zelenskyy speak over the weekend about the need for increased support for Ukraine. On Friday, the administration announced another $275 million in military assistance, including more ammunition for those HIMARS missile launchers we talked about and other systems that will counter Russian and Iranian drones. There are dozens of allies who have provided military assistance--we are not doing this alone--but U.S. leadership has been key.

By the way, the 20 HIMARS--high mobility artillery rocket systems-- that are in Ukraine have all survived. Not a single one has been taken out by the Russians. It is amazing. The Ukrainians have been quite resourceful to make that happen, and thank God we still have those weapons. Germany and the UK have also provided some of these weapons, and they are making a huge difference on the battlefield.

The long range and high precision of these weapons have enabled the Ukrainians to strike deep within the occupied territories to be able to disrupt Russian logistics and command and control centers. That has made the big difference. That is how Kherson was taken, was they cut off the supply chain to Kherson to the point that these Russian soldiers could not continue to hold the city and continue with their atrocities.

It is no wonder, by the way, that HIMARS are popular in Ukraine. In fact, when I was there, the Embassy staff sent out for some takeout food. The food came back in a bag--it was hamburgers--and on the bag was scrawled ``Thank you for the HIMARS'' from a restaurant worker. I am also told that ``HIMARS'' is now a popular name for Ukrainian newborns. They are naming their children after the weapons provided by this body because they are making a huge difference in saving lives.

In addition to Patriot missiles, we have got to continue to provide Ukrainians with other air defense systems, like the midrange NASAMS system that we are starting to provide, but also cost-effective electronic warfare systems that would enable Ukraine to defend its skies over the long term. Those can be very effective against drones, as you can imagine.

We have seen this before. In 1940, the people of Great Britain suffered under a relentless bombardment from Nazi aircraft. Remember, they tried to bomb London into the stone age. At the time, many thought, Well, this is going to be the end of Great Britain. You can't push back against these Nazis.

But the Brits were resolute. They were defiant. Eventually, the Royal Air Force defeated Hitler's onslaught against innocent civilians in what is called the Battle of Britain and ensured that the country would survive the war. And, of course, the United States got engaged, and we went on to win that conflict.

Today, just as then, there is another indiscriminate bombing campaign going on, this time in Ukraine against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Ukraine is now fighting its own Battle of Britain. We have got to be sure we are there with them to provide them what they need to survive their battle.

I was also pleased to learn this week that the European Union proposed a new round of sanctions. If it is agreed to by the member states--and I hope it will be--this package of sanctions would ban exports of drone engines to Russia and also include other prohibitions that would hopefully stifle Russia's ability to supply its military.

This is very important. In my view, it should have happened a long time ago, but let's do it now. Let's cut off the ability for Russia to be able to repair and recreate the drones that are getting destroyed by the Ukrainians. Let's be sure that we are not giving the Russians what they need to continue their war machine.

Russia's assault, by the way, is not just limited to bombs and missiles, but I am hearing more and more about mines. According to reports, Russian forces have now endangered up to 65,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory with land mines. The United States is partnering with our Ukrainian allies to demine that area. This aid has come in the form of training and equipment, as well as U.S.-funded contractors and demining teams. So in areas where the mines are on the Ukrainian side of the line, we are actively trying to help. This is an important step, in my view. It is kind of the first step toward Ukrainian reconstruction.

When Russia resorts to these cowardly missile attacks on civilian targets, Ukraine has responded in kind with precise strikes on Russian military targets. So Russia is attacking civilian targets, and Ukrainians are responding with targeted attacks on Russian military targets.

For example, explosions have occurred here. This is Ukraine. This is the occupied area. Explosions have occurred deep in Russian territory here.

What are those areas? Well, these are Russian air bases deep inside Russian territory, but they are home to the bombers who have been targeting civilian infrastructure and killing Ukrainian civilians with cruise missiles over the past couple of months.

As the UK Ministry of Defense reported last week, these may be ``some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since [Russia's] invasion of Ukraine.''

Over the weekend, Ukraine launched a series of HIMARS strikes on the Russian occupied city of Melitopol, which is here, including a strike on Russian military barracks that reportedly killed a lot of the Wagner mercenaries. This is in this area here.

America has been blessed with big, wide oceans on our east and to our west and friendly neighbors to our north and our south. It is hard for us to grasp what they are going through. It is hard for us to grasp what it is like to have a war ravage your homeland and force you to leave your home.

Russia's atrocities and clear human rights violations against civilians are one compelling reason why supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do, and I hope this week in this Chamber we will once again provide support for Ukraine.

But another reason is that the death and destruction are not likely to end in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is on record as saying, ``The borders of Russia have no end.'' He and his senior officials have also talked about recreating the old Soviet empire. They have said that Ukraine is just the first step.

I will tell you, other countries in Eastern Europe get that, and they are understandably quite nervous. That is why they stepped up big time to help Ukraine. That is why they have increased their own military spending. That is why they have expanded their military cooperation with the United States. Think of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia--they are all doing that. Finland and Sweden certainly understand how dangerous Russia has become, which is why they have now decided they are going to join NATO after years of neutrality--Finland, Sweden.

In my view, the only way to get Vladimir Putin to back off and to negotiate an end to this ruthless and senseless war is to continue to demonstrate unity among free nations, to tighten the sanctions on the Russian economy, and to continue to help Ukraine win on the battlefield. That is how this thing ends--through success. U.S. leadership and assistance is key to that strategy.

I am not advocating a blank check, by the way. I hope nobody is. I believe there needs to be accountability for the assistance that we provide, and there is. There is accountability on the state aid, there is accountability on the humanitarian aid, and there is accountability on the military aid.

I have seen it in action in meeting with the 101st Airborne in Poland, how they have end-use monitoring of the equipment we are sending. The Ukrainians themselves want to have transparency. They understand how important that is. That is why they have Deloitte Cincinnati, an American accounting firm, involved in monitoring and providing reports. That is why we are running our assistance through the World Bank, where they are auditing and reporting back to us. That is important to do.

But the alternative to helping Ukraine, to me, is unthinkable. What would have happened if the United States had said ``We are not going to help here'' and the rest of the world had said ``Well, if the Americans aren't going to step forward and provide some leadership, we are not going to either''?

First of all, it is clear to all of us that this country would be occupied by Russia today. And even if Russia didn't go ahead and move into all these other countries they say they are going to move into-- that Ukraine is just the first step and they want to recreate the empire or the Soviet Union--even if it is just Ukraine and they stopped at the Ukrainian borders, suddenly you would have three NATO countries that have a border with Russia that do not now and really a fourth because all Poland has is a very small outpost of Russia here.

So you would suddenly have NATO country the United States, under article V, is committed to protecting with an aggressive Russia on its border. We would be mobilizing thousands of troops. We would have massive amounts of weapons at the borders of these NATO allies at a tremendous cost to the U.S. taxpayer. Is that a better alternative than helping give Ukraine the tools they need to be able to do their own fighting, which has been successful up to now--more successful than anyone could have imagined?

Finally, I would say that allowing an authoritarian regime to take over an ally and a democracy with impunity--that sends exactly the wrong message to the rest the world at a time we can least afford to have that happen.

Think about China. China is eyeing a potential military assault on Taiwan. Think about our ally Israel as they continue to face threats from Iran and others in the Middle East.

Both our adversaries and our allies are watching to see if the United States and our allies will help maintain that post-World War II world order or whether it is each country for itself. And if it is each country for itself because we aren't helping Ukraine, the militarization around the world increases dramatically, as do the nuclear weapons.

Ukraine just wants to live in peace with its neighbors, including Russia. But when attacked by Russian missiles and drones, Ukraine has fought to ensure that the flame of freedom here is not going to go out. From visits, I can say with certainty that they will never give up. And we must not give up on them.

The Ukrainian people tasted freedom when they embarked on their own Revolution of Dignity, as they call it, back in 2014. They threw off a Russian-backed corrupt government and, instead, embraced the West, the European Union, the United States of America, freedom, democracy, free markets. Ukraine chose to stand with us, with Europe, the United States, and other free nations. This is not the time for the United States and its allies to stand down.

So for my current colleagues and the Senators just elected, I urge you: Let's continue our support for Ukraine in this worthy cause of protecting freedom.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, 12 years ago, I stood on this Senate floor for my maiden speech. I was new to the Senate, but I had a sense of what I thought was possible to achieve for my constituents in Ohio, having served in the House for 12 years and in two Cabinet-level jobs in the Bush 43 administration. In that speech, I talked about my interest in solving problems and working across the aisle to tackle big issues facing our country. That is what we have tried to do. We have had some successes and some disappointments, but through it all, I have always considered it a great honor to have been given the chance to represent my neighbors, the people of Ohio.

My team and I have viewed it as a sacred trust to do all we could while we had this temporary privilege. Our commitment was to move the ball forward wherever possible for our great country and for the families we represented. Through our legislative and oversight results, I believe we have honored that pledge. It has been a team effort.

I have been blessed with an awesome staff--sitting behind me today-- some amazing Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle, willing to find common ground, friends in every corner of Ohio whose input helped me to represent our diverse State, and most importantly, an understanding family and a partner in all things in Jane Portman.

All of us get asked what inspired us to get into public service in the first place. In my family, my mom Joan taught by her example that serving others was our duty. We had no choice. And through their own volunteer work, my brother and my sister have helped change lives, and I respect that and respect all the caring and giving Ohioans who do that. I chose to serve in a different way, which involved the rough and tumble of politics--not for everybody but also a way to help others.

Another impetus for getting involved in politics was actually my father, Bill Portman, even though, as a small business guy, he thought I was absolutely crazy to get into this line of business. When I was a kid, he gave up his safe job as a forklift truck salesman for a bigger company to live out his own American dream and start his own business. He took a big risk, gave up healthcare, gave up a retirement plan, and five people--my mom was the bookkeeper--started Portman Equipment Company, with lots of debt. They actually lost money the first few years. But he never gave up on his dream and eventually, through hard work and integrity, found his niche. My brother, my sister, and I all worked at Portman Equipment Company in high school and in college. By the time my dad retired and my brother took over the company, there were almost 300 people working there.

Keeping that American dream alive and creating the conditions to allow that next Bill Portman to take that risk, to build his or her dream and in doing so help so many other families and help so many communities, has really been my North Star. That is what has guided me.

Dad also played a special role in my decision to run for the U.S. Senate. As you will recall, in the couple years before 2010, we had the Great Recession. Our country went through some tough times. I had stepped away from public service at that time. I was back in the private sector, thinking I would probably not ever run again. Then my friend and mentor Senator George Voinovich surprised all of you here in the Senate, as well as his constituents in Ohio, with his decision to retire, and Jane and I began thinking about it and traveling around, talking to people. Across Ohio, people told me about the real-world ramifications of the policy decisions being made here in Washington and how it affected them.

I remember in early 2009 asking my dad if he would do it again. Would he take that risk and start a business from scratch? His answer was troubling. He said, you know, he just wasn't sure. He listed higher taxes that were being talked about, more healthcare costs, more regulations. He said: I just don't know if it would be worth it. That conversation with my dad was part of what drove me to run for the Senate. I believed that the country needed leadership to drive policy in the direction of more economic growth and more opportunity, to help more people achieve their American dream.

Not many people these days would say politics is an honorable profession. A recent poll suggested only 20 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. And I guess we all give people reasons to be skeptical, especially when we seem too political and partisan gridlock keeps us from solving

problems people care about, like energy prices or what is happening on our southern border. But I know it doesn't have to be that way. Politics at its best can be honorable. It is about finding common ground to help people.

We all have our own views, and that is fine, and as elected leaders, we certainly have a responsibility to represent our States and our constituents. But I think sometimes we forget we were also hired to do our best to find that common ground and to achieve results. That is what we were hired to do.

When I need to be reminded about that, I think about my political mentor George H. W. Bush, who gave me my first job in politics, first on the campaign trail and then in his White House. To him, public service was absolutely a noble calling, a way to serve, and he helped young people like me see that by his example. In working for his son, George W. Bush, I witnessed that same commitment to public service.

In my Senate office, as these folks behind me can recite, we have a mission statement, and we developed it together. It says the following:

Our mission is to deliver bipartisan results through

effective servant leadership with integrity, selflessness,

and excellence so all Ohioans can reach their God-given

potential.

What is servant leadership? I think it begins with the respect for constituents by listening to them and understanding their concerns and then, whenever possible, delivering those results for them, from case work to legislation.

During my time in the Senate, I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish for Ohio and the country by trying to follow that formula. I am told by my staff today that as of this week, over the past 12 years, there are 195 bills that I have authored or coauthored that have been signed into law. By definition, almost all are bipartisan and the product of the back-and-forth that leads to that common ground.

Not all of these bills are monumental; I will say that. And my constituents will never hear about the vast majority of them because they aren't controversial and therefore the media doesn't cover it, but they make a difference. As an example, a bill I wrote with Senator Hassan is on the President's desk today, about early hearing detection--not the most pressing issue to many people but to the Ohio family whose child's hearing loss will be diagnosed early, it can be life-changing.

These accomplishments are a testament to the willingness of Members and staff on both sides of the aisle to find a way to achieve mutual objectives by listening and respecting different points of view. By doing that even during a time when there is so much distrust and dysfunction, we have been able to achieve a lot together. Today, I want to touch on a few of those areas. Don't worry, it is not going to be 195, but a few of them.

Thanks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and Ranking Member Risch for working with me on a number of bills, including the establishment of the Global Engagement Center with Senator Murphy that is combatting the growing threat of disinformation and propaganda.

Thanks to the leaders of the Finance Committee, Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo, for working with me on so many bills, including working this week with my friend Ben Cardin and me on our retirement bill.

Senator Cardin, thanks for being my partner for over 20 years on successfully expanding retirement savings and a bunch of other issues, from hospice to Israel, to IRS reform, to affordable housing. I dragged him into IRS reform; he didn't want to do it.

As the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I would like to thank all my committee colleagues and the chairman, Gary Peters. While we may hail from different States--in fact, he hails from that State to the north, and as an Ohio State fan, I have to make that point--we are friends, and we have been able to accomplish a lot in the last couple of years, from helping protect houses of worship, to essential postal reform, to combatting cyber attacks. I have been proud of the work we have done at HSGAC, where I have served for the last 12 years.

The bipartisan investigations I spearheaded as chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations with Senator Carper led to the end of websites like backpage.com that allowed the trafficking of women and children online.

I also led efforts to ensure our Federal Government doesn't allow human trafficking to occur with the influx of unaccompanied minors crossing our U.S.-Mexican border. Our bipartisan oversight on the safety of unaccompanied children crossing the border demonstrated that Federal Agencies must implement reforms immediately to ensure the safety and security of these vulnerable children.

Our 18-month bipartisan PSI investigation that detailed how drug traffickers exploit vulnerabilities in our international mail system to easily ship synthetic, illegal narcotics like fentanyl from China into the United States through the Postal Service led to the successful implementation of the STOP Act.

Through a bipartisan investigation, we also found that China has been targeting and stealing U.S. taxpayer-funded scientific research and intellectual property through its talent programs. Essentially, American taxpayers have been unwittingly funding the rise of China's military and economy over the past couple of decades, while Federal Agencies have done little to stop it.

With Senator Carper, I introduced the Safeguarding American Innovation Act to require the Federal Government to take decisive action to safeguard our intellectual property, our inventions, our research here in America. It has passed the Senate--thank you.

I am disappointed certain House Members have blocked it, and I urge my colleagues to get it enacted in the next Congress.

Our investigations this year also revealed China's malign efforts to target, influence, and undermine the U.S. Federal Reserve. We must do more to safeguard our homeland from the threat of foreign adversaries, especially China.

I appreciate Senator Heinrich for launching the bipartisan Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus with me to ensure thoughtful, bipartisan policymaking on AI. Fifteen of our bills to ensure safe and coordinated use of artificial intelligence have now become law.

Since 2015, when my bipartisan Federal Permitting Improvement Act was signed into law as title 41 of the FAST Act, I have worked to update our aging infrastructure and create good jobs, while expanding and streamlining the permitting process.

Thanks to Senator Sinema and Senator Sullivan for their passion on this issue and their leadership in passing the Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act to make these key provisions of FAST-41 and the permitting council permanent, which speeds up the permitting process for some of the largest infrastructure projects, resulting, by the way, on average, with a 45-percent time savings and major cost savings. We should expand that.

I also want to thank the bipartisan group of Senators who worked with me on the historic infrastructure bill, with a special thanks to my lead democratic partner, Senator Sinema, along with Senators Collins, Romney, Cassidy, Murkowski, Warner, Shaheen, Tester, and Manchin.

Every President and every Congress in modern times has talked about the need to fix our aging infrastructure, but we worked from the middle out to form a bipartisan coalition of 69 Members to go beyond the talk and make some of these needed and historic improvements to our Nation's roads and bridges, ports and rail, upgrade our Nation's broadband system, and so much more.

The process to me was almost as important as the substance. We did it by focusing on our key principles of core infrastructure only, no tax hikes, and bipartisan consensus. I was proud to team up with each one of you, and I thank you for your willingness to find that elusive common ground and so do people in my hometown.

We have heard politicians talk about fixing the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Ohio to Senator McConnell's State of Kentucky. For over 30 years, we have been talking about it. It is at the confluence of two major interstate highways and currently carries more than 160,000 vehicles a day, which is twice as many as it was ever designed to carry.

It has no shoulders on the bridge because they have been eliminated to

carry more traffic, which makes it unsafe, and it is still congested at every rush hour. Local, State, and Federal stakeholders have never been able to come up with a way to solve this problem. The bipartisan infrastructure law finally paves the way to fix the Brent Spence Bridge, which not only makes travel safer and easier for Ohioans but improves the movement of goods throughout the Midwest and actually strengthens our national economy.

There are so many people I would like to recognize--and apologies in advance for those I will miss. Senator Blumenthal, thanks for working with me on one of the greatest humanitarian and civil rights causes of the 21st century: human trafficking. We started a caucus, and we have enacted a number of bills to address trafficking, including ensuring justice for victims of sex trafficking and holding internet sites accountable to prevent the facilitation of trafficking, the one time that Congress has been able to successfully eliminate the section 230 immunity.

Senator Whitehouse has worked with me to change the way addiction is addressed in this country by offering the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act to provide a broad response to the opioid crisis. It provides individuals with the evidence-based treatment and recovery services they need.

I think looking at addiction as a disease is probably the most important thing we did in that legislation, in addition to the significant funding. I want to thank Senator Blunt, whom I see here, for his role on the Appropriations Committee for funding the Federal Government's addiction programs at record levels. Senator Capito has been right there with him.

Senator Klobuchar and I worked to pass the STOP Act, effectively keeping China from shipping fentanyl through the U.S. mail, and Senator Capito and Senator Manchin have worked with me to pass important bills on scheduling fentanyl analogs to make sure that it is illegal.

I have been deeply and personally engaged on the substance abuse issue for over 25 years, when I started my own antidrug group in Ohio that has become, over time, a model prevention coalition and enacted the Drug-Free Communities Act that has helped spur the establishment of about 2,000 community coalitions around the country. By the way, I worked on that with Senator Chuck Grassley when I was in the House.

In fact, Chuck took me to Iowa with him to help set up an antidrug coalition there. That was almost as interesting as going as his guest to the Iowa State Fair when I was U.S. trade representative.

Senator Shaheen and I have worked over the years on so many foreign policy issues, as well as energy efficiency. We introduced our first energy efficiency bill in 2011 and gotten most of it signed into law in the years since, helping reduce energy bills for families and businesses and actually reduce emissions by simply using less energy.

And I thank my college classmate Senator Hoeven for his leadership on our energy efficiency bill and his all-of-the-above energy approach and, mostly, for helping me improve my Spanish by adding a North Dakota accent. I also want to thank Senator Bennet for our successful efforts on encouraging carbon capture and sequestration. Our legislation is starting the work to do that.

I appreciate Senator Stabenow's partnership as my cochair on the Great Lakes Task Force. Working with her and all members of the task force, we have made a lot of progress fighting harmful algal blooms and invasive species, and so many other issues important to our constituents along the world's largest freshwater resource.

Thanks to Senator Kaine, as my cochair of the Career and Technical Education Caucus, who worked with me to challenge Congress to do more to address the Nation's skills gap and promote the JOBS Act, providing individuals with the skills they need to get good-paying jobs. Those skills are needed out there. We need to focus more on how we ensure we are not just spending money to send young people to college but also getting them the industry-recognized skills that they need.

Senators Coons, Burr, and Whitehouse, as cochairs of the International Conservation Caucus, you have been great partners over the years on our legislation to combat wildlife trafficking, conserve forests, and develop strategies to protect some international treasures, like the Okavango Delta in southern Africa.

I appreciate Senators Warner and King and former Senator Alexander for working with me to pass the Restore Our Parks Act, which is finally addressing the massive deferred maintenance backlog at our national parks so that some of our Nation's most treasured landscapes, memorials, and monuments can be enjoyed by visitors and generations to come.

Because of the CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan legislation I worked on closely with my colleagues Senators Young, Tillis, Sinema, and Schumer, Intel recently broke ground on its semiconductor plant outside of Columbus, the largest investment in the history of Ohio and an investment we believe will grow over time.

With the CHIPS Act now law, we can reverse this trend of this critical semiconductor manufacturing capability being sent overseas. It is going to create thousands of high-paying jobs here but, most importantly to me, help strengthen our national security.

These remarks would be incomplete without a reference to our work on tax reform. As I mentioned when I decided to run for the Senate in 2009, Ohio was losing jobs and our economy was falling behind. My campaign was based, in part, on a plan for jobs that focused on a number of economic policies, including fixing our Tax Code, making it competitive again for American workers and businesses.

In 2017, one of the highlights in the Senate for me was when I was able to work with a small group of lawmakers--Pat Toomey, Tim Scott, John Thune--to help deliver on this promise with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the first time Congress had passed comprehensive tax reform in 31 years.

It cut taxes for middle-class families, reformed our Business Tax Code to create more jobs and higher wages for Ohio workers, and it updated our International Code to encourage employers to actually bring jobs and investment back here to America.

I wish it could have been more bipartisan, but, frankly, much of what I led on the international side had absolute bipartisan roots, and I believe it worked. Tax reform helped usher in a period of unprecedented economic growth felt broadly. After tax reform and before the pandemic, we had 19 straight months of wage gain of 19 percent or more, well above inflation, and most of the wage gains, by the way, went to lower income and middle-income workers.

We also had the lowest poverty rate since we started keeping track of it back in the 1950s and the lowest unemployment rate ever for Blacks, women, Hispanics. It was an opportunity economy.

Unfortunately, a lot of those gains have been washed away by the pandemic in an avalanche of stimulus spending over the last 2 years that has fed the demand side of the economy while supply has been constricted by COVID but also by regulations, particularly in energy, contributing to the highest inflation in 40 years.

I hope the new Senate will have an opportunity to reset and, working with the House, make pro-growth economic policies a higher priority.

I want to thank so many of my colleagues who have worked with me over the years to support Ukraine in its ongoing fight for freedom. This is an issue near and dear to my heart and to Ohio. As some of you know, we are the home of many Ukrainian Americans and other nationality groups that are committed to the goal of a free and independent Europe.

I want to thank Dick Durbin, the cofounder and cochair with me of the Ukraine Caucus and my Republican colleagues in the caucus who are so passionate on Ukraine: Senators Graham, Wicker, Cramer, Cotton, Barrasso, Risch, Burr, Murkowski, Sullivan, Cornyn, McConnell, Johnson, Ernst, and others. And I want to thank all those who joined me on 10 trips to Ukraine since 2014, when Ukraine rose up and threw off a corrupt Russian-backed government and turned to us, turned to the West. This includes two recent sobering visits to Ukraine with Senators Klobuchar and Coons.

In 2015, I authored a bill called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which has become the key funding account we have used to train and equip the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We need to continue to fund this account and lead the free world, carrying the torch of freedom.

Since Russia's original occupation of Ukraine escalated into a full- scale war on February 24 of this year, I have now spoken on the Senate floor 27 times--every week we have been in session--about the unprovoked, illegal, and brutal invasion of Ukraine.

My most recent speech was last night so I won't go on, except to say that we are at a critical juncture right now, and it is more important than ever that we support Ukraine. So I am going to be fighting hard for a continuation of aid to Ukraine before Christmas.

We just discussed so many examples of breaking through the partisan gridlock and getting things done. Despite these achievements, I do worry about the divisive political rhetoric in our country. It is important we restore faith in our democratic institutions, both for our own country's sake, and so we can continue to be that beacon of hope and opportunity to the rest of the world.

We can rise above the cynicism and the dysfunction. We just talked a lot about how that is happening and has happened over my last 12 years in this body.

We certainly did it on infrastructure, as I have outlined, and we have done it in so many other ways. I urge all of us to remember that there is more that unites us than divides us. I hope that one of the things we can agree on is the need to uphold this institution and what it stands for.

I strongly believe that means preserving the legislative filibuster that protects the rights of the minority in the Senate and is really the only thing that forces us to work in a bipartisan way. The result, when we find common ground, is better legislation that will stand the test of time and not be changed every time there is a change in the majority in this body.

Our country and this body face enormous challenges, whether it is economy, record inflation, the national debt that is robbing future generations, the absence of any real border security in our broken immigration system, or the looming insolvency of our entitlement programs. These issues won't be solved by one party running over the other and imposing its will on the Senate and the country. It will only be solved by us working together in good faith.

At the start of my remarks today, I said that serving the people of Ohio is the greatest honor of my life. Over the past 12 years, I have worked well with my colleague and friend from Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown, on issues important to our State.

Sherrod, we have canceled each other's votes out many times on the floor of the Senate, but we have also figured out how to work together. And I am proud of the work we have done on issues that are important to Ohio, like the Great Lakes, trade enforcement, addiction, and important judicial nominations like the district court judge we just confirmed this afternoon.

Despite our differences, we made progress for Ohio together. I hope you will have the same type of relationship, a good working relationship, with my friend Senator-elect J.D. Vance. J.D. has an impressive background of service in our military and in the private sector. I know he wants to make a difference in the lives of Ohio workers and families, and I look forward to watching him in action here in the Senate.

I know what it is like to be in public service with young children so I want to wish J.D., his wife Usha, and their three kids well. Jane and I support you both.

Thanks to everyone who has served on Team Portman throughout my career--the first Bush White House, the House of Representatives, the USTR, the OMB, and here in the Senate. We are having an alumni event tonight with a couple hundred of some of the best public servants ever assembled, and Jane and I are looking forward to seeing you all there. I have an amazing Senate staff who stuck with me to the bitter end. Thank you, both in Ohio and in Washington, DC. Many of them are here in the Chamber today.

I want to thank them for their hard work and their dedication to getting things done. They worked really hard for the people of Ohio and for our country and have enabled us to be so much more effective. Nothing we accomplished would have been possible without you.

I want to thank everyone who works in the Senate and makes it function well, whether it is the cloakroom staff, the doorkeepers, the Capitol Police, the cafeteria workers, the subway drivers, all of them in a very practical way. Democracy functions because of you, so thank you. I hope many of you can join us at our thank-you reception for you on Friday afternoon.

Special thanks to Leader McConnell. Mitch, I appreciate your encouragement over the years. Your trust in me to take on a leadership role on important assignments and for your commitment and devotion to this institution and the health of our democracy.

None of this works without having a loving and supportive family. All of you know that. So to my wife Jane and the three people in the world I am most proud of--Jed, Will, and Sally--thank you for your unconditional support and the sacrifices you made. I am looking forward to being in Ohio full time, spending more time with family and friends, the Golden Lamb--our family restaurant--and getting back to the private sector. And, somehow, I hope to stay involved in the public policy issues we have been talking about today.

Finally, thanks to my Senate colleagues who made coming to work every day enjoyable and productive. Thanks for reaching out to me to work together and accepting my offers to work with you. Relationships matter in this place. I will miss my colleagues.

One consolation is that our retiring class consists of good friends who I hope to cross paths with in the real world. Senators Blunt, Burr, Inhofe, Leahy, and Toomey have all made impressive contributions in their tenure here. I am thinking maybe we should start a post-Senate support group.

And, come January, this place loses a great intellect and a great friend--Ben Sasse.

And I think, Ben, you should hold the meetings at the University of Florida, if it is OK.

OK. Done.

So to my colleagues, I have worked with every one of you in one way or another. Thank you for that privilege, and Godspeed as you continue to serve your constituents and continue to carry that torch of freedom forward.

Thank you.

(Applause, Senators rising.)