Hoyer: Does America Remain the Defender of Freedom, Democracy, and its Allies?

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor this morning calling for Republican leadership to bring the Senate-approved supplemental to the House Floor immediately to bring critical aid to our allies Israel and Ukraine. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:

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Click here for a link to the video.

“Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.

“I would remind the previous speaker that the bill sent – bipartisan bill from the Senate – which does, in fact, deal with the critical issues she raised. The leadership of the Republican party has refused to take that bill up.

“But there is another more important issue that confronts this House, that we should have acted on days, weeks, months ago. And that is the security of the global community, the sanctity of international law, and the saving of the sovereignty of Ukraine.

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of an embattled Israel and a beleaguered Ukraine and apprehensive allies around the world. A month ago, Speaker Johnson said, quote, ‘No one wants Vladimir Putin to prevail. I'm of the opinion that [Putin] wouldn't stop in Ukraine,’ said our Speaker. ‘If he was allowed, he’d go all the way through Europe.’ Speaker Johnson, a month ago. ‘There is,’ he said, ‘a right and wrong, there is good versus evil in my view – and Ukraine is the victim here. They were invaded. We stand with good.’ He went on to say, ‘I understand the timetable, and I understand the necessity of urgency of the funding.’

“And yet we twiddle our thumbs, without any paper on this Floor as to how we’re going to affect the urgent end of which the Speaker spoke. He then said, just April 16, ‘We need,’ he said, ‘steady leadership. We need steady hands on the wheel – look,’ said the Speaker, ‘I regard myself as a wartime Speaker.’

“If he regards himself as that, he must act now. There is no time for delay. There is no time for political chaos to impede our aid to Ukraine. Clearly, we are not acting urgently.

“If we did, we would have allowed us to pass the Senate national security bill a long time ago.

“Putin has got to be happy with the failure to bring the Senate bill to the Floor.

“It must look like ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ with little people in America, the Lilliputians that are in our midst, tying down America’s ability to respond.

“We’ve seen the consequences of House inaction. Over the weekend, Iran made an unprecedented attack on Israel – launching roughly 350 drones and missiles at targets across the country.

“They see an [unresolved] United States. Although Israel shot down nearly all of them, with the support of America – God bless President Biden and our allies, the audacity and breadth of Iran’s attack ought to concern us all as Americans and as global citizens.

“In Ukraine we have allowed our allies to run so low on ammunition that their air defenses cannot fend off similar air attacks.

“Shame on America. Shame on this House. Indeed, Iran supplies Putin with the same drones and missiles to strike Ukrainian cities. Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers are so starved for ammunition that they wade into swamps in search of abandoned Russian artillery shells they can reuse. That is how committed they are to winning this war, and that is how desperate they are for our aid.

“This Congress has failed to provide it for them for 473 days.

“The world watches us and wonders, does America remain the defender of freedom, democracy, and its allies?

“Has the wellspring of democracy run dry?

“The free world expects more from the great arsenal of democracy and so should we. Most Members of this House do. Over 300 Members of this House have voted for the proposition contained in the Senate bill.

“On seven occasions in the past year, over 300 Democrats and Republicans voted to aid Ukraine. Even more of us voted to aid Israel. We are not a silent majority but a silenced majority. Silenced by a Speaker who refused to give us a vote. It will pass. He could put the Senate supplemental on the Floor at any moment – and it would pass with a large bipartisan majority.

“Freedom is waiting upon us today.

“International law is waiting for us to redress the grievance that has occurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Speaker, let us act now.”