{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=8931B727-F054-4451-ACB5-AEBCE1824455", "U.S. Defense Production Pays Dividends Far Beyond Ukraine", "2023-11-01", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding our defense industrial base:\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve spoken frequently about the clear links between the biggest national security challenges facing our country, and about what we need to do to address them. But let\u2019s not lose sight of a few overarching points.\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s adversaries don\u2019t ease up when we lose our resolve. In fact, they press their advantage.\n\n\u201cHow many of our colleagues would disagree that withdrawing from Afghanistan caused America\u2019s friends and foes to question the credibility of our commitments?\n\n\u201cHow many would disagree that failing to respond decisively to hundreds of terrorist attacks against U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq has weakened our deterrence against Iran?\n\n\u201cHow many Senators would disagree that the Biden Administration shouldn\u2019t have withheld lethal assistance to Ukraine in the summer of 2021? Or that they should have shipped lethal weapons more quickly as Russia\u2019s preparations became glaringly obvious that fall and winter?\n\n\u201cHow many would disagree that the President\u2019s caution and hesitation to provide critical weapons \u2013 like HIMARS, Patriots, tanks, and ATACMs \u2013 has prolonged the conflict in Ukraine?\n\n\u201cOver and over again, history has taught us that the costs of disengaging from the world are far higher than the costs of engaging. And just as the threats we face aren\u2019t isolated, neither are the benefits of investing in American leadership.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s the plain truth: The overwhelming majority of the resources approved by the Senate as security assistance for Ukraine has in fact gone directly to American manufacturers, supporting American jobs, expanding the American industrial base, and producing new weapons for America\u2019s military.\n\n\u201cAlmost $70 billion dollars in investments, spread across at least 38 different states. Production of artillery rounds, alone, has distributed multiple billions into facilities from Arkansas to Virginia and Texas to Ohio.\n\n\u201cAll to improve our ability to equip the United States and our allies for the growing challenges we face.\n\n\u201cMr. President, these investments are not just replacing what\u2019s being used to destroy Russia\u2019s military strength. They\u2019re expanding production capacity to meet soaring demand from allies \u2013 NATO countries have invested $90 billion in capabilities produced here in America since last February.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re helping equip U.S. forces for our own long-term competition with China.\n\n\u201cTake the Patriot interceptor. This air-defense system is arguably the most in-demand weapon in the U.S. arsenal. It\u2019s saved thousands of American and allied lives. It\u2019s deployed across Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. It\u2019s produced in Tucson, Arizona, with components coming from all over the country. And the supplemental resources we\u2019re working on could expand production capacity by nearly 20%.\n\n\u201cOr take the 155mm round. It\u2019s relevant in nearly every conflict imaginable. More than 75% of our investments marked for this munition has gone toward capacity expansion. Today, U.S. manufacturers are able to produce double what they could before our response to Russian aggression last year. With further investment of so-called \u2018Ukraine spending,\u2019 American production would reach 1 million rounds per year.\n\n\u201cThe notion that this money is detracting from America\u2019s other security priorities is nonsense. Anyone making this claim doesn\u2019t understand how critical production lines work.\n\n\u201cThe truth is the investments we\u2019ve made in expanding production capacity to respond to Putin\u2019s escalation are helping American manufacturers produce more of the weapons Israel and Taiwan need.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve spoken at length about America\u2019s clear national security interest in helping Ukraine demolish Russian military strength, and in a secure and peaceful Europe.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve spelled out the glaring and immediate threats we face from Iran-backed terror, and the importance of supporting our closest ally in the Middle East.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve emphasized the gravity of strategic competition with China, and the urgency of the threat facing our friends in the Indo-Pacific.\n\n\u201cBut as foolish as it is to deny the clear link between America\u2019s adversaries and the threats we face\u2026 It\u2019s every bit as dangerous to pretend that as a global superpower, our nation cannot or should not face each of them down.\n\n\u201cWe have the means to lead the free world and ensure our own security. In the face of coordinated aggression from our adversaries, we have the clearest possible objective: \u2018We win, they lose.\u2019\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=8931B727-F054-4451-ACB5-AEBCE1824455"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0543707758188248, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}