{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=8E61F2BF-7C5A-46AC-8E71-F18F0DFD221F", "Border Security Essential, Not Extraneous, To National Security", "2023-11-29", "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 national security priorities:\n\n\u201cBorder security is national security. That\u2019s not just a statement of legislative priorities or partisan politics. It\u2019s a fact of human history.\n\n\u201cThe Senate has little more than two weeks to deliver supplemental legislation on four urgent national security priorities. And each one of them deals directly with questions of borders and sovereignty.\n\n\u201cFor over a decade, Putin has been trying to redraw the borders of Europe. He\u2019s invaded and occupied Georgia and Ukraine.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s attempted assassinations and influence operations on foreign soil. And he\u2019s exploited humanitarian crises to weaponize migrant flows in Europe, including most recently at the border of Finland.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, the Hamas terrorists who rule Gaza violated sovereign borders on their way to slaughtering 1,200 Israelis and taking hundreds more hostage.\n\n\u201cThese savages\u2019 stated objective is to erase the borders of the state of Israel, \u2018from the river to the sea\u2019.\n\n\u201cChina, for its part, is also keenly focused on challenging borders. The PRC has used force in an attempt to gain the upper hand along its border with India.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s expanded its military footprint in the South China Sea and threatened to resolve long-standing territorial disputes with multiple neighbors by force.\n\n\u201cAnd China\u2019s historic investments in military modernization are aimed at threatening Taiwan\u2019s sovereignty and bringing the island to heel.\n\n\u201cBorders matter. Sovereignty matters. The United States is a global superpower with global interests. And we have an interest in preventing autocrats and terrorists from trampling the borders of Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific.\n\n\u201cBecause if we leave them unchecked, these aggressors will keep challenging borders and keep starting wars.\n\n\u201cBorders are intrinsically and universally about a nation\u2019s security. Controlling and defending them is the essential predicate of sovereignty. So it\u2019s not by accident that, in addressing urgent national security priorities, Senate Republicans are working so hard on policy changes to restore security to America\u2019s own borders.\n\n\u201cTrying to clean up the Biden Administration\u2019s border crisis isn\u2019t some arbitrary interest. That is, unless you ask the Democratic Leader.\n\n\u201cAccording to the senior Senator for New York, the national security crisis his party has abetted at the southern border is \u2018extraneous\u2019 to the national security supplemental before the Senate.\n\n\u201cThe way our colleague sees it, securing our own borders as we help our allies and partners defend their sovereignty would be dangerous.\n\n\u201cDangerous.\n\n\u201cHere in the real world, what\u2019s dangerous is denying the humanitarian and national security crisis festering at America\u2019s southern border on President Biden\u2019s watch.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s dangerous is accepting the record numbers of illegal aliens surging across our borders as the new normal.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s dangerous is defending open borders and a broken asylum and parole system even at the risk of urgent assistance to our partners in Ukraine, Israel, and Asia.\n\n\u201cThe Biden Administration\u2019s open borders will rank among its biggest national security failures. Plain and simple.\n\n\u201cBut if Senate Democrats refuse to take border security policy changes seriously, they\u2019ll also be wrapping American weakness up as a Christmas gift to Russia, China, and Iran.\n\n\u201cBorders are an essential element of national security. They are not extraneous.\n\n\u201cWe must secure and defend sovereign borders, beginning right here at home.\n\n\u201cIf we fail to uphold this basic, fundamental responsibility, America and our friends around the world will pay dearly.\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=8E61F2BF-7C5A-46AC-8E71-F18F0DFD221F"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9156108610332012, "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"}