{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=AAF8584C-CD99-482F-9B48-7D6D284DEC77", "McConnell on Honoring America\u2019s Veterans, Investing In American Strength", "2023-11-09", "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 Veteran\u2019s Day:\n\n\u201cThis weekend \u2013 with parades and gatherings, solemn ceremonies and phone calls to loved ones \u2013 America will mark Veterans Day by expressing our gratitude to the men and women who have served our nation in the armed forces.\n\n\u201cBut Veterans Day is much more than a once-a-year observation.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a reminder of our daily obligation to honor their service, uphold our promises to care for them when they come home, and do everything we can to equip those defending our nation today and tomorrow for success.\n\n\u201cToday, I\u2019m reminded of some letters I\u2019ve saved in my archives. They\u2019re letters my father sent home to my mother from his own service in Patton\u2019s Army in 1945.\n\n\u201cWith Nazi Germany on the ropes; with peace within reach, my dad was already seeing firsthand the sorts of threats that would define the next half century of American history. In the parts of his letters that made it past Army censors, he told us how the Russians were going to be a big problem.\n\n\u201cToday, America faces threats every bit as grave. Like those of the 1940s, our adversaries today aren\u2019t being shy about their efforts to win the next half century of competition with America and the West.\n\n\u201cAs one recent analysis summed it up, Russia, China, and Iran are, \u2018working to end the world order that has prevailed for three generations under American leadership.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Under American leadership.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis didn\u2019t happen by accident. The Western order of peace and freedom was delivered by the sacrifices of American servicemembers like my father, and preserved by generations of brave men and women in uniform ever since.\n\n\u201cRight now, we have an obligation to these servicemembers\u2026 to our allies\u2026 and to the American people to behave like the world-leading power we actually are. We have a duty to invest seriously in American strength.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to offer a clear strategy for victory against Russia, and then deliver the resources Ukraine needs to achieve it, right now.\n\n\u201cPutin is not deterred. And his imperial ambitions do not end at Ukraine\u2019s border with the NATO alliance.\n\n\u201cIf the United States abandons our support for Ukraine\u2019s resistance, we would risk yet another generation of American forces becoming veterans of war in Europe.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to get serious about deterring Iran \u2013 the world\u2019s leading sponsor of terrorism, and the leading sponsor of violence against American servicemembers in Iraq and Syria. I welcome yesterday\u2019s strike on an Iranian facility in Syria. But it will probably take more than striking ammunition warehouses to restore the deterrence the Biden Administration\u2019s policies have actually squandered.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to redouble our efforts to equip allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to raise the costs of further aggression from communist China.\n\n\u201cAnd as I\u2019ve said repeatedly, it\u2019s long past time to make commonsense policy changes to address a southern border crisis that has required U.S. servicemembers to help border patrol to maintain order.\n\n\u201cThese are the tasks before us. And they will not get any easier to address the longer we wait.\u201d\n\n###", 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=AAF8584C-CD99-482F-9B48-7D6D284DEC77"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8465249557048082, "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"}