{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=BBB0DEB2-CF16-4A8A-9A2B-0A5110BEEF81", "Senate Returns To Glaring Unfinished Business On National Defense", "2024-09-09", "2024", "2024-09", "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\u201cThe challenges facing an American-led order and American interests around the world are no less serious, nor less connected, than they were the last time the Senate convened.\n\n\u201cLast week, Iran was expected to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia in a major expansion of its support for Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine. The PRC is ramping up its destabilizing provocations in the South China Sea. And Russia, for its part, continues to court the fealty of senior officials from a NATO ally, Hungary.\n\n\u201cAnd our adversaries\u2019 advances have been compounded by the West\u2019s own inaction, distraction, and astonishing lapses in moral clarity.\n\n\u201cIn recent days, the head of UNRWA, whose employees participated in the slaughter of Jews on October 7th, insisted that deserved criticism of his organization\u2019s complicity in terrorism was, itself, tantamount to \u2018a weapon\u2019 in the war.\n\n\u201cThe Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom\u2019s new government announced a suspension of some 30 licenses of military aid to Israel, just as the world\u2019s only Jewish state buried hostages \u2013 including a young American citizen \u2013 who were murdered in cold blood by Hamas.\n\n\u201cThis step \u2013 and calls for similar restrictions on our own assistance \u2013 validate the terrorists\u2019 strategy and broadcast the weakness of our resolve.\n\n\u201cAnd in a bizarre public message, even by its own standards, the Biden-Harris Administration urged the Houthi terrorists holding international commerce hostage in the Red Sea to think about the consequences of their blockade for the environment.\n\n\u201cNeedless to say, with August behind us, Congress\u2019 own unfinished business has become even more glaring.\n\n\u201cThe President\u2019s meager defense budget request was already an insufficient starting point for topline funding discussions when they began months ago.\n\n\u201cToday, constraints on Congress\u2019 ability to provide for the common defense are even more dangerous, and demands for parity with non-defense discretionary spending even more reckless.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, continued failure to process the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act puts the lie to any suggestion that the Senate Democratic majority is focused on urgent business.\n\n\u201cThe authoritarians conspiring to supplant American-led peace and prosperity did not ease up while the Senate was in recess. Our adversaries are resolved to exploit American weakness and hesitation. And we\u2019ve given them quite enough.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "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=BBB0DEB2-CF16-4A8A-9A2B-0A5110BEEF81"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7270758505910635, "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"}