{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-us-senate-must-urgently-approve-emergency-aid-for-israel-and-ukraine-to-further-us-national-security-and-save-lives", "Reed: U.S. Senate Must Urgently Approve Emergency Aid for Israel & Ukraine to Further U.S. National Security and Save Lives", "2023-11-07", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "RI", "Jack Reed", "R000122", "www.reed.senate.gov", "jackreed", "https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases", "scraper", "WATCH: Sen. Reed makes case for comprehensive package to support U.S. national security interest in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific and deliver vital humanitarian aid\n\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 With Israel and Ukraine in urgent need of U.S. assistance, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) says it is important for Congress to rapidly approve emergency assistance and humanitarian relief that will help save lives and strengthen America\u2019s national security.\n\nThe Republican-led House is playing politics with the crisis in Israel -- delaying aid at this critical time by tying support to cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And despite bipartisan support to provide aid to Ukraine to help repel Putin\u2019s illegal invasion, House Republicans insisted on not including a cent for Ukraine.\n\nReed, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, joined both Democratic and Republican colleagues on the Senate floor today to reject the House bill and vowed to work together to swiftly advance a strong, bipartisan package.\n\nReed stated: \u201cThe House Republican messaging bill represents a misguided attempt to deny needed assistance to Ukraine. It\u2019s not really about helping Israel. It\u2019s about failing to keep our commitments to Ukraine. And we know how dangerous Russian aggression can be, not just with respect to the people of Ukraine, but to the rest of the world. As my colleague said: China is watching. In fact, I think China is paying more attention to Ukraine than the current issue in Israel because Putin\u2019s imperialistic dreams of restoring the Russian empire resonate most closely to Xi Jinping\u2019s imperialist dreams to reunite Taiwan to China. So if we fail in Ukraine, I think that will send a very strong and unfortunate message to China that \u2018you can attack, wait the West out, and eventually they\u2019ll concede.\u2019 That\u2019s not good strategy or policy.\u201d\n\nDuring his floor speech today, Reed also reiterated that both Israel and Ukraine need timely U.S. support and this is not the time to entertain partisan political gestures.\n\nRepublican Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) who traveled with Reed to the Middle East last month, delivered a similar message, stating: \u201cI question what will happen if we don\u2019t support Ukraine. \u2026 There\u2019s little question that a Russian victory in Ukraine would embolden not just Putin but other malign actors, notably China. If Russia is successful at taking over part or all of Ukraine, why shouldn\u2019t China think it can successfully take over Taiwan? We should be supporting Ukraine, not just because peoples fighting for freedom against tyranny are worth of support, but because supporting Ukraine\u2014like supporting Taiwan and Israel and other free countries\u2014is in our national interest. \u2026 The Senate will soon take up a supplemental spending bill to address defense issues and any such bill should promote security abroad by providing support for our allies\u2014specifically right now: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.\u201d\n\nReed said it is vital that the Senate act swiftly to pass a responsible emergency supplemental that helps save lives and makes America stronger, safer, and more secure.\n\nText of Senator Reed\u2019s floor speech follows:\n\nMR REED: Reserving my right to object, I too believe with my colleague from Washington state, we must move forward with emergency funding for our allies, all of our allies. Not just the state of Israel but also Ukraine.\n\nI also think we have to move quickly to head off closure or a shutdown of our government next week. And we have to address the pressing need of the American people in this process.\n\nBut it's very clear that this proposal before us, this unanimous consent to pass the bill including only funds for Israel is just an attempt to deny assistance to Ukraine.\n\nIt's not really about helping Israel. It's about making sure we don't continue to keep our commitments to Ukraine. And we have had a debate about Ukraine. We have talked over two years about Ukraine. How dangerous Russian aggression can be not just with respect to the people of Ukraine, but to the rest of the world.\n\nAs my colleague said, China is watching. In fact, I think they're paying more attention to Ukraine than the current issue in Israel because Putin's imperialistic dreams of restoring the Russian empire resonate most closely to Xi Jinping's imperialist dreams to reunite Taiwan to China.\n\nSo if we fail in Ukraine, I think that will send a very strong and unfortunate message to China that you can attack, wait the West out, and eventually they'll concede. That's not good strategy or policy.\n\nMy colleagues argue that this will deny Israel getting the means to defend themselves. Well, we have already been supporting the state of Israel. We have moved two Aircraft Task Forces into the region. We're moving Marines into the region. We are sending signals that we are strongly protecting them. Indeed, we have already engaged and shot down missiles aimed at Israel from our naval forces. And we have also suffered 40 injuries of American military personnel because of actions against the United States positions in the Middle East because of our protection for Israel.\n\nWe cannot abandon Ukraine. They have lost hundreds of thousands of civilians and military personnel.\n\nIf you want to talk about horrors, October 7 was a horrible day. I was recently in Israel. I saw photographs, some that have not yet been released, of the tragedy. It was traumatic for the entire state of Israel.\n\nBut go to Ukraine. Go to Bucha. Dig up the graves of people shot in the back of the head while their hands were tied.\n\nYou want to talk about atrocities? Those are atrocities.\n\nSo we are fighting forces that are dark and evil, and we have to support all of those democratic nations, Israel and Ukraine, who are struggling against that darkness.\n\nNow, this is not my opinion alone.\n\nLast week Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State for Donald Trump and a former Congressman from Senator Marshall's home state of Kansas wrote, quote: \u201cmake no mistake, the outcome of this war will have a direct impact on U.S. national security\u201d -- speaking of Ukraine. Should Putin prevail, whether on the battlefield or through a war of attrition that leads to ill-conceived diplomacy, the war will be felt well beyond Ukrainians' borders.\n\nIndeed i would add if we fail to support Ukraine with funding and equipment that it is more likely that young American servicemembers will be called upon to fight and die and suffer in eastern Europe. Because as so many of my colleagues have suggested, as Secretary Pompeo suggested, Putin will not be satisfied with simply taking Ukraine, and we could see ourselves engaged in defending one of our NATO allies.\n\nThat is a very simple sort of notion about American military policy. I would rather send resources to a country fighting than send American soldiers to do the fighting.\n\nAnd if we don't support Ukraine, that will happen.\n\nNow this is a situation that calls on us to do the right thing, and we have to do the right thing. But this is not something that we can do separate one from another, because as we have all said, there is a connectivity here, and this connectivity has to be recognized.\n\nNow the other point I would make too is that this House bill is paid for. Now this, to me, is one of the most startling aspects of the legislation that the gentleman from Kansas is promoting, because they've paid for it by taking money away from the Internal Revenue Service. Some would say they are using the Israeli crisis as a way to do what so many of my republican colleagues like to do, give tax breaks to the wealthiest.\n\nBecause when you take money away from the IRS, you go ahead and ensure that people can feel much more comfortable about not paying their taxes as they should.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal published an article a few days ago. In 2021, the IRS failed to collect $660 billion-plus that was owed to the United States of America. That is many times this supplemental we're talking about. No financial institution would take money away from its bill collectors on the notion that, \u2018oh, that's okay.\u2019 Only in Washington would we do that.\n\nThis bill is thus irresponsible in the way it is paid for and irresponsible in ignoring our commitment to Ukraine. It's time to get serious.\n\nWe have ten days before our government runs out of funding. Israel needs our support. Ukraine needs our support. American families and communities are counting on us to deliver critical disaster assistance. They need support for affordable, high-quality child care. They need home energy, they need many things that are also at a crisis level.\n\nAnd we don't have time.\n\nWe don't have time to entertain political gestures -- to send a signal to Israel and a signal to the rich in America that we're with you, and neglect and leave out Ukrainians, who are struggling and fighting against a foe that is determined to continue this fight in Europe.\n\nUltimately, I feel if we don't respond appropriately forcing us to send our men and women into the fight.\n\nI commend Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins for standing up for this country and for our allies.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "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.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-us-senate-must-urgently-approve-emergency-aid-for-israel-and-ukraine-to-further-us-national-security-and-save-lives"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.794626772403717, "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"}