***WATCH: Senator Murray’s floor remarks***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, again objected to an attempt by Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to seek unanimous consent to pass House Republicans’ bill to deliver military assistance to Israel alone and reiterated the need to comprehensively address the urgent national security challenges we face.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Reserving the right to object.
“Iran’s attacks over the weekend underscore the precarious moment we find ourselves in and the urgent need for Congress to act decisively to confront the many challenges we and our allies face.
“And, of course, the surest and fastest way to do that is to pass the carefully-negotiated, comprehensive national security supplemental that the Senate cleared in an overwhelming bipartisan vote over two months ago.
“There is urgency for aiding all of our allies facing grave threats.
“We cannot afford half steps or half measures like this one.
“Because, for months now, Ukraine has been desperately waiting for more aid and counting how many bullets they have left, how many missiles—and how many Iranian-made drones—they can still intercept, and how much longer they can hold out if we don’t keep our word.
“At a time like this: we simply cannot settle for a bill that helps one ally and ignores all the rest.
“And Ukraine hasn’t just been calling for aid for months—many House Republicans—including the Speaker—have been saying for months we will not abandon them.
“This bill would leave Ukraine in the dust. It would ignore the threat the Chinese government poses in the Indo-Pacific. And it would fail to take action to address the dire humanitarian crises we are seeing around the world—which will lead to more instability.
“Not on my watch.
“Let me make this simple: if we want a safer world, with strong American leadership—then we cannot send the message that America only keeps some of its promises to some of its allies some of the time.
“Otherwise—how are our partners supposed to trust us? Why would our adversaries take us seriously?
“How do my colleagues offering this bill plan to answer all of the allies who come knocking after something like this asking: ‘Are we a priority like Israel—or a bargaining chip like Ukraine?’
“That’s not a rhetorical question. How do you plan to answer them?
“We cannot tell the world that we forget some of our allies in their time of need—that partnering with us might mean getting left behind.
“And that means we cannot ignore the reality that Israel is not the only ally of ours in the middle of a brutal conflict, facing grave threats.
“The people of Ukraine are fighting, and dying, for their homeland as we speak. They are literally running out of bullets fighting off Putin’s bloody invasion.
“Are we going to pretend, with the whole world watching, that we don’t hear their cries for help?
“That is not an acceptable outcome. Especially when, right now, we already have a comprehensive bipartisan bill to support all of our allies and address the many threats we face across the globe.
“The Speaker has said many times he wants us to get aid to Ukraine. Well, all he has to do to prove he is serious and put that bill to a vote. That’s it.
“Further delay—including by going back to the drawing board and sending something back to the Senate—will waste more time we simply do not have.
“So the Speaker needs to put the bipartisan national security supplemental up for a vote.
“Because unlike the bill before us right now, the bipartisan Senate bill stands by all of our allies. It leaves no one behind. It includes support for Israel and Ukraine. And importantly, it includes badly-needed humanitarian aid and absolutely essential investments to support our allies in the Indo-Pacific and deter aggression by the Chinese government.
“We have to do better than half steps. We just have to.
“We cannot settle for a bill like the one proposed here tonight that would shamefully tell the world we don’t stand by all of our allies—a bill that will leave every partner we have asking whether we are going to treat them like a true ally, or like an afterthought.
“M. President, I object.”
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