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Floor Speech
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, my colleagues have been down on the Senate floor for the last hour talking about the world that the Biden- Harris administration left us in terms of national security, and it is a really important topic. It is a much more dangerous world, and it also impacts not just what is going on globally but at home as well, particularly in a State like mine where the Biden-Harris administration has literally been at war with Alaska because we have a lot of resources.
Now, you are thinking, Well, why would that happen? So when you are governing, as this administration demonstrated to the American people and Alaskans, you make choices. You make choices. President Biden's choices involved: Do you support hard-working Alaskans, particularly in the energy sector or do you support anti-American dictators, particularly when it relates to America's energy?
And the choices, unfortunately, in the last 4 years is, when this administration was thinking about, Hey, where do I get my energy-- Americans need energy. Our allies need energy, particularly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We told all our allies: Hey, get off Russian oil and gas. OK. Where should we get it? Well, we should get it from places like Alaska, hard-working Alaskans, not from dictators like in Venezuela or Iran.
But the choice that this President made almost every time was about selecting dictators over Americans, over Alaskans, when it comes to energy.
Now, this is particularly true as it relates to the policy the Biden- Harris administration undertook with regard to Iran. Think about what they inherited. The Trump administration's Iran policy was very effective. What was it? No. 1, maximum pressure on the Iranian energy sector.
When President Trump took office, under the Trump administration's sanctions, Iran's oil exports were reduced in 2020 to about 200,000 barrels a day from 2.7 million barrels a day. This was crushing them. Their foreign reserves, Iranian foreign reserves, went to about $4 billion in foreign reserves by the end of the Trump administration. That is not a lot at all. This was working.
The Trump administration's policies in the Middle East, particularly as it relates to Iran, also involved taking out the world's No. 1 terrorist, Soleimani.
By the way, a lot of people now commend President Trump for that. I remember the classified hearing we had here in the Senate right after that happened. So many of my Senate Democrat colleagues were criticizing Mike Pompeo and others for killing General Soleimani, which was a huge gift to countries around the world because he was the No. 1 terrorist in the world.
And, of course, the Trump administration launched the Abraham Accords. The Presiding Officer and I went to a number of the Abraham Accord countries together prior to the October 7 attacks, where the opportunities for peace had been growing prior to the October 7 attacks.
So that was the Trump administration's policies with regard to Iran and energy. What did they do when the Biden administration came in? They made choices, and the choices were to appease Iran. The choices were to lift sanctions on the Iranian oil and gas sector. When they lifted these sanctions over the last 4 years, this has dramatically enriched Iran. They almost have $100 billion in oil revenues now-- again, choosing dictators over Americans and Alaskans.
And, of course, Iran, what did they use this money for? To train and equip and supply the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
So what happened domestically? I will tell you what happened domestically. In my State, the great State of Alaska, that has got minerals and oil and gas for our Nation, for our allies, for Alaskans in huge abundance, the Biden-Harris administration came in, and they said: We are going to shut down Alaska. We are going to lock up Alaska. We are going to prefer energy from our adversaries than from our own country, and that is what they did. Sixty-eight Executive orders and Executive actions in the last 4 years--68--exclusively focused on shutting down my State.
I don't think there has ever been a Federal Government that focused on one State to crush them more than the Biden administration did to the great State of Alaska.
So as I mentioned, this is all about choices. I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal a couple month ago saying the Biden-Harris administration sanctions Alaska more than it sanctions Iran. It sanctions hard-working Alaskans more than it sanctions the terrorists in Iran. That is fact. That is what has happened when you have an administration that goes on bended knee all over the world--Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia--begging for oil when you are shutting it down in our own country, particularly in my State.
So this is what we got--4 years of this--sanctioning a State, sanctioning my constituents when the President goes on bended knee to Venezuela, to Iran, and won't sanction them at all. Does that make sense? No. But that is the world that we watched and dealt with over the last 4 years. I am quite confident that the incoming Trump administration is not going to do that anymore.
Stand by, Iran. Maximum sanctions are coming back your way. Maximum pressure is coming back your way. And I am also very confident that the Trump administration, with a Republican Senate and a Republican House, is going to help the State of Alaska, which has more critical minerals and oil and gas than almost anyplace in the world, to once again produce for the benefit of Alaskans, for the benefit of Americans, and the benefit of our allies.
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