-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to follow the comments of my colleague from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I intend to join him in voting against any proceedings by the United States military, any action by our President to invade or occupy Cuba without authorization by the Senate, by the House, by the Congress of the United States.
We just heard an address by King Charles III, and it is striking that he made a few simple and clear points. He delivered his remarks with humor, with engagement, and with respect, but he could not have been clearer that the fight for freedom in the world today is principally engaged in Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression. And he asked us to continue our support with our NATO allies for Ukraine's brave fight and got a standing ovation.
He also reminded us of the very beginnings of liberty in the British Commonwealth when the Magna Carta was signed at Runnymede and spoke about the shared history of limitations on Executive power, on restrictions on overreach--first by a King; here, by a President.
The sad truth is that this body has gradually handed away the power to control war and peace to increasingly overly powerful Presidents.
I am grateful to my colleague from the Commonwealth of Virginia for his repeated efforts to bring to this floor and to move forward clarifying amendments, important votes, to sunset an overused authorization for the use of military force that dated back 24, 25 years, and to insist that in the current actions against Venezuela, against Iran, and potentially soon against Cuba that this body do its job: Stand up and take a vote, be on the record.
Last, if I might, I am the senior Democrat on Defense Appropriations, and in repeated recent meetings with the highest levels of the leadership, civilian and military at the Pentagon, I have repeatedly raised concerns about the defense of Ukraine.
Last year, the Pentagon sent us a budget. The President sent us a budget that requested nothing--zero--to reinforce our NATO allies in the Baltic States and to support Ukraine.
Ukraine is, today, overwhelmingly funded by our NATO allies, by the Western European partners who have stepped forward and funded their acquisition of munitions in the United States and from across our partners and allies.
Last year, they requested zero, and this Congress, on a bipartisan basis, inserted $400 million for the defense of Ukraine--$400 million out of $1.1 trillion last year.
Once again, this year we received a budget with zero for Ukraine, and I have made it clear to the administration and their representatives, the Secretary and others, that if they don't demonstrate how they will spend the money appropriated by this body and signed into law by the President, they should not expect to receive one dime more.
So as the question of how we will conduct ourselves going forward in Cuba, in Ukraine, in the Middle East is before this body, I intend to continue to vote for the Congress to take its constitutional role and, more than anything, for us to not hand away the power of the purse to an overreaching President.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source