LEADER JEFFRIES: "PASSING THE SUPPLEMENTAL IS A MATTER OF AMERICA'S URGENT NATIONAL SECURITY"
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats held a press conference where they emphasized that while extreme MAGA Republicans refuse to pass legislation necessary to keep our nation and the American people safe, Democrats will continue working to protect our national security and stand with our allies.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Good afternoon everyone. It's my honor to be joined by a highly distinguished group of patriotic Americans who have served this country in uniform, served this country in combat and now are serving this country in the United States Congress. They understand through their own life experiences of service how urgent it is that the House pass forth with the bipartisan and comprehensive national security bill that has been advanced in the United States Senate. This is a matter of America's urgent national security. It's a matter of democracy. It's a matter of freedom. It's a matter of standing by our allies. And in the absence of doing so, particularly as it relates to the ongoing war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine, it's a matter of American lives potentially being on the line if Ukraine and its brave war effort falters because of inaction here in the United States Congress by extreme MAGA Republicans. It is my honor to yield to a highly distinguished member of Congress, an Army Ranger, someone who has served multiple tours of duty and fought valiantly for this country in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Congressman Jason Crow.
REP. CROW: Thank you, Leader Jeffries, and thank you to my colleagues. It's always a great honor to stand here with my fellow veterans in service that have served in the intelligence community and the military. Representative Spanberger and I just returned from Ukraine on a bipartisan congressional delegation where we had the chance to meet with U.S. officials, Ukrainian military and intelligence officials and, of course, President Zelenskyy. And what we can tell you is that the Ukrainians are prepared to fight and win the battle for, not only their own survival, but the battle for democracy and freedom worldwide, because that is what is at stake here. But I also want to be very clear that this effort to pass a national security bill is not charity. This bill and this effort is directly aligned in support of U.S. national security interests and the American people. The purpose of this bill and effort is to stop Russian aggression in Europe. Stop it where it is. The purpose of this bill is to protect the 100,000 plus U.S. servicemen and women and their families, stations throughout Europe. The purpose of this bill is to protect our largest economic trading partner in Europe. The purpose of this bill is to protect our food supply and our food prices coming from the breadbasket of Ukraine. And how do we do that? We do that by spending over half of this money directly in U.S. businesses where U.S. workers, men and women, will assemble the supplies and the equipment necessary for Ukraine to fight and win. And then that new stuff that those workers make, that goes directly to our U.S. military to modernize our own equipment and supplies, and then our military sends our old stuff to Ukraine. So we are protecting our economy, we are protecting our troops and our families, we are protecting our food supplies, we are updating our military readiness and supplies and we are defending democracy. And if we don't do that, we will live in a drastically different world than we live in now. One where the strong and the larger can just take by force the smaller. And that is not a world we want our children and grandchildren to live in. There are moments in history that will dictate the course for generations to come, and we are at one of those moments right now. House Democrats will not turn our backs on our troops. We will not turn our backs on our economy and our businesses. We will not turn our backs on our allies. We will not turn our backs on the American people. We will, as always, lead. And with that, I'm very honored to turn it over to my dear friend and colleague, Mikie Sherrill from New Jersey.
REP. SHERRILL: Thank you. As a former Navy helicopter pilot and a former Russian policy officer in the United States Navy, I can tell you that, for those of us up here who joined Congress to continue our service to our country, who joined Congress to make sure we were serving our states and our nation, last week was a really hard week. After months of what we thought was maybe an impossible negotiation, we came together in the Senate in a bipartisan way on a border deal to make sure we have critical investments in our border that our nation needs. And when the former President Trump saw that coming together, he evidently decided that it was better for his campaign not to fix the problem at the border, but to run his partisan campaign on fomenting a greater crisis. We saw as our Senate came together to try to pass the supplemental supporting all of our allies, the Speaker of the House put forth a supplemental designed to actually kill the one that could pass in a really cynical move. So now, as we see the Senate again doing the impossible, coming together in a bipartisan way in these partisan times and passing a supplemental that will support our allies across the world, that will support the United States in our ability to compete economically, to compete on our values, to make sure global democracy thrives, we again see the former President dictating to our Speaker that, instead of solving problems, instead of standing for democracy, the extremists in the House are going to take that bill down. It's really incomprehensible. It's really hard to see as we're fighting tooth and nail to make sure our allies thrive, that that partnership between China, Iran and Russia that is developing, that we stand strong against it with the democratic nations, it's hard to see the former President suggest that he would ally the United States with that triumvirate. So as we move forward, I think this is a turning point, as Jason said. This is critical for our nation's future. We have got to pass this supplemental. We have got to come together and find a pathway to do that. I think the future of our nation, our economy, our values are all at stake. So without further ado, I will now turn it over to Representative Carbajal, someone who is the senior member present, as you like to tell us. He would be cutting the cake, he said, at the Marine Corps birthday. But I will turn it over to him to talk about how important the supplemental is.
REP. CARBAJAL: Thank you, Representative Sherrill. That reference was because of my age, nothing more. House Republicans know this bill would pass. They are still taking orders from the Pro-Putin wing of their party and Donald Trump, who recently has made his feelings known about supporting our allies very clear. But as a Marine veteran and someone who has mobilized in the 90s, when we were confronting a different dictator invading his neighbor, let me be clear about what happens if the Speaker fails to bring this bill up for a vote. This supplemental won't just save lives today by delivering aid and helping defend civilian lives. This package will save lives in the future, as was said earlier. The men and women of our armed forces who could be called upon to respond to a wider conflict and new wars. If Russia, in Donald Trump's words, does whatever it wants to Ukraine, we know that it may not stop there. If we do not approve this bill today, we still have to approve it eventually. Only next time it might be to defend a NATO ally. And it would just not be American dollars. It could be the lives of American servicemembers and yes, civilians. With that, let me turn it over to my good friend and colleague, Representative Chrissy Houlahan, who has distinguished military service.
REP. HOULAHAN: Thank you, everyone. And I first want to thank Leader Jeffries for his tireless advocacy and for all of my fellow veterans and national security colleagues as well. I serve on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committee, but before my service began, there's been a really strong heritage of service in my family. My father-my grandfather served in Korea. As a military child, my mother lived 26 miles away from Hiroshima when she was a teenager. My father was born in the throes of World War Two in Lviv, which is now in Ukraine and survived the Holocaust. But as an adult, he served our country in Vietnam. I served the United States in the United States Air Force during Desert Storm. I'm sharing all of this with you because you could probably say and hear that this is personal to me. I intimately see the connection between Ukraine and Israel, Asia and this, our great nation. But this is not just personal to me. It is and should be personal to all of us. And in fact, it's not just personal. I believe it to be existential for all of us. If the U.S. does not continue to lead and lead now in protecting democracies, I genuinely fear and clearly many of my colleagues do as well, that generations of my family, families with stories just like mine and yours will pay the consequences. And this infuriates me. I cannot say it more clearly than this. The Republican-led house is derelict in their duties to our allies and to us, our nation. We need to vote and vote now to aid Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and for humanitarian purposes, for our allies, for ourselves and for our future. Speaker Johnson needs to find the courage to bring this to a vote. Thank you very much for my time. I have the distinguished honor to present my friend and colleague Representative Spanberger.
REP. SPANBERGER: Thank you so much for being here. I just returned from a CODEL with Congressman Crow to Ukraine, where we sat down with Ukrainian leaders, military leaders, intelligence leaders and the President and spoke of the extraordinary work that they are doing on the battlefield to protect their nation, to protect democratic values and to seek freedom. As Chrissy mentioned, this moment is existential. It is not an exaggeration to say that this vote is absolutely one of the most important votes that we will cast in the House of Representatives, because when we look at the reality on the ground, in a world where Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and the Ukrainians are doing the fighting to free their own country and fight for democratic values, all they need is a bit of help. When we look at the fact that Vladimir Putin is indeed meeting with Hamas leadership— When we look at the fact that Iranian drones are flying into Ukraine and attacking or attempting to attack Israeli civilians, what stands in the way of that? U.S. aid, funding for the Iron Dome, support to our allies in the Middle East. And when so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle speak consistently of their worries about China and confronting China, and here we have a chance to ensure that Taiwan is able to defend itself if China were ever to aggress against Taiwan, they're not taking up the bill for a vote. This is a moment where when we look at which way is the world going to orient— Is it going to orient towards freedom? Is it going to orient towards the United States? Is it going to orient towards democracy? Or are we, the United States of America, the most extraordinary nation on Earth, going to walk away from what is our responsibility, to walk away from what is our own national security priorities and interests and allow the defeat of Ukraine, allow the abandonment of our allies and allow for our foes to rise up allied with one another in destruction of and certainly against the democratic principles that every single member of the House of Representatives should be voting to support. And with that, I thank you for being here and I turn it back to Leader Jeffries.
Full press conference can be watched here.