Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1160, I call up the bill (H.R. 8036) making emergency supplemental appropriations for assistance for the Indo-Pacific region and for related expenses for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer H.R. 8036, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Act of 2024.
The bill provides $8.12 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to continue efforts to counter Communist China and ensure a strong deterrence in the region.
It includes $3.3 billion to develop submarine infrastructure; $2 billion for the foreign military financing program for Taiwan and other key partners in the region; $1.9 billion for replenished defense articles and defense services provided to Taiwan and regional partners; $542 million to strengthen U.S. military capabilities in the region, and $133 million to enhance the production and development of artillery and critical minerals.
Today's bill should not be viewed in isolation. It is part of a series of three security supplemental bills and a related national security measure, all of which are being considered as part of a comprehensive funding package.
This measure and the other two supplemental bills will provide needed military assistance to Israel and Ukraine during their time of crisis; will provide support for Taiwan as it confronts aggression from the Chinese Communist Party; and will provide support for the U.S. military forces operating in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including the critical replenishment of American stocks of ammunition.
American's greatest writer, Mark Twain, is reputed to have said: ``History does not repeat itself, but it does sometimes rhyme.''
Tragically, the past 2 years have produced echoes of a dark time in world history, the 1930s.
In the 1930s, evil regimes bent on aggression, domination, and even genocide, took their first steps down a dark road that would eventually lead to world war.
Tragically, the democratic West turned inward then, standing idly by while fascist regimes began to take aggressive actions against their weaker neighbors.
There was time then to put a stop to aggression, if only we had had the fortitude and the wherewithal to stand firmly on the side of freedom.
Today, we are seeing uncomfortable parallels to that dark time. In Europe, Vladimir Putin launched an unjust and illegal invasion of his democratic neighbor, Ukraine. In Asia and the Pacific, the Chinese Communist Party encroaches on its neighbors and openly threatens the continued self-determination of Taiwan, a nation which continues to show the world what a free and democratic China could look like.
In the Middle East, Israel faces attacks on multiple fronts, beginning with the horrible terror attack launched by Hamas on October 7, and continuing with an unprecedented direct aerial assault launched by the Iran regime over the weekend.
These events do not take place in a vacuum, Madam Speaker. They take place in regions around the world critical to American national security. They threaten our friends and partners around the globe and threaten the continued safety of democracy.
The security of our fellow democratic states is our security, and protecting their security is undoubtedly in America's national interests.
Some of America's greatest leaders of the 20th century recognize this fundamental reality. I think of Franklin Roosevelt calling on America to become the great arsenal of democracy to defeat Nazi Germany. I think of Ronald Reagan reminding us that the preservation of a peaceful, free, and democratic Europe is essential to the preservation of a peaceful, free, and democratic United States.
Madam Speaker, peace through strength cannot be delivered through appeasement. We cannot wish our way to national security, and we cannot thrust our heads into the sand while aggressive nations threaten their neighbors.
Today's measure is not only about safeguarding the ideals of democracy and peace, but it is also central to our own national security.
The actions we take today will be seen and heard around the world. Vladimir Putin is watching. Xi Jinping is watching. The Iranian mullahs are watching. What will we show them? Will we show them that our commitment to security does not stop at the water's edge? Will we show them that we know that the security of our friends and our partners around the globe is our security? Or will we fail to take action and, in doing so, give these powers the same gift we gave to the fascist powers in the 1930s?
I know which I would choose. I know what I would show our adversaries, these tyrants and dictators, that just in Ronald Reagan's time, the United States stands committed to the common defense, that our commitment to our friends and partners stands both now and into the future.
Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Womack), chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies of the Appropriations Committee.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim), my good friend.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), my very good friend.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, the visionary Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of The Daily Wire and host of the top conservative podcast in America, wrote ``Why Speaker Johnson Is Correct'' on Thursday. His defense of Speaker Johnson has been re- enforced by Mark Levin and General Jack Keane.
In supporting the people of Taiwan, it is crucial to be a deterrence to the China Communist Party invading, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
As the son of a Flying Tiger in World War II who served in Kunming, Chengdu, and Xian, I grew up with an appreciation of people of Chinese heritage.
America will stand with the people of Taiwan, with South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Ukraine. We are the greatest nation on Earth, and we have to act like it. This is a basic Reagan Republicanism.
In conclusion, God bless our troops who successfully protected America for 20 years as the global war on terrorism moves from the Afghanistan safe haven to America. We do not need new voter laws. We need to enforce the existing laws. Biden shamefully opens the borders for dictators as more 9/11 attacks across America are imminent, as repeatedly warned by the FBI.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn), my very good friend.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.
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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing.
I begin by thanking the Speaker and the Rules Committee, particularly my good friends Chairman Burgess and Ranking Member McGovern, for structuring this debate so every Member in this Chamber would have an opportunity to express their opinion on every issue. This is really a very welcome gift. Nobody is being jammed. Everybody can voice their own opinion.
I thank my good friend, the ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee, for working with me. We have had a long friendship and a long professional relationship, and I look forward to the years ahead working with her.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I urge all our colleagues to support all four of these bills. We are, as speaker after speaker has said, at a critical moment in our history. We need to stand firm. We need to send a clear signal to the rest of the world, so please pass the bills.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 8036, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, a bill whose passage is essential to our national security.
By far and away, the greatest threat to world peace since the fall of the Soviet Union is a Communist China that seeks to displace the United States as global hegemon, while nursing historical grievances over past humiliations by nations of the West.
The People's Republic of China is not simply a strategic rival of the United States, but a systemic one, which seeks to rewrite the entire rules-based international order and recreate it in its own image.
To that end, it has targeted Taiwan, known formally as the Republic of China.
The strategic importance of Taiwan in countering the Chinese Communist Party's hegemonistic ambitions cannot be overstated. It is the anchor of the first island chain, stretching from Japan to the Philippines, and it is a major economic and trade power in its own right. It dominates the semiconductor supply chain, integral to our economic and security well-being.
But more than that, it is a beacon of hope for the Chinese people, a bastion of democracy and freedom and a rebuke to the narrative of Xi Jinping and the CCP that the Chinese tradition is inimical to democracy and human rights.
Taiwan, like Israel, is an absolutely key strategic ally in a dangerous part of the world. To keep the peace, we must ensure that it has the arms necessary to defend itself, and we must stand by it against any cross-Strait aggression.
Congress' commitment to Taiwan is longstanding, and it is important that we reaffirm that today, so as to underscore to the regime on the Chinese mainland that there is can be no doubt or ambiguity--strategic or otherwise--regarding that commitment.
As the bedrock Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 clearly stated, we are committed to resisting ``any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people in Taiwan.
Ronald Reagan constantly and consistently stated that we achieve ``Peace through strength.''
It is that strength--and the willingness to resort to force of arms-- that keeps the peace, paradoxical as that may seem to some.
Towards that end, we need to be prepared. That is why I in the House and Marco Rubio in the Senate introduced the Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act, first in 2022 and then again in this Congress. That bill calls for a strategy to counter any coercive action by Communist China towards Taiwan.
It is why I introduced an amendment to last year's NDAA which called for assisting Taiwan in developing an asymmetric naval self-defense capability, enhanced by small, high speed, long-range, extreme-weather- capable, reduced-radar-signature boats.
Another idea whose time has come is developing a technology security alliance with Taiwan and our other allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea. We would create a trade network that provides a realistic alternative to China, providing a shield against any coercion by China. Former Taiwan Legislative Yuan member Jason Hsu has championed that idea, and it is a good one.
Finally, there is a backlog in sending weapons and ordnance to Taiwan, some $19 billion worth, due to our commitments elsewhere, and due to bureaucratic and production bottlenecks. Co-production--the building of weapons in Taiwan, under contract, from drones to small boats to missiles--is something that needs to be done, so that Taiwan can deter mainland aggression.
Let us unequivocally state: we stand with the people of Taiwan, and our Indo-Pacific allies.
I will vote in favor of H.R. 8036 and urge my colleagues to do the same.
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