National Security Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, to provide for the common defense is one of Congress's primary responsibilities.

I have been at this business for quite a while, and I have found that making and explaining sensible decisions about advancing our Nation's interests is easier when you start from the right set of assumptions.

Here is what I know to be true: American prosperity and security are the products of decades of American leadership. Our global interests come with global responsibilities. Healthy alliances lighten the burden of these responsibilities. And at the end of the day, the primary language of strategic competition is strength.

These are the facts that led me to urge Presidents of both parties not to abandon Afghanistan to terrorists, to fight efforts from both sides of the aisle to tie America's hands in critical parts of the world, to push consecutive administrations to equip Ukraine with lethal weapons before--before--Russia escalated, and to continue fighting for the sort of sustained investments in our military and defense industrial base necessary to meet the challenges that we face.

The responsibilities of leadership, the value of alliances, the currency of hard power--these are foundational principles. They are not driven by the fickle politics of any one moment. They are tested and proven by the workings of a dangerous world.

Today, the Senate sits for a test on behalf of the entire Nation. It is a test of American resolve, our readiness, and our willingness to lead. And the stakes of failure are abundantly clear.

Failure to help Ukraine stand against Russian aggression now means inviting escalation against our closest treaty allies and trading partners. It means greater risk that American forces would become involved in conflict. It means more costly deployments of our military and steeper military requirements to defend against aggression.

Failure to reestablish deterrence against Iran means encouraging unchecked terrorist violence against American personnel, our ally Israel, and the international commerce that underpins our prosperity.

And failure to match the pacing threat--the People's Republic of China--means jeopardizing the entire system of alliances that preserve American interests and reinforce American leadership.

Colleagues on both sides of the aisle who dismiss the values of our allies and partners ignore what history teaches about times when we lacked such friendships. Our adversaries understand the stakes, and they are responding with a coordinated full-court press.

Iran and North Korea are literally arming Russia's war in Ukraine. China is helping Iran skirt international sanctions. A ``friendship without limits'' has blossomed between Moscow and Beijing.

The authoritarians of the world may have caught the West flatfooted. They may be betting big that American influence is in decline. But, increasingly, our friends understand the stakes too.

In Asia, nations with every excuse to be preoccupied by Chinese aggression understand that, in fact, defeating authoritarian conquest halfway around the world is actually in their interests. They know China will benefit from Russian advances, and they know Beijing is waiting for us to waver.

In Europe, allies that had long neglected the responsibilities of collective security are making historic new investments in their own defense.

Finland and Sweden, two high-tech nations, responded to Russian escalation by bringing real military capabilities to the most successful military alliance in world history. And when the House passed the supplemental last week, the Prime Minister of Sweden reiterated that our allies have even more work to do.

The holiday from history is over.

And in the Middle East, our close ally is locked in a fight for its right to literally exist. The people of Israel require no reminders of the stakes of hard-power competition or deterrence.

The remaining question is whether America does. Do our colleagues share the view of the Japanese Prime Minister that ``the leadership of the United States is indispensable''? Or would we rather abdicate both the responsibilities and the benefits of global leadership?

Will the Senate indulge the fantasy of pulling up a drawbridge? Will we persist in the 21st century with an approach that failed in the 20th? Or will we dispense with the myth of isolationism and embrace reality?

For those who insist that America cannot do what the moment requires, the facts are inconveniently clear:

First, supplemental investment in the capabilities America and our friends need to defeat Russian aggression are not a distraction from China. Without the investments we have made over the past 2 years, America's defense industrial base would be even further behind the clear requirements of long-term competition with the PRC.

You don't believe me? Just ask the former chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, who stayed in Congress long enough to support the legislation now before us.

Second, supplemental investments have expanded our capacity to produce critical munitions. This supplemental contains additional investments aimed at expanding production capacity of critical munitions and weapons systems needed in the Indo-Pacific. Higher production rates and lower unit costs of critical munitions are a no- brainer for colleagues who are actually interested in strategic competition with the PRC.

Colleagues on the other side of the aisle who say they are concerned over the defense industrial base today would have done well to have joined me--months before Russian escalation in Ukraine--in supporting a massive proposed investment under reconciliation led by our former colleagues Senator Shelby and Senator Inhofe. If some of our Republican colleagues hadn't joined the Democratic leader in opposition, we would have begun to rebuild our capacity even sooner.

And, finally, investment in American hard power and leadership isn't coddling our allies. By every objective measure, they have helped drive our allies to make historic--historic--investments of their own in collective defense.

Across Europe, the acceleration of defense spending is outpacing our own. And, right now, allies and partners from Europe to the Indo- Pacific have contracted more than $100 billion worth of cutting-edge American weapons and capabilities. That is right. Our allies across the world are buying expensive, sophisticated American weapons produced in American factories by American workers.

Do my colleagues really think that will continue if America decides that global leadership is too heavy a burden?

So much of the hesitation and shortsightedness that has delayed this moment is premised on sheer fiction, and I take no pleasure in rebutting misguided fantasies.

I wish sincerely that recognizing the responsibilities of American leadership was the price of admission for serious conversations about the future of our national security.

Make no mistake, delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression. Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face.

Today's action is overdue, but our work does not end here. Trust in American resolve is not revealed overnight. Expanding and restocking the arsenal of democracy doesn't just happen by magic.

And even as our allies take on a greater share of the burden of collective security, our obligation to invest in our own defense is as serious as ever.

So I will continue to hold the Commander in Chief to account for allowing America's adversaries to deter us, for hesitating in the face of escalation, and for providing anything less than full support for allies like Israel as they fight to restore their security and their sovereignty. At the same time, I will not mince words when Members of my own party take the responsibilities of American leadership lightly.

Today, the Senate faces a test, and we must not fail it.

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Mr. McCONNELL. This has been an extremely important day in the history of our country and the free world. They are all watching, waiting to see what we would do.

When Putin escalated his war against Ukraine, I told our colleagues that allies and adversaries, alike, would pay very close attention to America's response. When Iran-backed terrorists invaded the Jewish State on October 7 to slaughter innocent Israelis, I warned that the world would watch closely for signs that American leadership was actually weakening.

For months, our friends have watched to see whether America still had the strength that won the Cold War or the resolve that has underpinned peace and prosperity, literally, for decades. Our enemies have tested whether the arsenal of democracy is, in fact, built to endure.

Well, tonight, the Senate will send a clear message. History will record that, even if allies and partners have worried about the depth of our resolve; even as Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran grew more convinced that our influence had run its course; and even as loud voices here at home insisted on abandoning responsibilities of leadership, America stepped up and the Senate held firm.

It is time to reaffirm some basic truths. Alliances matter. Foreign nations' respect for American interests depends on our willingness to defend them. And the peace, prosperity, and security are not accidents. They are products of American leadership and American sacrifice.

The votes we are about to cast will be among the most consequential. But the difficult work of restoring and sustaining hard power, defense, industrial capacity, and global influence must continue beyond this supplemental.

So I will just say to my colleagues: We can wish for a world where the responsibilities of leadership don't fall on us or we can act like we understand that they do. Tonight, as in so many moments in our history, idle calls for America to lower its guard ring hollow. None of us is absolved of our duty to see the world as it actually is. None of us is excused from our obligation to equip the United States to face down those who wish us harm.

I said it before: History settles every account. And I welcome the eyes of posterity on what the Senate does tonight.

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