National Security Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, you know, we meet this week at a critical time. The threats we face on the world stage are demanding our attention in a way that we have not seen in decades.

From the Middle East, to Europe, to the Indo-Pacific, weakness from President Biden has allowed chaos to spread across this globe. In Israel, they are in a fight for survival against genocidal Hamas terrorists. In the Indo-Pacific, China is saber-rattling and making provocative moves towards Taiwan and the Philippines. In Ukraine, Russia continues its brutal war of aggression by committing war crimes against innocent civilians. But right here at home, we are facing a crisis of our own--most notably, the worst border crisis in American history.

The truth is that the consequences of our border crisis affect our citizens the most. For example, in my home State of North Carolina, we have seen a 22-percent increase in drug overdose deaths--the highest level ever recorded. This is primarily due to deadly fentanyl that was transported into our country through an open southern border on President Biden's watch.

Police departments from Charlotte to Raleigh have uncovered tens of thousands of pounds of fentanyl--enough to kill every man, woman, and child not just in North Carolina but in the whole country. Right now, we have an administration ignoring that crisis, and the only attempt the Senate made to address it--it fell far short of what is needed.

So as we again debate foreign aid and foreign spending, I will repeat what I have said throughout the process. We must secure our own border before we help other countries protect theirs. In order to be a strong nation, we first have to have a strong border here at home.

During one of my recent telephone townhalls a few month ago, I asked a poll question to the thousands of people who had joined me that evening on the phone. I asked: If you could be assured that the southern border was secure, would you then support sending aid to allies and partners? Roughly two-thirds of the respondents said yes. You see, most people aren't opposed to helping our friends; they just think we need to take care of our own country first.

For me, ``America First'' does not mean ``America Only,'' so when I oppose this package, it won't be because I oppose helping our friends and our allies. We should send Israel the weapons they need to eliminate Hamas and free the remaining hostages--one, by the way, who is a North Carolinian. We should counter the Chinese Communist Party's military aggression in the Indo-Pacific and its social media subversion inside our country. We should counter Russia's brutality and force Putin to the negotiating table on terms most favorable to Ukraine. We should rebuild the arsenal of democracy and make significant investments in our national defense. We should do all of those things but not before we fix what affects our own citizens first.

Too many Americans are suffering. Too many Americans are dying. This is an order of priorities, and my first priority as a U.S. Senator will always be to make life better for us here in the United States and back home in North Carolina.

I will oppose this foreign aid package because we must put America first--not alone, not alone, but first.

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