REED: Mr. President, reserving my right to object, I, too, believe, with my colleague from Washington State, that we must move forward with emergency funding for our allies--all of our allies, not just the State of Israel but also Ukraine. I also think we have to move quickly to head off a closure or shutdown of our government next week, and we have to address the pressing needs of the American people in this process.
But it is very clear that this proposal before us--this unanimous consent to pass the bill including only funds for Israel--is just an attempt to deny assistance to Ukraine. It is not really about helping Israel. It is about making sure we don't continue to keep our commitments to Ukraine.

And we have had a debate about Ukraine. We have talked over 2 years about Ukraine, how dangerous Russian aggression can be, not just with respect to the people of Ukraine but to the rest of the world.

As my colleague said, China is watching. In fact, I think they are paying more attention to Ukraine than the current issue in Israel because Putin's imperialistic dreams of restoring the Russian Empire resonate more closely to the Xi Jinping's imperialist dreams to reunite Taiwan to China.

So if we fail in Ukraine, I think that will send a very strong and unfortunate message to China that you can attack, wait the West out, and, eventually, they will concede. That is not good strategy or policy.

My colleagues argue that this will deny Israel getting the means to defend itself. Well, we have already been supporting the State of Israel. We have moved two aircraft carrier strike groups into the region. We are moving marines into the region. We are sending signals that we are strongly protecting them. Indeed, we have already engaged and shot down missiles from our naval forces. We have also suffered more than 40 injuries of American military personnel because of actions against the United States' positions in the Middle East because of our protection of Israel.

We cannot abandon Ukraine. They have lost hundreds of thousands of civilians and military personnel.

If you want to talk about horrors, October 7 was a horrible day. I was in Israel. I saw photographs--some that have not yet been released--of the tragedy. It was traumatic for the entire State of Israel.

But go to Ukraine. Go to Bucha. Dig up the graves of people shot in the back of the head while their hands were tied.

You want to talk about atrocities? Those were atrocities. So we are fighting forces that are dark and evil, and we have to support all of those democratic nations--Israel and Ukraine--that are struggling against that darkness.

Now, this is not my opinion alone. Last week, Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State for Donald Trump and a former Congressman from Senator Marshall's home State of Kansas wrote: Make no mistake: the outcome of this war will have a direct impact on U.S. national security. He was speaking of Ukraine. Should Putin prevail--whether on the battlefield or through a war of attrition that leads to ill-conceived diplomacy--the war would be felt well beyond Ukraine's borders. Indeed, I would add, if we fail to support Ukraine with funding and equipment, then it is more likely that young American servicemembers will be called upon to fight and die and suffer in Eastern Europe, because, as so many of my colleagues have suggested and as Secretary Pompeo suggested, Putin will not be satisfied with simply taking Ukraine, and we could see ourselves engaged in defending one of our NATO allies.
I have a very simple sort of notion about American military policy. I would rather send resources to a country fighting than send American soldiers to do the fighting, and, if we don't support Ukraine, that will happen.
Now, this is a situation that calls on us to do the right thing, and we have to do the right thing. But this is not something that we can do separate one from another, because, as we have all said, there is a connectivity here, and this connectivity has to be recognized.
Now, the other point I would make, too, is that this bill is paid for. Now, this to me is one of the most startling aspects of the legislation that the Senator from Kansas is promoting because they pay for it by taking money away from the Internal Revenue Service. Some would say they are using the Israeli crisis as a way to do what so many of my Republican colleagues like to do--give tax breaks to the wealthy--because when you take money away from the IRS, you go ahead and ensure that people can feel much more comfortable about not paying their taxes.

The Wall Street Journal published an article a few days ago. In 2021, the IRS failed to collect $688 billion that was owed to the United States of America. That is many times this supplemental that we are talking about. No financial institution would take money away from its bill collectors on the notion that, oh, that is OK. Only in Washington would we do that.

This bill is, thus, irresponsible in the way it is paid for and irresponsible in ignoring our commitment to Ukraine.

It is time to get serious. We have 10 days before our government runs out of funding. Israel needs our support. Ukraine needs our support.

American families and communities are counting on us to deliver critical disaster assistance. They need support for affordable, high- quality childcare. They need many things that are also at a crisis level. And we don't have time--we don't have time--to entertain political gestures to send a signal to Israel and a signal to the rich in America that we are with you and neglect and leave out Ukrainians, who have been struggling and fighting against a foe that is determined to continue this fight in Europe. Ultimately, I feel if we don't respond appropriately, this forces us to send our men and women into the fight.

I commend Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins for standing up for this country and for our allies.