Ranking Member McCollum Opening Remarks for Rule Debate on Ukraine Security Assistance Supplemental

[Remarks as prepared]

Mr. Speaker, Republicans spent three weeks
trying to bring the Defense Appropriations Act to the floor.

Three times, they went to the Rules Committee.
The first two times, the rule failed on the floor.

It failed because a small minority of Republicans do not support
any Ukraine assistance, including support for Ukraine that has been
in the base Defense bill for 9 years.

The Republican conference knew for weeks that this was a problem for them.

That’s why they created a pseudo minibus
loaded with extreme social policy riders 
to appease the far right of their party to advance the Defense bill.

Earlier this week, Republicans could have used the Rules Committee
to strip out Ukraine funding from the Defense bill.

They chose not to.

Instead, the Rules Committee made two Republican amendments
in order to strike Ukraine funding.

Then they came to the floor and asked the House to work its will. The Biggs Amendment was rejected by the House in a vote of 104 to 330. The Gaetz Amendment was also rejected 93 to 339. 

In a closely divided Congress, this is about as clear a bipartisan vote as you can get.
In both cases, Republicans and Democrats stood with Ukraine.

But Republicans found out they still had a problem with the extreme right of their party.

Even after the votes, a vocal Republican minority threatened the Speaker by threatening to take down the Defense bill again.

All because the votes didn’t go their way.

So here we are today.

The Speaker has sent the Defense bill back to the Rules Committee to override the will of the House, and its most basic democratic process of amending bills.

It is ironic that the Speaker is so focused on passing the Defense bill in such an undemocratic way.

He has wasted weeks letting the far right abuse the Republican majority
while at the same time failing to address the impending government shutdown.

Today these extreme members are abusing the entire House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, Members, the lesson from the last three weeks could not be more clear.

When you don’t stand up to bullies – they continue to bully you.

That’s what is happening here.

The bullies in the Republican conference have won once again, at the expense of this institution.

And that is why I would ask my colleagues to defeat the previous question.

Let’s stand up to the bullies in this chamber, strip this outrageous provision from the rule, and return this House to regular order.

Where every vote matters, and when the majority of the House speaks – it is respected.

I yield back.