Madam President, I am sorry that you are having to stay here so late tonight, but I am glad you are in the chair. I wanted to come down to the floor, now that the vote is done, just to explain the objection that I made earlier today. I am not going to do it at an elaborate length, but I think it is important to say that I was deeply disappointed--as were many people--that the deal to keep the government open did not actually have as part of it continuing funding for Ukraine, which I think is critically important. I think most people in the Senate believe it is critically important. I objected to proceeding tonight because I thought it was important for us to find a way to send a bipartisan message from this Chamber that that is how we felt. As I mentioned to the Presiding Officer earlier today, to my caucus earlier today, one of the reasons--or maybe the reason--why this is something that is so important to me is that my mom, who is still alive, was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1938. She was a Polish Jew. I couldn't imagine a worse place in the world to be born at that time than where my mom was born. She and her parents and an aunt survived. Everybody else was killed. As everybody in this Chamber knows--certainly, the Presiding Officer knows--16 million people were killed in Ukraine and in Poland by the Nazis and by Stalin. My mom cannot believe that she has lived long enough to see another land war break out in Europe.…
On the recordSeptember 30, 2023
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