Political Quotes

“very briefly, first of all, I want to compliment Senator Hawley for pursuing this route. There isn't a person in this room, there isn't a person in America who doesn't want to see that every dollar spent for the taxpayers is looked after. In this particular instance, I am going to oppose this simply because there are already 64 ongoing or planned audits and reports on U.S. assistance to Ukraine. This piece of legislation would require a quarterly schedule, and that actually reduces the number. For instance, USAID direct budgetary support comes every 2 months. So this is being looked after, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, where we are talking about enormous amounts of money--not that this isn't a large amount, but those were enormous, and the work in auditing was not very good. In this case, it is very good. We have been looking at it in the Intelligence Committee, and we have been looking at it in the Foreign Relations Committee and have found zero siphoning of U.S. dollars. So this really is an expenditure that is not necessary because it is being looked after already. I would urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.”