Jeanne Shaheen: “I am really pleased to be able to come to the floor this afternoon to join my colleague from Ohio, Senator Portman. We…”

“I am really pleased to be able to come to the floor this afternoon to join my colleague from Ohio, Senator Portman. We twice traveled to Ukraine together. I have appreciated his leadership as cochair of the Ukraine Caucus and his advocacy for not only legislation to help Ukraine but also for these reports which weekly have kept the war in Ukraine in front of the American people, which is so important as we think about how we continue support in our public for what is happening in Ukraine and this fight that the Ukrainians are so courageously waging. I am also pleased to be here with my colleague Senator Tillis, who, along with me, cochairs the Senate NATO Observer Group, because we are going to be voting this afternoon on ratification of the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. Together, we led a bipartisan delegation to Madrid last month, which included three Democrats and four Republicans, and we were able to visit Helsinki and Stockholm on our way into Madrid to talk about just why it is so important that Finland and Sweden are joining NATO. I wanted to talk about both of these topics this afternoon because they are connected. As Senator Portman said, there is a reason why Finland and Sweden, after decades of maintaining neutrality, are looking at joining NATO. It is because of this unprovoked, brutal war by Russia against Ukraine. If they are successful in Ukraine, we don't know where that will end, so we need to make the connection for people.…”