On the recordJuly 27, 2023
that only means I got there before you. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to Senator Kennedy's amendment. I have a great deal of respect for my colleague. No one--no one--in this Chamber has taken a harder line against the Iranian regime than I have. No one. But in this case, a well-intended motion can produce very bad consequences. So let me speak to why I oppose the Senator's amendment. These special drawing rights--I always love how my colleague from Louisiana can bring it to an earthy tone. We have poker chips we are throwing around, but these aren't quite poker chips; they are a critical liquidity tool to support lower income countries in response to global financial youcrises. It is in our interest to do so, to create stability. They assist in creating economic stability. They are an absolutely essential part of U.S. foreign policy tools, especially as we are dealing with the China challenge. We want to help these countries instead of China helping them. The Biden administration supported a new round of special drawing rights allocations at the IMF. This funding played an essential role in helping countries address the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic fallout of the pandemic, which we are still hearing about from many of these countries. Without this funding, many of these countries would have fallen to economic crisis, which means political instability, which means chaos, which means refugees coming to the shores of many countries.…
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