On March 25, 2014 Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky asked for and was granted permission to speak before the United States Senate on a matter regarding the situation in Ukraine:
“Mr. President, I wish to start with a few words about the legislation the Senate is considering this week on Ukraine. It touches on the jurisdiction of many committees and is of high interest to Senators on both sides of the aisle. How the United States meets the Russian invasion of Crimea matters. It is related to the future vitality of NATO, the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, and our own energy policy regarding the export of natural gas.
We have Members on both sides of the aisle working closely, and there is a decent amount of common ground here, which is good. Nearly everyone agrees the Ukrainian people deserve our support. Most of us also agree we should back up that support with meaningful legislation, not just to show our support for an independent, democratic, and free Ukraine but also to show President Putin there will be costs for his actions.
So one would think it wouldn’t be that difficult to get a solution here, but roadblocks keep popping up. First, there was a House-passed bill prior to the recess that would have provided loan guarantees to Ukraine. It was blocked by the majority leader. We should have passed that and sent it to the President. Now the majority leader seems determined to blow up the process too. Yesterday he actually came to the floor to effectively blame the Republicans–believe it or not–for the invasion of Crimea. I mean, who writes this stuff? It is not just completely unhelpful, it also injects hyperpartisanship into the process at a time when we should all actually be working together. At this point it is not at all certain the majority leader might not even make things worse by shutting down the amendment process. I hope that is not where we end up. This issue is way too important for that.
Look, this bill in the Senate cannot pass the House or become law in its current form. It has to be amended. Not only have many Members not yet had a chance to offer amendments in committee, but so many developments have unfolded in this crisis in the weeks since the bill was drafted, the legislation has to be at the least modified to take those realities into account. In order for this bill to become law, the controversial IMF provision must be removed.
This simply cannot be a “take it or leave it” situation. That is just nonsensical. The people who sent us here to represent them deserve better. We should give them that. That means allowing a sensible amendment process, and it means dropping the kinds of wild partisan accusations we have seen–attacks that will only make it that much harder to get an effective bipartisan solution.
Mr. President, I yield the floor”, said Senator McConnell.