Gallagher: Why Isn't Congress Acting With Urgency on Ukraine?
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today slammed Congress for adjourning without passing any meaningful support for Ukraine.
In a video, Rep. Gallagher said, "Here's what actually happened this week in Congress. All we did was pass a resolution on the House floor. I voted for it. I agree with everything in that resolution. But the resolution is just words on paper, it's not actually doing something in the real world. It's not enhanced lethal support for the Ukrainians. It's not actually going after Russia's energy sector...Speaker Pelosi said something about wanting to ban Russian gas, and then she sort of adjourned Congress. Where's the urgency?"
Click here to watch the full interview, or read highlights from the conversation below.
"It's Thursday in Washington, DC and Congress has adjourned for the week so everyone's heading home. I say this with no joy, because I actually was somewhat hopeful that we would have a strong bipartisan response to the Ukraine crisis and because the President got bipartisan applause when he talked about Putin at the State of the Union.
"Well, here's what actually happened this week in Congress. All we did was pass a resolution on the House floor. I voted for it. I agree with everything in that resolution. But the resolution is just words on paper, it's not actually doing something in the real world. It's not enhanced lethal support for the Ukrainians. It's not actually going after Russia's energy sector -- there's a massive loophole in all these sanctions that still allow Europeans to buy natural gas from Russia, us to buy crude from Russia, and for Russia to profit off that activity. I mean, Pelosi said something about wanting to ban Russian gas, and then she sort of adjourned Congress.
"So where's the urgency? Where's the energy?
"If we're united as the president claims. If the West is suddenly united against Putin and on the issue of Ukraine, why aren't we acting with a greater sense of urgency? Why are we leaving town having done nothing?
"And by the way, what is going on with the Biden Administration's efforts to revive the Iran deal? The fact that they may even be contemplating doing this without involving Congress is incredibly troubling if for no other reason than as I've said before, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the deal will not just be the terrorist sponsoring, Israel hating, radical regime in Tehran -- the Iranian regime -- it will be the Russians. The Russians will benefit from this deal.
"And at the same time, the President is saying I promise you we're going to turn Putin into a pariah, we're relying on the Russians to negotiate with the Iranians. The State Department press secretary said we're going to continue to work with the Russians on areas of mutual interest, including Iran. Those things don't add up.
"And if they go forward with this deal, which will be far worse than the 2015 deal, it will squander this entire opportunity we have right now to build a bipartisan consensus on Russia, on China, and on other foreign policy issues. It makes no sense.
"Please don't go down that path at all. And for all the members of Congress that are talking about how much we're doing on Ukraine, all we did was pass a resolution. We just passed a resolution. It's all we did, and then left town."