How 46 At-Risk U.S. House Incumbents Voted on Aid to Ukraine

Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said to Republican opponents of the bill: “Is this Abraham Lincoln’s party we are hearing today? Or is it a cult of Donald Trump? We have to decide which side America is going to be on….It is incumbent upon us as the leader of the democratic world, if that is still what we want to be, to support democracies under attack by authoritarian regimes.”

Chip Roy, R-Texas, said to Democrats: “We got $40 billion that is unpaid for and you want to sit here and lecture this body about what we are going to do or not do about standing alongside Ukraine? Why don’t we talk about the American people who are hurting; the wide-open borders; the inflation that is killing people; the jobs that people can’t get because of the cost of goods and services in this country.”

Sponsor Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said: “No money funding…the Ukraine war belongs in our defense [budget] because this is for our nation, not for another nation, not for Ukraine….Sending money to fund a war in a foreign country against a nuclear armed nation does not protect our national security, it endangers our national security.”

Opponent Adam Smith, D-Wash., said: “If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won’t stop at Ukraine…. We are supporting, along with 53 other countries, an effort to protect a sovereign democracy against a dictatorship. Those are core U.S. interests. The Ukrainians are doing the fighting. All they’re asking for is our support.”

Sponsor Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said: “Cluster bombs are inhumane weapons that cause lasting harm to civilians….Ukraine is not a NATO member nation. What is next [for them]? Chemical or nuclear weapons?”

Opponent Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said the goal of supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions “is to end this quickly. A protracted war will cost more lives and allow Putin to commit more war crimes.”

Thomas Kean, R-N.J., said: “Europe is facing the largest war on the continent since World War II. The Middle East is volatile, and every day, the [Chinese Communist Party] prepares itself for its ultimate goal of invading Taiwan. In the fields of Ukraine, every day in which aid is delayed means more territory for [Vladimir] Putin … This is not the time for the United States to back down. In order to preserve peace in the world, we must seize the moment and project strength.”

Opponent Chip Roy, R-Texas, said: “Ukraine was invaded by Russia under the watch of this president. That is the truth. This incompetent president [Biden] has led to the situation that we sit in right now. People are dying in Ukraine, yes, but the problem is they are being funded with American debt. There is no skin in the game for the American people. We are not talking about tax increases … to pay for this stuff as we rack up a trillion dollars of debt every three months.”

Sponsor Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said: “While we here in this chamber disagree on the role that we should play [in Ukraine], there is one thing that I hope we can agree on: We as United States representatives should not…forsake our own national security in favor of another nation. We should not secure the borders of nations abroad while simultaneously ignoring the very real and very dangerous border crisis in our own country.”

Opponent Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said the amendment “would eliminate funding for the State Department’s and USAID’s inspectors general from whom we require unprecedented oversight plans … [It] would also eliminate the funding for investigations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, as well as assistance to help secure Ukrainian nuclear facilities … Also, it eliminates funds for potential clearance of Russian mines.”