WATCH: In Senate Floor Speech, Kelly Underscores Importance of Meeting the Moment as U.S. Allies and Partners Face Threats

Today, ahead of the Senate taking the first votes on the national security supplemental bill, Arizona Senator and Navy combat veteran Mark Kelly emphasized the urgency to act in the face of threats to the United States and our allies from Russia, Iran and its proxies, and China. Kelly also highlighted the bipartisan approach in the House and the Senate that will ultimately deliver assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and strengthen U.S. national security by preventing further destabilization and conflict. 

“Our adversaries are testing us, and they see instability and dysfunction as an opportunity. That creates a real risk that one or more of these threats could boil over into a wider conflict that would be much more costly for the United States and potentially put more Americans in harm’s way,” Kelly said during his remarks. 

Speaking about how to respond, Kelly continued, “We get our allies and partners—Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan—the weapons and ammunition to help them defend themselves. We modernize our own forces so our adversaries know they will lose any fight they pick with us. And we provide humanitarian support to those harmed by these conflicts, including innocent Palestinians in Gaza.”  

“Let’s get this done right now and show the world that the United States continues to lead, continues to stand by our allies, and continues to be the strongest force for peace and stability in the world,” Kelly finished.  

Click here to download Sen. Kelly’s remarks. See below for a complete transcript: 

Madame President, 

These are dangerous times for our national security, and the actions that we take here—this week—will shape the world that our kids and our grandkids grow up in.  

Putin continues to wage a brutal war to annex Ukraine and has been making gains as Ukraine runs low on ammunition.  

Israel is under threat from not just Iran’s proxy terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, but Iran itself. Just ten days ago we saw them launch hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against Israel.  

And China continues its aggression towards its neighbors in Asia as it renews its threats to take Taiwan by force.  

Our partners and allies and the democratic values we hold dear are in real danger—that should be enough to compel us to act.   

But it’s bigger than that.  

Iran, China, and even North Korea are helping to supply Russia’s desperate war machine.  

China’s President Xi is watching to see if we can hold together the coalition supporting Ukraine. He is judging what the cost would be if he were to invade Taiwan.  

Our adversaries are testing us, and they see instability and dysfunction as an opportunity.   

That creates a real risk that one or more of these threats could boil over into a wider conflict that would be much more costly for the United States and potentially put more Americans in harm’s way.  

I spent yesterday at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland, with U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen. They shouldn’t have to go to war years from now in Europe, the Middle East, or the Pacific because of a failure of leadership in Washington, D.C., this week.   

That must be avoided at all costs.  

 So, Madame President, what do we do?  

We get our allies and partners—Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan—the weapons and ammunition to help them defend themselves.   

We modernize our own forces so our adversaries know they will lose any fight they pick with us.  

And we provide humanitarian support to those harmed by these conflicts, including innocent Palestinians in Gaza.  

The Senate is once again preparing to vote on a national security bill that will accomplish these goals and meet the dangerous moment that we find ourselves in.   

But let’s get something straight here: we should have gotten this done shortly after the president proposed it in October.  

The Senate spent months negotiating before we ultimately passed it with 70 votes. And then the House—well, they let it sit for more than two months before sending it back to us with 311 votes.  

It should disappoint all of us that partisanship and obstruction meant it took 6 months—6 months—for Congress to pass something that clearly the vast majority of us, in fact 71 percent of us in Congress, agree on.  

Ultimately, bipartisanship will win the day. It will win the day in the House and in the Senate, but the delays have come with a real cost, especially on the battlefield in Ukraine.  

There are a lot of factors that go into winning a war.  

Russia is a massive country, and even with its heavy losses, it can throw a lot of manpower at the problem to overcome and cover up its incompetent leadership, its culture of corruption, and its underperforming weapons systems.  

At the same time, I’ve seen in my two trips to Ukraine since the war broke out that the Ukrainians have a remarkable spirit that can only come from a unified country fighting for its own existence—they are literally fighting for their own lives.   

But because of delays in getting this bill passed, Ukraine’s fighters are desperately low on artillery shells, on missiles, and even on small arms ammunition.   

That’s tying the hands of their commanders at the same time that Russia is revitalizing its war effort with increased domestic military production and a lot of help from China and Iran.  

With the right equipment and enough of it, Ukraine can win this war.  

Passing this bill will allow us to transfer them more of the weapons, armored vehicles, and ammunition from our stockpiles that Ukraine needs to turn the tide.  

And then we will be able to replenish our own stockpiles with more modern equipment to deter our adversaries from testing us any further.  

This is a win-win for us. 

At a very dangerous time, this is what we must do to prevent further destabilization and conflict that will cost us more in the end.   

I know a majority of my colleagues agree with me.  

Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s not wait a day longer.   

Let’s get this done right now and show the world that the United States continues to lead, continues to stand by our allies, and continues to be the strongest force for peace and stability in the world.  

Thank you, Madame President.