The senate about this bill . It isnt clear what is going to happen. There is going to be a push for amendments. There is senators who would like to see the United States send military aid the way of ukraine. They will probably make a push on amendments. There is others who would like to see us speed up the natural gas flow so that ukraine isnt as dependent on russia its energy supply. And there might be thinks related to Cyber Security or taking the imf language out. There might not be an aaagreeme at and then we will have to go back to congress. Guest there are concerns about what the approval might be doing to the United States budget. There was a tradeoff earlier this year with republicans wanting to see irs rules that govern the tea party groups, seeing the rule suspended for the imf language. And two bills passed on the house side and a bill to impose sanctions on iran. The House Foreign Affairs committee is taking up the bills again. Why are they doing this and who are the key supporters and opponents on the bill we should watch for on the house . Guest the Loan Guarantee went through the house easy. No one is disputing that and there is no quality to that because no cost for the United States for a Loan Guarantee. The piece on sanctions isnt very controversial. Increasing sanctions on russian isnt hard to get through. This bill has more sanctions piece than the Loan Guarantee bill. The imf laj language is out of the bill. And there is a bit of a spinoff over this one piece. It mostly breaks down along party lines but you see some democrats on the house saying lets pass the easy stuff and worry about the imf later. You see republicans saying the same thing for the opposite reasons. They are saying lets vote on the imf reform just to get help when will the house vote . They will vote tomorrow and there could be something on the actual house by the end of the week on the second ukraine bill. Host and where is the whitehouse on all of those efforts . Guest the whitehouse is in favor of all of the the pieces. They say they have the sanctions authority and they want the Loan Guarantee and the imf and the president has talked about wanting congress to keep the imf language in the bill and bring it to his desk. You can follow tim starks on twitter and find him on roll call. The senate voted to move ahead on sanctions with a vote of 7817. Here is part of the debate from the senate floor monday. When the senate last met, i introduced with senator durbin a resolution regarding the response of invasion of ukraine. That resolution received unanimous support in the senate called for a number of specific step to steps to punish and isolate russia. We called upon the president to impose sanctions for the people most responsible for the invasion of crimea region. And i am pleased the president has begun the process although i would have hoped the numbers would have been far greater. And i want to note the president is in the north netherlands talking with partners about the need for further steps and i trust he is going to be successful to reach a concensus to build a strong, united response to russian aggression. And i welcome support from the sovereignty, integrity, democracy and stability act of ukraine of 2014 which i hope the senate will work on tonight. I would note time is of the essence here. If we want to send the message to russia dont want to be bogged down by other nonrelated issues. And that is why senator durbin and why moved our position forward before the senate adjou adjourned before the break so there was an approved agreement on 15 measure that would get the message to Vladimer Putin and the russian that we take this very seriously. Russians that legislation also sanctions the russian responsible for the aggression by prohibiting them from coming to the United States and freezing their assets here in america. European allies have done likewise and we are together responding to their outrages behavior. But there is much more that needs to be done. We must recognize the enormity of putins crime as he is trampling on the territory borders that are vital to the postwar order. The International Response must be more vigorous if we are to prove putins behavior is unacceptable and cannot be repeated. A strong response now is the best way to reassure our al lies and friends that this outrage is going to be stopped, reversed and ended. To do little more than prevent a handful of russian officials from travelling abroad will show putin and his cronies that in the end we dont mean what we say. So again, i want to say, the International Response needs to be, has to be, much more vigorous if we are to prove that we stand together, united in one voice, claiming that the behavior of president putin is unacceptable and cannot be repeated. Now, when senator durbin and i trodeuces this we signaled we would work to craft more sanctions, including economic sanctions, targeting key sectors of the russian economy and i believe many of us in the senate want to do more. I suggested a range of things going at the russian export of oil and gas, their energy play that is contributing a significant amount to their economy and are dependent on and financial sanctions and others. I hope the president is discussing those very measures in europe with our partners as we speak. We are all aware that sanctioning key economic responsibilities carries the risk that the european allies could be affected at the same time. This is reason to be thoughtful not a reason not to act. It should not be the bases to stand back and say this could affects us financely at home. In the end, unpunisht, unconstrained russian expassion threatens us all to a greater extent. Standing up now could prevent something much more serious in terms of what we have do. Sound paolicy decisions must be given and that includes a clear picture of what the world laook like if illegal annexation of a county. This includes expelling russia from the g8. Not temporarily but ending the russiannato council. And i am proposing a significant economic sanction that will harm russian interest in a serious way with hopefully minimal, or no damage to their own. I am introducing an amendment to the ukraine act and ukraine bill. The purpose of this is to sanctions the stole system of defense weapons and related grids. This is a state corporation entitled to export the entire range of russian armors allowed for export. It was set up for that purpose, set setup by putin, it is sending russian arms around the world, some to bad actors. Many of the colleagues in the senate know of this agency because of russias continuing supply to the regime in syria. We call for him to stop all export for that reason. We now have a new broader reason for ending all coal operation with this agency. Taking steps to obstruct their work will become one of the most effective ways we have of demonstrating the russian action by force of arms. My amendment prohibits the United States government by doing any business with this agencies by prohibiting future contacts and canceling the present acts. It is true an act i supported was similar, but it has a work around that the defense is using to buy russian helicopter for afghanistan. This practice is met with objection. It was objectional when it started and more objectional as the russians continued to supply syria and now based on what they did in crimea it should be totally unacceptable. And i learned karzai supports the annex of crimea which makes this more outrageous. After all we have done to support president karzai and the afghans with u. S. Tax dollars and the lives to u. S. Soldiers, after all we have done, president karzai reaches out and supports the russian action contrary to ours. Russian is a nation that pivologed the country. We are there trying to save his hide with our tax dollars and soldiers lives, and he says this. So it would put an end to karzais business dealings with the russian. Karzai will have to buy his russian helicopter with his own money not ours. And i propose it would prohibit contracts with any domestic or foreign country of any company that works with the company in the design and manufacture of military equipment. Other dealings for nonmilitary benefits wouldnt be affected. We are going after the military exports; many of which go to our sworn enemys. And to deduct from foreign assistance programs any amount that they send on russian weapons through the company. These deductions would be made from Security Assistance accounts but wouldnt affect other aid programs. The president would be author e authorized to use the funds other where with congressional support. Amount from our assistance programs. They can buy russian weapons o they can buy russiann weapons o their own dime. Not on our dime. Taken together, i believe these proposals would be a useful addition to the ukraine aid act and give it the additional teeth it needs. It would harm the russian industry, the russian economy, the russian prestige and putins behavior. We need to harm the russian arm indu industry, the russian economy especially the energy part, the russian prestige and putin standing in the way. So i urge the leader to permit a full debate, and an up and down vote on my amendment and urge my colleagues to support it. I yield the floor i rise to support the ukraine assistance package which will be on the floor later this even. I want to thank senator mendez and senator corkers work. I was proud to put this together with senator johnson and mccain and many others. I come to the floor as i am sure others have and will to talk about the vital importance of a big bipartisan vote in favor of this legislation this evening. Having just come from ukraine, i was there with a number of colleagues, it was my second trip to kiev in the last three months. They are waiting for a strong signal of support from the congress that sends a message we will stand with our ukrainen brothers and sisters as they engage in this battle for independence, freedom and sovereignty. I will not belabor the und underlying details of the bill but the three components are all equally important to ukraine. We heard support for all three of the pieces while we were there. First and foremost, clearly we have to deliver on the process of economic aid. A billion in Loan Guarantees in this bill and they are contengent upon the signing of a new aagreement with the imf but it will leverage 15 billion from europe. Ukraines economy before this was fragile and this International Crisis has done nothing but further weaken the country. The ukrainians have a new government, one they believe in and one that will bring an end to the corruption that has been rife over the past decade. This new government will be undermined by an economic crisis that will occur, guaranteed, unless the United States steps up and provides this assistance. We cannot do it alone, though. So that is why the second part of the pilled bill allows to the United States to agree to a set of imf that will allow the country to provide to countries in crisis like ukraine. Every other imf member as signed on but the United States. Some people are categorizing this imf part of the bill as a political addon. That could not be further from the truth. When we met with the ukrainian officials they specifically asked to the pass the imf reforms because this is the only way they will get the 2030 billion in relief. And the imf will be more likely to agree if the United States steps up. And lastly, we need to send a strong message for what he did in crimea. We will show putin was wrong when he calculated a march into crimea would come at little to no cost to russia. I want to talk about what this tells us about the status of russia in the region in the world. I am sure my colleagues will talk about the importance of sanctions. But i have watched the media portray the events of the last couple weeks as a sign of russian strength. To me this isnt a sign of russian strength. This is a sign of russian we weakness. Putin has designed for reestablishing some sense of the old soviet empire by reasserting control over what putin calls the near abroad which are the former soviet republics and satellite states. His dream of reestablishing the soviet empire fell apart the day that the president fed ukraine. Ukraine is the crown jewel. If putin tried to recreate the empire under the Customs Union he knew he could not do it without the second Biggest Country in europe bordering on russia; ukraine. His invasion of crimea was a panicked reaction to this new reality. A ukraine now oriented toward the European Union. So it is important to understand the position putin is in. He has made a mess for the International Community to try to clean up through this his invasion of crimea. 90 of ukraine has a government in kiev just signed with the European Union. He has become a puryea. We should take russia out of the g8 and make it clear they dont have a place at the International Table along with countries like the United States, france and england to behave in this way. So the bill that we are debating today will give the president and the new government in kiev tools with which to address and end the crisis. This isnt about reestablishing the cold war. This panicked invasion of crimea occupying the nightlines of the news is a display of their weak display around the world after their failure to survive. Lastly, madam president , i want to talk about the broader history both looking in the past, but also looking to the future that we may miss when we focus on an hourbyhour bases on the crisis at hand. Having had the opportunity to visit kiev a few times in the past several months, i had the opportunity to learn a little bit about the history of the place of the people and there is a wonderful cathedral in kiev called the church of st. Sophia. It was build by ukraines greatest leader. He presided over an empire that was the hub of trading on the c continent. It took goods from the west and went east and went down to the mediterranean. Everything ran through the territory of kiev. It speaks both to ukraines past but its future. They have been set up with a false choice within the crisis of the several months. Join the European Union or stay aligned with russia. Kiev stands at the cross roads of east and west and north and south. That is ukraines past but it is going to be ukraines future as well. We are trying to deal with a russiarun by a leader whose Foreign Policy seems dictated by a desire to folk a stick in the eye of the United States, i ultimately think that viewing the force through the trees means acknowledging that russias future in a postputin area is about integration with the west as well. That was the direction russia was heading until putin took power. That conversation about how we realize the ultimate paparadimes for another day. But when senator mccain and i went to speak a million ukrainians that were protesting their government they were there to talk about dignity. For some it was about the corruption, some about the brutal violence, but moist people wanted to restore dignity to their lives and dignity is about the ability to chose for yourself what your future is. No country. The United States, the russian federation, should dictate to the ukrainians what their future should be. That is why in the wake of the invasion and years of economic ma manipulation we are going to extend a firm hand to ukraine and a firm hand against russia. S to go back to its historical roots and draw from east and west, but one in which russia realizes that their economic salvation lies not in setting up some new cold war but in full integrating themselves and their economy and their Political Institutions not only with countries like ukraine, not only with the nations of the e. U. , but beyond to american shores as well. Ats the future. But that reality will never exist for the young nation of ukraine unless it survives this moment. And we can send a strong message this evening that this body stands with that future for this young nation of ukraine by supporting the package before te president , madam president. President , madam president. I would urge my colleagues to not only vote on this particular measure but also vote to pass as soon as possible the bill that is before the United States senate that was reported out before we went into recess, by the Senate ForeignRelations Committee on a vote of 144. Obviously it is intended to be an opening response, a beginning response, to the russian aggression in ukraine, specifically now occupying and absorbing crimea into russia, an act of aggression the likes of which has not been seen in a long, long time. In addition to that, now additional pressures are being put on as we speak the Ukrainian Government of raising the price of gas by canceling Ukraine Special price discounts, Oil Deliveries are slow. Border crossings for the delivery of trade has been closed, and the dirty tricks good on from the old kgb colonel, Vladimir Putin. This act is relatively mild. It will provide Loan Guarantees, which are badly needed now. The ukraineian economy is now even under greater pressure and greater difficulty, given the actions taken by Vladimir Putin. And it would stabilize the ukrainian economy. Just a beginning but a strong signal of United States support for this fledgling ukrainian democracy. The imf reforms are somewhat