Smucker Supports Aid to Ukraine & Trade Sanctions Legislation
Votes to stop Putin & Support Ukraine; Opposes Bloated Domestic Spending
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) released the following statement after voting in favor of the aid to Ukraine included in the amendment to H.R. 2471, the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the trade sanctions legislation H.R. 6968:
"I was pleased to join an overwhelming majority of my colleagues in voting to provide additional military aid to the Ukrainian people to aid in their fight against authoritarian thug Vladimir Putin. He must be stopped. These funds will directly assist the Ukrainian people's defense of their nation and support humanitarian efforts on the ground.
As I've said repeatedly, Congress must get its fiscal house in order and must address our broken budgeting process, including the repeated use of continuing resolutions to fund government operations. While I remain significantly concerned by the broken process by which Congress approves funding and how much our nation is spending while our national debt has eclipsed $30 trillion, we must stop Putin and support Ukraine, which is why I voted to advance the security provisions of the omnibus package. They make important investments in our military, provide critical military aid to Ukraine, and uphold all pro-life protections. However, I could not support the reckless spending and earmarks included in the domestic provisions of the omnibus, and voted against that package.
It is disappointing that the bipartisan and bicameral agreement on meaningful trade measures to impact Russia's economy and ability to finance their aggression was not taken up yesterday. The White House unfortunately intervened to weaken the bill. We can certainly do more to impact Russia's economy, but I supported the legislation because I believe we must stand with Ukraine.
While we are considering these efforts to support Ukraine, why are we not also taking steps to ramp up domestic energy production, to generate a cleaner energy product than what Russia, Venezuela, or Iran produce?" said Smucker.
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