Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steny H Hoyer (MD-05)
“Look, I know why all of you came. I came to hear the introduction of Marcy Kaptur of me.
Did we record that, hon?
(laughter) My wife, Dr. Kamarck is here with me, and we’re so glad to be here with all of you. Madame Ambassador, I could just say I adopt the remarks of the gentlelady from Ukraine and sit down, and some people in here hope I would do that.
(laughter) People who know me say, ‘There’s no way I’m going to do that.’
“Marcy Kaptur is Ukraine in the Congress of the United States. (applause) I was talking to Bob McDonald – whom I’ve known for a pretty long time – and Marcy Kaptur of all the Members of the 435 Members, is the Member of the 435 Members who you know is going to be in the room for Ukraine all the time. And it was long before this war started that Marcy Kaptur was there for Ukraine. She’s got courage, she’s obviously articulate, and she’s got passion for freedom and democracy, and particularly that in Ukraine. Mr. Buffett, I don’t know you. (Howard Buffett says, ‘You’re Lucky.’) Thank you Lord. (laughter) But I do know Susan [Buffett] My wife, who died in 1997, Judy, was an early childhood – and I’ve had the great opportunity with Susan of going to the childcare center in Omaha. What a wonderful enterprise. [It] reminds me of how well those children are cared for and how at risk the Ukrainian children are. So, I understand you have given a couple pennies, or maybe a few more for this effort. (laughter) One of the 45 minutes that I spent in your father’s office in Omaha, in that little office about the size of my office, while I was practicing law many, many years ago. He talked to me about what we ought to be doing in the Congress of the United States. It was 45 minutes of absolute joy and seeing this extraordinary father – [that] you had the privilege of being the son of – speak to me about policy in Washington and the people, the working people of America. So, although I don’t know you, I’m sure you’re a chip off the old block and thank you very much for all that you’ve done. (applause)
“And I’m deeply honored to receive this award from the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation. I was sworn in to the United States House of Representative on June 3rd, 1981. I embarked on my first trip to the Soviet Union 21 days later. Paul Simon, the senator from Illinois, called me up and said, ‘I’m going to the Soviet Union. Would you go?’ I said, ‘I’ve only been here three weeks, it would be a little bit officious to make that –’ okay, [he said] ‘No, no, no. You’re fine. You can go and you can bring Judy with you.’ I said I can’t afford that. I didn’t know about codels at that time. (laughter) The trees are, unfortunately, attacking me. Oh, I don’t know about the rest of you, but these trees are really doing it. (coughs) My wife, Dr. Elaine Kamarck. (applause) Pretty high [ineligible] when you have a Ph.D. from the Brookings Institution to deliver you water. (laughter) We visited Bonn, Moscow, and Kyiv. 1981 was the first time that I had the opportunity to go to Kyiv. I brought with me, Howard, some cigarettes, some candy, and some other stuff that the Jewish community had given me to give to a mother who had a child that was probably in his 20s, in jail in Kyiv. And that, of course, was going to be used to trade with the guards for privileges that he might have received. I remember going – I had to go alone because the embassy said, ‘No, no, we can’t do that.’ So I went alone. I was on their subway there, the Metro. I kept looking around to see if I was being followed. It was a little scary because, of course, it was communist controlled at that point. So that was my first visit, and the KGB guide that we had on the bus said as we drove through Kiev, ‘Do you know–’ because we commented on the trees – ‘Do you know what the ‘tree’d’ community in America is?’ And we said, no. She said, ‘You ought to know because it’s Washington DC.’ (laughter) I believe that the West might make the difference in whether Ukraine achieves the dream that I knew they had of sovereignty. I have, since that time, supported Ukraine ever since.
“When I joined the Helsinki Commission in 1985, the Soviet satellite republics received relatively little attention [from] the Washington foreign policy establishment, which primarily focused on Russia itself. We sought to bring attention to the Ukrainians plight. A guy named Orest [Deychakiwsky], it’s longer than that, but some of you may know Orest. (applause) He and I traveled frequently to Europe and behind the Iron Curtain and to Moscow to cast a line in the Soviet oppression against the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which, at the time, was the largest banned religious denomination in the world. We pushed for the release of the Ukrainian Helsinki monitors, who faced the hardest repression of any of the Helsinki chapters. I remember traveling to Moscow in 1987 with the Helsinki Commission and with Speaker Wright, and we met with Gorbachev in Moscow, and he talked about the Soviet Union’s new openness, transparency, and tolerance. After that meeting, we then went again to Kyiv. In Kyiv, we met with, of course, one of the members of the Politburo at that point in time – he was the dictator of Ukraine. That was not his formal title, I’m sure. (laughter) But we also met with dissidents from across the Soviet empire, including Ukraine. Fresh out of the Gulag and hands still calloused from years of forced labor, they told us a different story. One about how the Soviet regime terrorized them, tortured them, jailed them, and in too many instances, killed them. This is in 1987. Their only crime: daring to see the world as it could be, one defined by human rights, by freedom, by democracy, and asking, ‘Why not?’ You know, Bobby Kennedy, when he ran for president, used that line: ‘Some men see things as they are, and ask ‘Why?’ I see things as they are and say, ‘Why not?’
“Ukrainians asked that question in 1987. They asked when they gained their independence in 1991. They asked it [while] clad in orange in 2004, and in 1994 they gave the Soviets what they wanted. They talked about the Budapest, and they promised, in return for the nuclear material, that they would honor the borders of Ukraine. They asked it when they were gunned down in the Maidan to secure their democracy in 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that 2014 and the theft of Crimea was the mother of this war we confront today. (applause) The tepid reaction of the West – is that the Ambassador? She’s always going to be my ambassador, with all due respect. (laughter) Oksana [Markarova], good to see you. They continue to ask that question: Why not? Why should Ukraine not be a democratic, sovereign and free? And Russia promised that would be the case. They lied. For decades, a bipartisan majority, the United States, joined in asking that question. Throughout my 45 years in Congress, when I visited Ukraine, when I met Ukrainian dissidents, when I passed legislation supporting Ukraine, I did so along with some Republicans. It was a bipartisan effort, a bipartisan commitment. Tonight, I received the same award that George H.W. Bush received. I sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act back in 1990, and George H.W. Bush signed that Act. It was a bipartisan commitment to human rights and those with disabilities. Mitch McConnell, who stands as strong as anybody in the Congress of the United States for the NATO alliance and the strength of the West and the defense of democracy and freedom. Rob Portman from Ohio, another Republican. He’s received this award, correctly so. We represent two parties, but we have spoken with one voice, a voice for Ukraine, for America, for the free world, for international law, for rights.
“Marcy said I wear this flag every day. I didn’t want you to think I just wore today in appreciation of this award. I wear it every day because I’m old enough. I’m retiring, if you know, people congratulate me [because] I’m retiring. And some say why I return. Well, I’ll be 87 in June. I didn’t think it was a premature retirement. (laughter) But I’m just not sure that at 88 and 89 that I could do the job and I owed it to my constituents, therefore, to step aside. But I’m sad that I’m stepping aside because the country needs people who are committed to standing up for freedom, for rights. (inaudible due to applause) Chamberlain or Churchill time in our country, and we are either going to stand up and fight for what’s right. And we’re going to stand up and fight for freedom and international war, or we’re going to lose, not Ukraine is just going to lose. We are going to lose. The West is going to lose. The values that we share and are committed to will lose. Sadly, and I know this is not a partisan event, but sadly, in the White House and in Congress, some are trying to silence the voices of those who are saying we need to act. Vladimir Putin’s line that somehow Ukraine – who is the victim of this war – somehow started it. That, of course, is, as you know, everybody in this room knows, and the world knows, is baloney. I cleaned that up. (laughter) But ladies and gentlemen, there is still a consensus in the Congress of the United States in support of Ukraine.
“Since the Russian invasion in 2022, the House has had at least – at least – 12 votes in support of Ukraine. An average of 80% of the Members of the House of Representatives have voted on that bill every time it’s been on the Floor. Over 300 votes, every time it’s been on the Floor. [U.S. Representative] Greg Meeks, the former Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and now the Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives and I have a bill. It’s called the Ukraine Support Act. Now, I’ve heard a number of you talk about sanctions. I’m for sanctions, but the sanctions bill in the United States Senate doesn’t say a word about Ukraine. Hear me. Read it. It says we want to sanction Russia. I want to sanction Russia. But I also want to send a message to every Ukrainian: We are for you. We will stick by you. (applause) So I want you to help me [with] the Ukraine Support Act. We have approximately 55 [Republicans], we could get more. 214 Democrats. That’s everybody we have. Everybody we have has signed a discharge petition that says bring the Ukrainian Support Act to the Floor. They might bring a bill that says we support Ukraine, we support NATO, we oppose Russia. And yes, it includes sanctions, but it does much more than that. It says to the Ukrainian people: we have been with you, we’re with you now, and we will be with you in the future. We need one Republican.
“Brian Fitzpatrick, call him up and say thank him. Don Bacon in Nebraska, call him up and thank him. They’re the two Republicans – now remember over 100 Republicans every time, and a majority of Republicans, 11 out of the 12 times, voted to support Ukraine. I have been working, Greg Meeks has been working, Marcy Kaptur has been working, the caucus that she leads has been working to try to get one more signature. And that bill will come to the Floor because those are the rules. The Speaker can’t stop it, the President can’t stop it. It will come to the floor with one more Republican [signature]. That’s your homework. You want to do something? You can give money. That’s great. I heard you buy all the auction items. They are double – the third and four times the price. (laughter) But what I urge you to do, if you know a Republican in the House of Representatives, call them up. Tell them how critically important it is to the Ukrainian people to have the Congress stand up and say we have for you as they’re huddled in cold trenches, heroically stopping the Russian onslaught. Just one more Republican. And there are a lot of Republicans who support Ukraine and say they are, and talk about, and I’ve talked to them, and I’ve said it’s time to stand up for you.
“And I want to congratulate Putin for getting us Finland and Sweden on board. (laughter, applause) My father was born in Copenhagen, so I’m a Scandinavian, I’m a Viking, and I am so glad to see the Scandinavian countries [with] one voice. Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and how that strengthened NATO. But it is America’s voice that needs to be heard. Yes, we’ve given support. The Ambassador was tenacious in getting us to that objective. Joe Biden didn’t do as much as I would like, but he did a lot. One more person to speak up for Ukraine, and one more person to show a modicum of courage that Ukrainians are showing every day. One more person to ask, ‘Why not?’ That heartfelt question deserves more than heartless answers of appeasement, apathy, and isolationism. (applause) Those are tough words, I understand that. These are tough times. And we ought not to, in any way, tenderize our language when dealing with an aggressor who wants to not only take Ukraine, but all of that which they add and more.
“In my final years in Congress, I stand with a besieged Ukraine. A Ukraine that is an example to the whole world of the kind of courage Americans showed in 1776 when they said, ‘We want to tell the whole world that we are going to stand for ourselves and for freedom, for liberty, for justice, for one nation under God, indivisible.’ I want to thank my Ukrainian friends in America who have added so much to our country. But as I said, I’m going to give you homework. You go home tonight, you think of – well, you know, you’re all very active, you’re all very knowledgeable – and I want you to get on the phone. You know how that guy got up and said, ‘I want you to go to the phone, I want you to stand up,’ in that movie? That’s what I want you to do. John Lewis, one of my best friends, who died a little bit ago, said ‘If you see something that’s not right, that’s not fair, that’s not just, you stand up. You need to speak up. You need to speak out. You need to get in trouble. Good trouble.’ I want you to stand up, not worrying about the political ramifications of your standing up with somebody. Stand up because it’s the right thing to do. Stand up because it will make a difference. Stand up because this is America’s fight to accomplish. God bless you, and Godspeed.” (applause)