appears, in a few hours here the press headlines are going to read that the senate just passed the ukraine funding bill. that's what they'll call it. this bill is about a lot more than just ukraine. there's a lot in this bill and i want to go through some of it. first of all, it provides something i have strongly supported, which is providing in this case $26 billion to the state of israel to defeat hamas, to defend itself against its enemies. this is something we actually tried to pass on its own and could have passed on its own months ago. it was blocked, held hostage for ukraine funding but it's something we should have done months ago. it's interesting, you know, i think israel in and of itself is a miracle country. on the first day of its existence, it was invaded i believe by 12 separate armies, the whole world thought they would be overrun and defeated very quickly and they survived. and they have throughout their entire existence. had to deal with the fact that everywhere they turned, they

have enemies all around them. it also happens to be the only pro-american democracy in the middle east. and today it's engaged in a battle to not just defeat these vicious criminals and terrorists who committed slaughter on the 7th of october of last year, but they also have to deal with rockets being launched against them from lebanon. you have 90,000 something potentially. israelis are permanently displaced in their own country. they can't go back to where they lived in the northern part of the country and the threat from iran and all the terror groups, hezbollah and the like that are constantly targeting israel. and then having to face all of the things that are happening around the world as well in this effort to d delegitimatize the right to exist as a state. we should have done this weeks and months ago. and it could have been done all on its oeven as its own -- own as its own bill but it was held

hostage. it provides $8 billion to help nations in the indo-pacific, particularly taiwan. and the purpose of that is to build up the military capacity of our partners in the region, frankly, to dissuade and prevent the chinese communist party from starting a war in the indo-pacific that would make the one that's now going on in europe look like child's play, far more dangerous. and by the way, it does something i've been trying to do since 2019. i believe he was the first member of congress to call for a banning -- not a banning of tiktok, a banning of bytedance which is the company that owns tiktok. bytedance sells tiktok. tiktok continued to operate. we should not have a company operating in the united states about the algorithm that it has and access to the data that it has that powers that algorithm. we should not have a company like that operating in the united states. it has something to do with everything the chinese communist party tells them to do. but the reason why the headlines are going to be about ukraine funding is because that's the part of this bill that frankly has been controversial.

it has people that oppose it. i personally believe it is in the national interest of the united states to help ukraine. ukraine was invaded not once but twice by vladimir putin. i supported ukraine and helping ukraine back in 2014. when then -- whether they were first invaded by putin and president obama would only supply them with blankets and meals ready to eat. and i support continuing to help them now to defend themselves. they didn't start this war. i support helping them defend themselves to the extent we can afford and to the extent we can sustain it. but while this invasion of ukraine most certainly poses a national security interest to the united states and a risk to our country, the invasion of america across our southern border is even more important. is even more a severe threat.

today and every single day for the last three years, thousands of people, many if not most of whom we know very little about, are pouring into the united states across our southern border. and i made it clear months ago that while i support helping ukraine, i would only vote to do so if the president issued executive orders that would help stop this. it was as executive orders ordering us not to enforce immigration laws that yated and incentive and driver that has led to this crisis and only that, only executive orders to begin to enforce our immigration la laws would allow us to stop what is happening now. but the president continues to refuse to issue those executive orders. he continues to refuse to enforce our immigration laws and so the crisis continues. and sadly just a few moments ago we took a vote here that

basically says we here in the senate will not be allowed to vote on amendments to make changes to this bill. and so we are left with the choice. i am left with this choice. if i want to help israel, if i want to help taiwan, if i want to ban bytedance from operating tiktok in the united states, then i have to drop my demand that the president enforce our immigration laws and by the way, i have to vote for billions of dollars to be spent on all kinds of programs around the world that i'll describe in a moment. including for people that are illegally entering this country. this is moral extortion. first, nine million people over three years. that's what's entered our country. this is not immigration. we have -- should always be a country that welcomes immigration. it enriches our country --

controlled immigration in which we control how many people come, who comes, knowing enough about them. that's immigration. nine million people and counting in three years? that is mass migration. and mass migration is never good. there is never such a thing has a positive mass migration, particularly of nine million people in three years. but at a time when our country, from the inside and the outside, is being infiltrate add by people and by movements that seek to destroy america, mass migration is catastrophically dangerous. last week in a coordinated effort -- and it was a coordinated effort; they admit it -- in a coordinated effort to cause the most economic dact on the united states, at least until our leaders abandon israel, we had pro-terrorist mobs. these are not protesters.

these are mow pro-terrorist mobs, shut down traffic on an interstate in oregon. they blocked passengers from he going to the airport in seattle. it closed down the golden gate bridge in san francisco. at this very moment right now as i speak on the senate floor, some of our most prestigious universities are closed because they've been taken over by pro-terrorist mobs. others are chanting go hamas, we love you, we support your rockets, too. others, i've heard these chants, we say justice, us say how. burn televisa to the ground -- burn tel aviv to the ground. the situation has gotten so intolerable that just two days ago a rabbi advised jewish students to leave columbia university and go home for their safety.

this morning i got a text message from a friend, a jewish friend -- and i read something i never thought i would have to read. here's what he wrote me. quote, i have to tell you for the first time in my life, i see jewish people scared for their safety and considering exit strategies from the usa, including buying homes in foreign countries and looking to liqu liquidate usa assets. i never thought i would ever read that from anybody -- in america. these mobs, by the way, don't want to just destroy israel. they want to destroy america. some of these mobs are out there chanting death to america, in the streets of american cities. and as one of the mob leaders at one of these riots, this is what he said through a microphone. quote, it is not just genocide joe that has to go. it is the entire system that has to go. any system that would allow such atrocities and devilry to happen

and would support it, such a system does not deserve to exist on god's earn. you know what system he's talking about? this system, our system. our system of government. that's what he was talking about. where did all this come infrastructure? -- where did all this come from? how can things we once only saw happening in the streets of tehran manufactured by the evil regime, those things are now being chanted in our streets, in our country? where did this come infrastructure? -- where did this come from? hamas and hezbollah have been very very public about how these violent anti-israel, anti-semitic mobs are part of their strategy to intimidate american leaders to support policies that will help destroy israel. hamas, hezbollah, other terror groups, they have repeatedly called on their supporters around the world to protest in cities everywhere, and they

boast about how their friends, or what they call their friends on the global left, were actually now responding to their calls. by the way, they openly brag. this is all coming from interviews that they do on television programs that can be monitored. they openly brag because of the flukes of colonialism, racism and slavery studies into history curricula, end quote, and they go on to say, many young americans have been -- my term, a term i read in "the wall street journal" -- have been groomed to support armed resistance, to support intifada in the united states. by the way, it is not just the mobs that we're seeing. beyond that as the director of the fbi has acknowledged, isis generated income, they generate revenue by running a human smuggling ring that brings

migrants to the united states. and so just the bare minimum common sense would lead you to conclude that if isis has a business to smuggle migrants into the u.s., why wouldn't they use that to smuggle a few terrorists here to do in america what at the in moscow a few weeks ago? so we have hamas, hezbollah, calling for intifada inside america. we already have students here on student visas calling for death to america and isis controls a migrant smuggling ring that they can use to bring people into the united states to conduct attacks. but if i want to help israel, if i want to help taiwan, if i want to help ukraine, if i wasn't to ban tiktok, i have to vote to do nothing to stop thousands of people a day that we know literally nothing about, just

allow them to come across our border appeared be released in -- and be released into our country. as far as some of the money that's being spent all over the world, i have always supported the world being engaged in the world, and i continue to be. but i ask you this -- i have senior citizens, i have veterans, and they call my office and they call all our offices and they say, i have nowhere to live. house something too expensive. i met a senior a couple days, a still in his 80's. he literally lives in a mobile home. in, like, a trail area, parked in someone's park yard. these people call. they've lived in this country their whole life. they served our country. and they call for help and the most we can often do is help get them on a waiting list for section 8 housing. this is a problem that exists in america right now. but if i want to help israel, if i want to help taiwan, if i with aens to help ukraine, if i want

to ban tiktok, i have to vote for spending billions of dollars to give to charity groups so they can fly people around the country, put them in hotel rooms or help them resettle in another country. we have rich countries in the middle east, allies of ours, but their leaders own some of the largest yachts in the world. some of their leaders own some of the most expensive horses you could possibly buy in the world. they've built some of the most extravagant and luxurious resorts. these are rich countries and strong supporters of the palestinian cause, as they call it. but if i want to help israel, if i with aens to help taiwan, if i want to help ukraine, if i with aens to ban tiktok, i have to vote to send american taxpayer money to deal with the catastrophe that's been created by hamas in gaza. 100% by hamas. there was no war.

there was a cease-fire before hamas crossed over and voughtered and raped -- and slaughtered and raped and kidnapped. now the american taxpayer is on the hook. look, i understand that in our republic, in our system of government, compromise is necessary. we have to do it all the time. i passed a lot of bills. every one of them involved me finding someone from a different ideological perspective from the other side of the aisle, and you have to compromise. meaning you're not going to get everything you want. you're going to have to give them something they want in exchange for something you want or you may have to change the way you wrote what you want. that's what you have to do in order to pass laws. i understand compromise. i do. but this bill is not that. this bill is not compromise. this bill is basically saying that if i don't agree to drop my demands that the president secure our border, if i don't agree to spend billions of

taxpayer dollars all over the world to resettle people here and in other places, in the midst of you are a own migratory crisis, if i don't agree to all of that, then israel and taiwan and ukraine do not get the help they need and that i support. and that tiktok does not get banned. this is not compromise. this is legislative blackmail. and i will not vote for blackmail. i yield the floor.

mr. ricketts: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. ricketts: mr. president, does anybody believe that the hashtag stand with kashmir is

more popular than stand with taylor swift. it has more posts than -- this is an example to skew public opinion on foreign events in their favorite. china is our chief foreign adversary in the world. they are they are a threat to our national security, our values, our economy, and the ccp works tirelessly every day to undermine our entire way of life. tiktok is one of the ways they're doing that. i understood that as governor. that's why i was the first governor in the country to ban the use of tiktok on government devices. that's why i'll be vetting for this bill today. today we are taking action to end the chinese communist party

ability to own and operate tiktok in the united states. tiktok's active users include over 150 million americans. that's almost half our country's entire population. it's become the most influential news platform in the country. the percentage of tiktok users who regularly get their news from this app has doubled since 2020678 the problem, however, is that news is what slant news has and it's entirely being controlled by the chinese communist party. we don't allow this for tv stations or radio stations. you have to be a u.s. citizen to own a tv station or radio station in this country. why are we letting our greatest adversary in the world own a news platform? tiktok under ccp ownership demotes content based 0en whether it alliance with the ccp's interests.

and it's agenda. this has major real-world implications here at home and around the world. look what's happening on our college campuses right now in this country. pro-hamas activists are take over public santa fes -- public spaces. jewish students are being told to leave campus because their universities can't guarantee their safety. there are a lot of other things wrong with this, including the failure to prioritize student safety over appeasement of terrorist sympathizers. but why is this happening in let's look at where young people are getting their news. nearly a third of adults 18 to 29, these young people in the u.s. are regularly getting their news exclusively from tiktok. pro-palestinian and pro-hamas hashtags are generating 50 times the views on tiktok right now despite the fact that polling shows americans overwhelmingly support israel over hamas.

these videos have more reach than the top ten u.s. news websites combined. this is not coincidence. the chinese communist party is doing this on purpose. they are pushing this racist agenda with the intention of undermining our democratic values. if you look at what's happening at columbia university and other campuses across the country, they're winning. i want to talk about another example that means a lot -- to the folks back home where i represent in nebraska. we know that test. covid pandemic originated in china. instagram and tiktok currently have about the same number of users in the u.s. however, if you look at the content, there's a 400-1 ratio for the content that blames china compared to tiktok.

instagram 400 number the times of posts. they have done this for tiananmen square which again on instagram there's 80 times the posts around tiananmen square than there is on tiktok. and on hong kong where there's 180 times the posts on hong kong's being censured or repressed citizens on tiktok. the federal government's job is to protect americans against foreign and domestic threats. tiktok is a major foreign threat. the bill we are passing today puts an end to that. that bill ensures or citizens are not improperly targeted, surveilled or influenced by any foreign adversary. right now the major threat is tiktok, but china can make another tiktok.

that's why instead we are, instead of going after any specific app, this bill simply prohibits marketplaces like the app store or google play from hosting applications controlled by foreign adversaries. this is just common sense. it also establishes a narrow framework to protect against future apps. it allows the federal government to require divestment control by a foreign adversary. that power has very strict guidelines. the authority can only be exercised if an application is under the control of an adversary or foreign entity presents a national security threat and has over one million active users annually. it also protects individual use. no enforcement action can be taken against individual users of banned applications. civil enforcement actions may only be initiated against companies that violate the act. the bill incentivizes china to

divest from tiktok or tiktok will face a ban. if divested from the ccp it will continue to operate in the u.s. if the restrictions are already in effect and tiktok has divested later, the restrictions will be lifted. i believe the chinese communist party is the greatest threat we face in this nation. they are fighting smart trying to undermine us from within and using technology like tiktok to do it. together by passing this bill, it is my hope that we will send a loud message, a clear message that america is not open to the chinese communist party p for influence. we are taking a stand to protect our own, protect our values, and then a major chinese communist party mr. lee: i ask unanimous consent to sus suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: mr. president. it wasn't too long ago republicans made a promise, to ourselves and to the american people, that before we sent

another dollar, another dime, another nickel, another penny to ukraine, we'd ensure that our own house was in order, that our own country was secure, that our own border was secure, that we would pass a real border security measure. and yet, here we are, months later, preparing to dispatch nearly $100 billion, if you say it slowly you sound a little like dr. evil in the original "austin powers" movie. $100 billion to foreign countries, while the security of our own homeland languishes. house republicans have broken their promise, and at least a critical mass of them under the direction of house republican leadership, they've betrayed the american people, because they've gone back completely on what they, what we, promised. tonight, we're seeing the same