Hi John,
Another week has begun in Washington, and the commonsense majority is still waiting on Congress to act on the pressing issues of securing our border and getting essential aid to our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. No Labels’ top allies in Congress have a bill to address these issues that could pass if they could just get a vote on it, and we want to invite you to a call tomorrow to hear from them.
This week provided a reminder of the stakes when CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Hines both testified to Congress how dire the situation in Ukraine was becoming, and what the implications would be if Congress failed to act.
Said Director Burns, “If we’re seen to be walking away from support for Ukraine, not only is that going to feed doubts amongst our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific; it’s going to stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.”
Director Haines agreed, “It is hard to imagine how Ukraine will be able to maintain the extremely hard-fought advances it has made against the Russians, especially given the sustained surge in Russian ammunition production and purchases from North Korea and Iran.”
Further, the intelligence community’s newest annual threat assessment found that Israel is likely to face “lingering armed resistance” from Hamas for years to come and the risk of escalation in the region remains high.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray has made clear that America’s insecure southern border represents a massive vulnerability: “We are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border…the FBI alone sees enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people.”
Fortunately, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Jared Golden and our problem-solving allies are rising to the occasion. They are continuing to push for Congress to pass their bipartisan Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, which combines significant border security measures with critical aid to our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
This week, Rep. Fitzpatrick began the process of collecting signatures for a discharge petition to move their bipartisan bill to the floor for an urgent vote. And tomorrow, March 13, at 1:30 PM ET, Reps. Fitzpatrick and Golden will join us to give an update on where this critical legislation stands.
