; Whereas the Senate supported the 2014 Wales Summit Defense Spending Benchmark on March 28, 2017, by ratifying the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the Accession of Montenegro on a vote of 97–2; Whereas, according to the 2022 Secretary General’s Annual Report, only seven of the 30 NATO member countries met the 2-percent GDP defense spending obligations in 2022; Whereas Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom all successfully joined the United States in meeting the minimum 2-percent GDP defense spending obligations in 2022; Whereas Croatia, France, Slovakia, Romania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Canada, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg failed to meet the GDP defense spending obligations in 2022; Whereas numerous NATO member countries use the United States security umbrella to evade the financial commitment needed to maintain the military strength of the NATO alliance; Whereas the 2022 Secretary General’s Annual Report revealed— (1) the United States accounted for 54 percent of the Allies’ combined GDP and 70 percent of combined defense expenditure; (2) Canada’s defense spending amounted to 1.29 percent of its GDP, making it the fifth-lowest-spending NATO member country as a percentage of GDP; and (3) Germany’s defense spending amounted to 1.49 percent of its GDP on national defense, despite having Europe’s largest economy; Whereas Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 represents the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of World War II; Whereas the United States is the largest contributor to Ukraine, despite this conflict taking place on the European continent, and has appropriated over $113,000,000,000 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine