![Born in Ukraine, Victoria Spartz using her perch in Congress to push the US to do more](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220301155101-victoria-spartz-0301-super-tease.jpg)
Born in Ukraine, Victoria Spartz using her perch in Congress to push the US to do more
CNN
When Rep. Victoria Spartz was elected to the House in 2020, she became the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress.
Little did she know that after just one year on the job, that distinction would take on even greater significance as Russia brutally invades her home country and the United States debates what to do about it.
As a freshman, the Indiana Republican is using her microphone in Congress to make passionate pleas for a stronger US response to the rapidly escalating crisis in Ukraine, and hoping her personal connection to the conflict will make the message resonate more strongly. All the while, Spartz is dealing with the emotional toll of watching the bloody invasion unfold, knowing she still has friends and family -- including her grandmother -- who are in Ukraine.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206034049.jpg)
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250205191707.jpg)
Trump administration officials are hurrying to catch up to the president’s audacious and improbable plan for the United States to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera,” trying to wrap their heads around an idea that some hope might be so outlandish it forces other nations to step in with their own proposals for the Palestinian enclave.