Ed Royce

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, here is what we do know. We do know that the negative impact of this rule on consumers is not hypothetical. The reason we know it is because the United Kingdom has already lived through an effectually identical rule. The result in the UK was an advice gap that locked out nearly half a million middle-and low-income savers. Just last week, the head of the SEC's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis admitted that the Labor Department knew of the disastrous impact of what he termed the experiment in the UK that locked out these middle-income and low-income savers from advice, yet it moved forward to put us on that same path. Mr. Speaker, we live in a country that ranks 19th in the world for retirement security. Half of Americans cannot find $400 in savings if hit with an emergency. We should be doing more to encourage Americans to save. This rule, obviously, does exactly the opposite. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this legislation, the Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act. Since its inception back in 1968, the National Flood Insurance Program was never intended to cover policies that the private sector was able and willing to underwrite. In fact, one stated goal for the program was ``the Federal Government would create an opportunity for private industry to obtain . . . experience in operating a flood insurance program . . . and that sometime in the future, the program could become an all-private program.'' Nearly 50 years have passed and, to no one's surprise, private sector flood insurance risk modeling and analytics have dramatically improved. While this House may not be ready to take up complete privatization, it is time to provide a role for the private market to underwrite primary flood insurance policies. Passage of this bipartisan bill means more consumer choice, more market competition, and more product information. Consumers, for the first time, will be able to shop for a flood policy that fits their particular needs. This bill also has the added benefit of decreasing the aggregate flood insurance exposure to the Federal Government and decreasing the potential for a future taxpayer-backed bailout, which is very, very important. So I commend both gentlemen for their work on this important issue, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I acknowledge the ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel from New York, for his outstanding leadership on this legislation. With its passage today, his H.R. 1493, the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, will head to the President's desk for his signature. This is a critical measure. The Islamic State, or ISIS, continues to wreak havoc throughout Iraq and Syria. It is laying a path of death and destruction in its wake, and it has inspired deadly attacks around the world and deadly attacks here at home. No offense is more appalling than the terrorists' complete disregard for human life. As this body has recognized, ISIS is waging a genocide against religious minorities in the Middle East. I recently had the opportunity to talk to some of those Yazidi girls and Christian minorities about what they had been through, as well as to talk to Sunni and Kurdish families. It has unleashed a campaign of sickening violence against Muslims who do not share its radical beliefs and against the other religious minorities across the Middle East and beyond. Besides the human toll of ISIS' deplorable acts, we also mourn the tremendous loss of cultural heritage as these extremists loot and destroy their way through ancient sites in the territories that they conquer. We have seen sickening footage of ISIS' drilling its way through priceless artifacts in Mosul and in its bulldozing of magnificent Mesopotamian ruins in the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud. ISIS claims the annihilation of cultural sites is meant to counter idol worship, but clearly these terrorists have another goal: to remove all traces of the region's rich and diverse religious and cultural past. It is in line with what the Nazis tried to do in burning the books across Europe in trying to burn history that predated them. By eliminating all evidence of religious pluralism and by eliminating all evidence of humanity's common heritage, it is paving the way for its own horrifying brand of radical Islamist extremism. The looting of antiquities is big business for ISIS. Experts estimate that the group has earned millions of dollars from the sale of stolen artifacts every year, which are often peddled by middlemen in old- fashioned markets or online. Unfortunately, buyers in the U.S. appear to be a primary end destination for many of these pieces, as does Europe, as does Asia. Mr. Speaker, I just returned from the Middle East. I was honored to speak at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad about the need to counter ISIS' trafficking of priceless antiquities. This region is steeped in history from the rise and fall of empires to the evolution of writing and mathematics and art. Much of this heritage remains at risk due to looting by ISIS and, I should add, by other parties to the conflict in Syria, including the murderous Assad regime. That is why last year, Ranking Member Eliot Engel and I introduced this legislation, which will help the U.S. do its part to counter this black market trade. Specifically, this legislation will prevent those antiquities that have been removed since the start of Syria's civil war from being sold or imported into the United States. This will reduce funding to ISIS and will disincentivize future looting. Again, I thank the ranking member, as well as Representatives Smith and Keating, for all of their work on this measure. I also acknowledge the bill's Senate cosponsors--Senators Casey and Perdue and Grassley, as well as Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Cardin of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations--whose leadership was instrumental to this measure's passage by Mr. Engel in the Senate. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume Again, I thank Mr. Eliot Engel of New York for this legislation. The ancient cities now facing destruction at the hands of ISIS are considered the birthplace of modern civilization. As we stand here on the floor of the House, we see behind us the relief of the great lawgivers. First, there is Moses. Next to him is Hammurabi for Hammurabi's Code, the great lawgivers and heroes of liberty. We think about the fact that, in this part of the world, these antiquities are now in the hands of ISIS. As one expert told the Financial Services Committee's Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing last week, this is where the Acadian King Hammurabi ruled at the beginning of the second millennium BC and where the Hebrew prophet Jonah preached successfully repentance to the Assyrian Ninevites 1,000 years later. Now, in 2015, ISIS has as many as 4,500 cultural sites under its control. A raid carried out last year by U.S. Special Forces revealed that ISIS has invested heavily in the looting and smuggling of antiquities in the region as they cut up antiquities and then try to trade them for hard currency. The legislation before us today is an important step toward curbing this illicit trade and limiting funding to these terrorists. I do want to note that the bill's emergency import restrictions are not designed to continue in perpetuity and can be waived under certain conditions for the temporary safeguarding of cultural property in the United States. The bill also presses the administration to increase accountability for U.S. efforts to protect cultural property overseas and improves congressional oversight of this work. I appreciate the other committees of jurisdiction for working with the Foreign Affairs Committee on this measure, particularly the Committee on Ways and Means for its assistance on the cultural import restrictions in this bill. Lastly, I want to recognize the work of the committee staff on this important legislation, particularly Jessica Kelch, who, along with Mark Iozzi on Mr. Engel's staff and Kristen Marquardt on the Foreign Affairs Committee staff, worked out all the complexities to deliver what I am confident will be effective legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 1493) to protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters, and for other purposes.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material into the Record.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear about what this proposal does and does not do. Nothing in this amendment says that the Office of Financial Research must amend their work product because of public comments provided to them. The amendment here simply ensures that the public gets a chance to comment. I have asked eight--eight--FSOC members about their potential opposition to this idea. Not a single one has raised an objection to this. As to any rhetoric in opposition to this amendment, a lot of it has centered on the potential of opening up the Office of Financial Research to inappropriate influence. Nothing could be further from reality. Inappropriate influence is what happens when you labor long with little or no transparency, not when you provides more sunlight. What this amendment does is provides that transparency. It provides that sunlight by opening that up. There has been considerable, warranted criticism from those across the ideological spectrum about the quality of the OFR's research. We are taking a step today to improve the Office of Financial Research's research practices, something integral to FSOC reform as the Council makes designation decisions founded on the Office's work. Regulators making decisions on financial stability should do so with their eyes wide open. A more transparent, collaborative, and cyber secure Office of Financial Research accomplishes that end. For that reason, I urge Members from both sides of the aisle to support this amendment. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this amendment to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Reform Act, which mirrors bipartisan legislation I have authored, the Office of Financial Research Accountability Act. A more open, collaborative, and cyber-secure Office of Financial Research would be better positioned to achieve its stated mission of promoting financial stability. So, basically, this amendment gets the Office of Financial Research on track with a few simple, reasonable reforms. There are three of them. First, it requires the OFR to submit an annual work plan that details the Office's upcoming work while making it available for public notice and comment. Second, it requires the Office to coordinate with financial regulators and agencies that have subject matter experience as it prepares public reports. Third, it also tasks the Office, which handles immense amounts of sensitive financial data, with formulating a cybersecurity plan. So this amendment strengthens the Office of Financial Research's ability to ensure a transparent, efficient, and stable financial system for the American people, the core objective of the Office. I thank Mr. Emmer of Minnesota for his work on this important issue. I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support both my amendment and the underlying legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Emmer).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill).

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I just want to begin by thanking our colleague, Mr. Hurd from Texas, for his work here on behalf of the safety and security of the American people. He is a former CIA undercover officer. As a result of that, I think he had some unique insights here in moving this legislation. The name of this bill is Enhancing Overseas Traveler Vetting Act. I would also like to thank one other Member, and that is the Homeland Security chairman, Mr. McCaul. He is also on the committee that Mr. Sherman and I serve on, but I thank him for his leadership on the bipartisan Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel. That task force made recommendations, with the help of Mr. Hurd, and it led to the introduction of this important piece of legislation. It was passed out of the committee I chair, the Foreign Affairs Committee, back in February. I also want to recognize Mr. Eliot Engel and Mr. Sherman for their assistance and support on this as well. I think the reason this has such resonance with the Members in the House is because the global threat of terrorism has never been as high as it is today. In just the last 12 months, we have seen terrorists strike in my home State of California; we have seen it in France, Belgium, Turkey, India, Tunisia--where I just was a few days ago--the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Iraq. We were up in Erbil and Baghdad. And I have got to tell you, this is a situation that is compounding. No country is immune. This radical ideology that is now on the Internet--a virtual caliphate on the Internet, we should call it--knows no boundaries. It is pulling individuals from all over the globe. It is radicalizing them and, increasingly, doing it without them even having to leave their neighborhood. I just returned, as I mentioned, from Iraq, Tunisia, and Jordan, and I heard firsthand there about the foreign fighter threat. You have got 35,000 foreigners right now, and 3,600 of them were from Europe. They are actually from a total of 120 countries. They have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIS. Many of these fighters are now looking to return to their homes back in Brussels, back in Paris and the capitals of Europe--even here in the United States. Bazi was the name of a young girl who testified before our committee. Mr. Sherman and I remember some of the things she told us. She was taken captive by an American who had been recruited over the Internet to join ISIS. She became his concubine, and he felt compelled to tell her this was part of his ideology. He had converted to this. As a result of her being an apostate, she had to go through what other Yazidis and Christians and other faiths had to go through, which was to submit to him and to the will of his particular code. Eventually, she got loose. She got free of him and told us that tale of how, ultimately, she lost every male in the village--all her brothers--and how her sisters are now concubines. Many of them were foreign fighters, and that is why information sharing between countries is more critical now than ever, because this thing is everywhere now. The bipartisan task force's report highlighted the lack of any comprehensive global database of foreign fighters and suspected terrorists. In its absence, the U.S. and other countries rely on a patchwork system for exchanging extremist identities, which is weak and increases the odds that foreign fighters and suspected terrorists will be able to cross borders undetected. So this bill, thanks to Mr. Hurd's expertise, will authorize the Secretaries of the Department of State and Homeland Security to develop open-source software platforms to vet travelers against terrorist watch lists and against law enforcement databases. It permits the open-source software to be shared with foreign governments and multilateral organizations for police purposes, like INTERPOL. This bill reflects the recommendations made by, as I said, our colleagues on the task force, which we have worked together on. I thank Mr. Hurd and Chairman McCaul for their leadership working to make our Nation safer against terrorist threats. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would just say this for the Members. The 9/11 Commission Report was pretty prescient on this point. It said: ``The U.S. Government cannot meet its own obligations to the American people to prevent the entry of terrorists without a major effort to collaborate with other governments.'' The report said further: ``We should do more to exchange terrorist information with trusted allies and raise U.S. and global borders security standards for travel and border crossing, over the medium and long term, through extensive international cooperation.'' This is what the bill does. And, frankly, the Department of State here and the Department of Homeland Security, giving them this authorization to develop this open-source software, to vet those travelers against terrorist watch lists and against those law enforcement databases, is absolutely vital. I will just mention that the so-called Islamic State--we call it Daesh or ISIS--has already threatened to send hundreds of its European fighters back to the continent to carry out attacks like those attacks that they have already carried out in Paris and Brussels and, frankly, attacks like the one they carried out in San Bernardino, California. So I think this measure really deserves our unanimous support. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hurd), who is a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and he is also the author of this bill.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4403) to authorize the development of open-source software based on certain systems of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to facilitate the vetting of travelers against terrorist watchlists and law enforcement databases, enhance border management, and improve targeting and analysis, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution, condemning the terrorist attacks in Brussels carried out by Islamist extremists yesterday. ISIS terrorists have once again struck in Europe, and this time in Belgium. The murderers coldly chose crowded areas at the Brussels Airport and at the metro system in order to kill and maim as many innocent men, women, and children as possible. And the latest numbers are 31 dead and 270 wounded, including a number of Americans. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, the latest in a series that includes an horrific attack in Brussels, the attack in Paris, a double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, and the boast of responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The list of atrocities is far longer, including those by ISIS affiliates elsewhere, such as the recent attack in Ivory Coast. As these and other assaults show, ISIS is rapidly expanding its reach beyond its bases in Syria and in Iraq. Over 30,000 fighters from more than 100 countries have joined ISIS, including more than 250 Americans. We had a young Yazidi girl tell us that she was taken as a concubine by one of these Americans who had been recruited 4 years ago on the Internet by ISIS. More than 4,500 of this terrorist diaspora hold Western passports and are but a plane ride away, a plane ride away from the United States and from Europe. This resolution puts the House on record as condemning the attacks in Brussels and extends our sympathies to those affected by this tragedy, and it reaffirms our support for the people of Belgium in their time of national anguish. But we must do more than just express our sorrow. We must take decisive action to eliminate the threat, including expanding information-sharing with our friends and allies, putting stronger border checks in place, combating the online propaganda and hate speech of ISIS extremists, and sharpening coalition efforts to destroy ISIS itself. I will remind the Members that our committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, has held a series of hearings on this. When ISIS came out of Raqqa in the first place and headed towards the border and headed towards Fallujah, that was the time to hit this so-called JV team. This group of guys in pickup trucks, as the President called them at the time, were an open target on the open desert as they headed to Fallujah and, after that, as they headed to city after city after city without us using our airpower to hit them early on. They finally took Mosul and, with it, they took the Central Bank of Iraq. At this point, they have to be destroyed, and it is going to take a strategic plan to make certain the United States leads in that effort. We need to get it done.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, again I thank the Congressman from New York, Major Lee Zeldin, for authoring this bill. Let me also again express my appreciation for the cooperation of Ranking Member Engel and to commend his work and, also, that of our colleague from California (Mr. Bera), on this legislation. The 9/11 Commission states in their report to the Congress on recommendations: ``The U.S. Government cannot meet its own obligations to the American people to prevent the entry of terrorists without a major effort to collaborate with other governments. We should do more to exchange terrorist information with trusted allies, and raise U.S. and global border security standards for travel and for border crossing over the medium and long term through extensive international cooperation.'' This bill does that. It adds another component, and that is as it relates to the collateral benefit, which will come through trying to prevent infectious diseases borne by these exotic vectors, like these mosquitoes that bring the Zika virus or like Ebola. So this bill, H.R. 4314, increases collaboration with our allies through improved information sharing, tightened border security screening methods overseas, and the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security are required to accelerate the delivery of certain border security systems and prioritizing delivery to countries deemed to be at high or medium risk for foreign fighter or terrorist travel. It also establishes minimum border security standards. The Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security are required to submit an annual report to us in Congress detailing how countries are meeting the minimum border security standards established there. The annual report will not only assess partner country efforts over the previous 12 months, but it is also going to identify those areas that are most necessary for improvement. Countries that don't meet border security standards could have their nonhumanitarian, nontrade- related U.S. assistance suspended, cut off. Suspension of assistance is meant to ensure that countries take the necessary steps to improve their border security. I again want to thank Mr. Zeldin and other members of the Committee on Homeland Security's bipartisan Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel and all the bipartisan cosponsors for their support for this bill, which deserves our unanimous support. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin). He is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is also the author of this bill. Again, we appreciate the expertise he has brought in crafting this legislation as it relates to border security because of his experience, his distinguished career in the U.S. Army and, also, as an intelligence officer, a former prosecutor in the Army, and a military magistrate.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me begin by thanking Mr. Zeldin of New York for his work on H.R. 4314, the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act, as well as to thank the other members of the Committee on Homeland Security's bipartisan Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel. Under the leadership of Chairman McCaul and with the significant contributions of Mr. Katko of New York and the Foreign Affairs Committee, we unanimously approved this measure in January. Mr. Speaker, the reason we did goes back to a little bit of history. Al Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan because they had the capacity to do so--to plan an attack there on the United States. Now, ISIS controls significant territory. They control that territory in Syria, in Iraq, in Libya. As long as terrorist groups maintain these safe havens abroad, where they can work on new forms of munitions, bombing, and go through trial runs on how they carry out an attack, as a consequence, we are under a threat here on our homeland, much like the situation prior to 9/11. The perpetrators of the horrific attack that we all saw on that coverage out of Paris that killed 130--those killed were European nationals. Those who did those murders had trained to fight in Syria. They had traveled by train. They returned to Europe through Greece and through Turkey. Despite the fact that many of those local attackers were known by authorities, they were still able to move across borders. They moved without detection. In some cases, they moved with those fraudulent passports from Syria. Given the high number of foreign fighters returning home from that ISIS stronghold in Syria and from the ISIS training camps in Iraq--and, frankly, from Libya as well, we have now heard--there is a recognized and urgent need for improved border security and information sharing between governments. This bill is a way to get there because this threat is not just limited, by the way, to us in the United States and to Europe. Earlier this month terrorists who had received training inside Libya were killed by Tunisian security forces during an attempted attack inside Tunisia. So these attacks now demonstrate how easy it has become for terrorists and for foreign fighters to move across open borders. This legislation makes several important changes to how border security is administered. It improves the tools deployed at the border. It increases the border security coordination between Allied states. It does it in the following way: This legislation requires the Departments of State and Homeland Security to produce an annual scorecard assessing the border security efforts of countries around the world. This is going to identify the weaknesses and areas for improvement abroad. It will also mandate a streamlining of our own efforts to assist partners overseas with their border security programs. The administration will then submit a plan to Congress for prioritizing U.S. assistance on this. This bill requires the establishment of minimum standards for border security on the part of our Allied states. Countries that fail to meet these minimum standards can have U.S. foreign assistance suspended, cut off, employing the same incentive already in place that we use today in order to force compliance against human trafficking overseas, against those states that commit human rights violations. Many of the Members here are familiar with how we leverage those states to force them to pass legislation and change the way in which they address these issues. We are going to deploy the same leverage here. So this bill reflects the recommendations made by our colleagues on the Homeland Security's bipartisan task force on combating terrorists and foreign fighter travel, which we have worked together on. The Foreign Affairs Committee has worked with the Homeland Security Committee on that. I again thank Mr. Lee Zeldin for his leadership and for his work to make our Nation safer against this terrorist threat. I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, March 3, 2016. Hon. Ed Royce, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Royce: I am writing with respect to H.R. 4314, the ``Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2016,'' which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary. As a result of your having consulted with us on provisions in

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4314) to require a plan to combat international travel by terrorists and foreign fighters, accelerate the transfer of certain border security systems to foreign partner governments, establish minimum international border security standards, authorize the suspension of foreign assistance to countries not making significant efforts to comply with such minimum standards, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, today we take a step reserved for only the most dire of circumstances. The so-called Islamic State--or ``ISIS''--is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against religious and ethnic minorities. Yes, genocide. House Concurrent Resolution 75--led by Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, and more than 200 bipartisan cosponsors--declares that fact clearly, and was adopted unanimously by the Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month. Our Committee has held many hearings on this group's brutal war to eliminate religious minorities and bulldoze their histories. ISIS's tools include mass murder, beheadings, crucifixions, rape, torture, enslavement, and the kidnaping of children, among other atrocities. ISIS dynamites churches and flattens ancient monasteries. Put simply, their desire is to erase the existence of these groups from their self- proclaimed caliphate, by any means necessary. The crime of genocide is killing or inflicting other serious harm with the intent to destroy a religious or ethnic group--in whole or in part. ISIS is guilty. ISIS has clearly stated that it cannot tolerate the continued existence of the Yezidi community, and has followed these statements up with widespread killing and enslavement. Last fall, our Committee Members met with ``Bazi,'' a young Yezidi woman from Iraq, who bravely recounted her brutal captivity and abuse at the hands of the terrorist group. ISIS also has made no secret of its ``hatred for the cross worshippers.'' In one of their gruesome videos addressed to Christians, an ISIS spokesman taunts the so-called ``people of the cross'' saying ``you will not have safety--even in your dreams--until you embrace Islam.'' Next, 15 Christian captives are beheaded on camera. Sister Diana Momeka, who testified before us after fleeing the ISIS offensive against Mosul, poignantly described a ``cultural and human genocide,'' and observed that today ``[t]he only Christians that remain in the Plain of Niniveh those who are held as hostages.'' Most telling: Ask how many of the ancient, indigenous Christian communities survive in the areas where ISIS has consolidated its control? Experts inform me that the number is zero. ISIS brutalizes anyone whose beliefs conflict with its own narrow ideology, including fellow Muslims. It has torn the rich religious and cultural tapestry of that region to shreds. At a hearing four months ago, when Ambassador Anne Patterson, representing the Administration, was asked whether ISIS is committing genocide, she said that we could expect ``some announcements on that very shortly.'' We are still waiting. In December, I wrote Secretary Kerry a bipartisan letter, with 29 colleagues, urging that any genocide determination must reflect the full reality of the situation faced by all groups--Yezidis, Christians, and others. The State Department is facing a statutory deadline of March 17th--this Thursday--to provide Congress with an evaluation of the genocide question. Today's consideration puts Congress on record as to how the Secretary of State should rule. This past week, the Knights of Columbus sent Secretary Kerry an extensive 280-page report that provides both the legal basis and more than 200 pages of detailed, eyewitness documentation to support its conclusion that ``ISIS is committing genocide--the `crime of crimes'-- against Christians and other religious groups.'' The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the European Parliament have found their voices: Both have publicly concluded that Yezidis, Christians, and other minority groups are facing genocide at the hands of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Today, the voice of this body, representing the American people, will be heard. The House of Representatives led the push to recognize genocide in Sudan in the late 1990s. I remember the critical role we played in that debate. We have recognized genocide in other situations, including Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Sadly, it is time to make this solemn declaration again, to speak the truth about the atrocities of ISIS, and hope that the Administration and the world will do the same, before ISIS has succeeded in its genocidal campaign. And it should go without saying, this brutal terrorist organization and its caliphate ambitions must be shattered.