Chris Smith

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding, for his passion, for his courage, and for authoring the Pain- Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and for doing so so informed. Trent Franks has been an incredible defender of life, and I want to thank him for his leadership on this extraordinarily important human rights piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, overwhelming majorities of Americans, some 60 to 64 percent, according to the pollsters, support legal protection for pain- capable unborn children. Today, we know that unborn babies not only die but suffer excruciating pain during dismemberment abortions, a cruelty that rips arms and legs off of helpless children. A former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino, testified before Congress, before Trent Franks' committee. Here is a man who has performed 1,200 abortions, over 100 late-term abortions up to 24 weeks; and he said, and I quote in part: ``Imagine if you can that you are a pro-choice obstetrician/gynecologist like I was.'' Using a sopher 13 clamp with rows of ridges or teeth, ``grasp anything you can'' inside the womb. ``Once you've grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard, really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about 6 inches long. Reach in again''-- he goes on--``and grasp anything you can and out pops an arm.'' He noted that a ``second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure.'' So he says: ``Reach in again and again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart, and lungs.'' Mr. Speaker, even swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his dissent in the Stenberg v. Carhart decision, said about dismemberment abortions: ``The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.'' Mr. Speaker, even if pain wasn't present, dismembering a child is violence against children, and it is inhumane. But these babies actually suffer in this process. Dr. Robert White, professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve, has said an unborn child at 20 weeks' gestation ``is fully capable of experiencing pain . . . without question, abortion is a dreadfully painful experience. . . .'' Dr. Anand wrote, and he is an expert on pain: ``The human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks' gestation. . . .'' He points out that it is even worse for an unborn child at that time period because ``the highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from 20 to 30 weeks' gestation. Thus, a fetus at 20 to 32 weeks' gestation would experience a much more intense pain than older infants or children or adults.'' We have known this for some time, Mr. Speaker. In 2006, I authored the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act that garnered 250 votes in favor--including 40 Democrats--to 162 against. I remember thinking on that day of the vote: How can anyone refuse to make child pain information part of an informed consent? Congressman Trent Franks has authored four--count them, four-- extraordinarily important human rights bills over the years to actually protect pain-capable babies in Federal law from the violence of abortion, including the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that passed the House in 2013 and again in 2015. Tragically, President Obama vowed to veto this child protection legislation, and the Senate failed to pass it. However, this year, we have a President who said, and he put out a Statement of Administration Policy: You present this legislation to me, and I will sign it. Finally, not only will babies be protected by Trent Franks' law at 5 months, and the pain suffered by these babies will be averted, but H.R. 36 requires that a late abortion, permitted under very limited circumstances, provide ``the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive'' and that ``a second physician trained in neonatal resuscitation'' be ``present and prepared to provide care to the child'' to the same degree as the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 prescribed. Following the care required to be rendered, the born-alive child shall immediately be transported and admitted to a hospital. Sixteen States have passed legislation that resembles this important legislation that we will have before us on this House floor. My good friend and colleague talked about Dr. Gosnell. Four years ago, Dr. Gosnell was convicted of murder, conspiracy to kill, and involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Even though the news of Gosnell's child slaughter was largely suppressed by the mainstream media, many of my colleagues may remember that Gosnell operated a large Philadelphia abortion clinic where women died and countless babies were dismembered, all gruesome procedures causing excruciating pain to the victim. This is a humane bill, a major human rights bill, and, again, I want to thank my great friend and colleague for his leadership. It is extraordinary.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I held a hearing on democratic governance in Rwanda. Rwanda is an important African ally. This East African nation has been a valuable contributor to peacekeeping in Africa and is the sixth largest troop and police contributor to United Nations missions. However, reports have increased about the status of human rights and rule of law inside Rwanda and its efforts to silence critics living abroad. This hearing will examine the future of democracy and rule of law in Rwanda in light of persistent criticism of its government's behavior at home and on the international stage. Rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. In 2015, the country held a constitutional referendum in which an estimated 98 percent of registered voters participated. Approximately 98 percent of those who voted endorsed a set of amendments that included provisions that would allow the president to run for up to three additional terms in office, meaning Paul Kagame could be President for more than 20 more years. His election to a third term in August 2017 was achieved with 99 percent of the vote. A popular politician in the United States or most other countries would be unlikely in most circumstances to win nearly 100 percent of the vote in a free, fair and competitive election. Consequently, it is difficult to believe that even someone as widely admired as President Kagame has been could be that popular. Such suspicion is stoked by reports of vote irregularities and actions by the Rwandan government to restrain opposition activism and enact stringent controls on opposition activism, including legal restrictions on civil liberties and stringent controls on the free flow of information. An example of why there is skepticism about the nature of free elections in Rwanda is the case of businesswoman Diane Rwigara, who ran as a critic of Kagame. Days after she launched her campaign, nude photos allegedly of her were leaked onto the Internet in an attempt to discredit her. She said she would not be intimidated and continued her campaign. On July 7th, the National Electoral Commission disqualified her and two other candidates on technical grounds, alleging that they had not collected enough valid signatures. Amnesty International said that the election would be held in a ``climate of fear and repression'' and the commission's decision was criticized by the U.S. State Department and the European Union. Following the election, Rwigara launched an activist group called the People Salvation Movement to challenge the regime on its human rights record, saying that the country's parliament is little more than a rubber-stamp. Within days, her home was raided, and she was arrested for forgery and tax evasion. Although she was released, Rwigara, was rearrested for forgery and offences against state security; her mother and her sister also were subsequently arrested for tax evasion. This is not the only case of harsh punishment of those who criticize the Kagame government. David Himbara, one of our witnesses today, was a close adviser to President Kagame and has an inside view of how this government deals with those seen as failing the government or those who disagree. He testified on the inner workings of the Kagame government at our May 20, 2015, hearing on Rwanda. Another witness at that May 2015 hearing was Robert Higiro, who told a chilling account of being solicited to commit the murders of two formerly high-ranking military and security officials. That account was backed by authenticated recordings of Rwanda's security chief offering large sums of money for the murders. In fact, after Higiro testified about this offer, he had to move from Belgium to the United States because his life was in danger. Both of our Rwandan witnesses have new information that will be important for our government's policy toward Rwanda. During a staff delegation to South Africa last year, two of my staff spoke with officials in the Government of South Africa, which was highly offended that the Rwandan government would be involved in the murder of a dissident on New Year's Eve 2013. My staff also spoke with Rwandan refugees in South Africa who reported being afraid of officials at the Rwandan embassy in South Africa, who they said had threatened them for seeking asylum. Again, Rwanda is not your typical dictatorship in which all people suffer under an unpopular leader who does not provide for social services or security. Many Rwandans apparently genuinely feel the government is acting in their interest, especially in providing for inter-ethnic harmony. It is this anomaly we seek to better understand through today's hearing. My office has compiled a report on our government's human rights issues with Rwanda, and we are due to discuss these matters with them further. We would be a poor ally if we did not caution the Rwandan government about human rights abuses the international community cites, including governments in Africa. We hope these abuses can be stopped, but until such time as they are, we cannot ignore them and must bring them up in our interactions with the Government of Rwanda whether or not they readily accept the view others have of their behavior. It is in their interest and ours that we do so.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank Chairman Royce for convening this mark-up on a number of substantive pieces of legislation. As our time is limited, I will focus on a few key items. I am an original cosponsor of H.R. 3445, and I thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel, as well as my friend and colleague Karen Bass, for trying to strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act. I would like to thank my good friend and fellow member of the New Jersey delegation, Albio Sires, for his bipartisan Global Health Innovation Act of 2017, H.R. 1660, of which I am a cosponsor. This bill will allow us to exercise greater oversight over USAID programs and to gauge how effectively USAID is developing and utilizing innovations in health programs. I support H.R. 3320 and commend Chairman Yoho for his work on this timely bill. The Chinese Communist government has been slowly squeezing Taiwan's international space, taking extraordinary measures to exclude Taiwan from multi-lateral institutions like the World Health Organization. Such exclusions create real international blind spots that pose threats to global health and security. As you all know, SARS spread from Taiwan and China to other parts of the globe. With the World Health Organization in particular, I intend to push for admission of Taiwan. I commend Ranking Member, Mr. Engel, along with Chairman Yoho, Mr. Chabot, and Mr. Sherman, for putting together H. Res. 422, on Hong Kong. The threats to Hong Kong's autonomy and its freedoms are real and progressing. These freedoms and the rule of law are vital economic interests of the United States and the foundation of the city's vitality, creativity, and entrepreneurial sprit. Beijing has become more assertive in Hong Kong's affairs over the past several years and ramped up efforts to destroy the pro-democracy movement over the summer. Six legislations were disqualified through unprecedented interventions by the National People's Congress into Hong Kong's judiciary. The pan-democratic minority could stop pro-Beijing legislation in the past, but now it cannot. China can push through any measure it wants now with its block of unelected legislators. And, as you all know, the Hong Kong government has re-sentenced the leaders of the peaceful Umbrella Movement of 2014. Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow should now be considered Hong Kong's first political prisoners. They will not be the last, as new trails begin soon. This resolution is needed but should not be our last word. That is why I introduced, along with Congressman Tim Walza (a fellow CECC Commissioner), the Hong Kong Human Rights & Democracy Act--a bill that I introduced in the last Congress and which has been introduced by Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Ben Cardin in the Senate. I would urge my colleagues to consider this legislation and find ways to protect U.S. interests in a free and autonomous Hong Kong in addition to Ranking Member Engels' resolution which is before us today. Hizballah is a cancer that has metastasized in Lebanon and threatens to invade nearly every corner of the region if we do not stay vigilant. H.R. 3329, introduced by Chairman Royce, would choke off additional sources of financial support for this malignant growth, particularly by targeting the group's grass roots fundraising enterprise that it expanded to circumvent existing sanctions. Building on the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act that the House passed unanimously in 2015, this bill would require third-party sanctions on those who substantially support Hizballah fundraising operations. The reports required in this legislation would also go further to ferret out the extent of the group's fundraising network, which it would rightly classify as a transnational criminal organization. Make no mistake: Hizballah is an international crime syndicate, wrapped in an Iranian paramilitary proxy, inside a terrorist organization, masquerading as a political resistance movement. H.R. 3342 introduced by Mike Gallagher would direct our government to use the tools at its disposal to impose penalties on Hizballah for employing human shields to defend its installations and outposts. Hizballah's use of innocent human lives to protect its nefarious activities is a clear human rights violation and plainly demonstrates that Hizballah is an enemy of Lebanon's freedom-loving people. The bill also encourages the President to direct our Permanent Representative at the United Nations to use her voice and vote to push for a resolution condemning this sickening practice. I can confidently say that the United States could not ask for a stronger or more clear-eyed defender of American interests and the security of our most critical regional ally, Israel, at the UN than Ambassador Haley.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I held a hearing on the future of democracy and governance in Liberia. Of the more than 50 nations of Africa, the United States has the closest connection with the Republic of Liberia. This is not only because Liberia was founded in 1847 by freedmen and former slaves from this country, but also because of the estimated 500,000 Liberians and Liberian descendants who live here. Many Liberians consider the United States the ``mother country'' even though it was never a U.S. colony. Liberian cities such as Monrovia and Buchanan were named for American presidents. However, most Americans are largely unaware of the long link between the United States and Liberia and likely see Liberia as just another African country. Most Americans are unaware that Liberia has been a major U.S. ally since World War II and into the Cold War, hosting U.S. communications facilities in the 1960s and 1970s and receiving extensive U.S. development assistance, including post-war aid and post- Ebola aid to Liberia. The United States also helped Liberia build its criminal justice sector and supported transitional justice efforts. The United States has funded just over a quarter of the cost of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), at a cost of $106 million annually as of FY 2016. Liberia is also implementing a $256.7 million, five-year MCC compact, signed in 2015, designed to increase access to reliable, affordable electricity and enhance the country's poor road infrastructure. Bilateral State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) assistance totaled $91 million in FY2016. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made some advancement in democracy and governance during her two terms, following the despotic rule of Charles Taylor. During his term of office, Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his involvement in the Sierra Leone civil war from 1991 to 2002, but he also was responsible for serious human rights violations in Liberia. Taylor was formally indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2003. He resigned and went into exile in Nigeria. In 2006, then-newly elected President Sirleaf formally requested his extradition. He was detained by UN authorities in Sierra Leone and then at the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague, awaiting trial by the Special Court. He was found guilty in April 2012 of all eleven charges levied by the Special Court, including terror, murder and rape, and in May 2012, Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The United States occasionally arrested alleged perpetrators of civil war human rights abuses, often using immigration perjury charges as a vehicle for prosecution. One of them was Charles McArther Emmanuel, also known as Chuckie Taylor, the son of Charles Taylor. Raised in Florida, Emmanuel became the commander of the infamously violent Anti-Terrorist Unit, commonly known in Liberia as the ``Demon Forces.'' He is currently serving a 97-year sentence back in Florida for his role in human rights violations carried out by the ATU. President Sirleaf was unable under the constitution to run for a third term but unlike other African leaders, she did not push to change the constitution to allow a third term. We don't yet know whether her successors can or will continue an upward trend. Most candidates for President have highlighted corruption, but these candidates have platforms that are light on policy specifics. Consequently, my subcommittee's hearing this week was intended to examine the prospects for democracy and governance in Liberia following the October elections. The United States is a key provider of technical assistance to Liberia's National Election Commission, including an International Foundation for Electoral Systems program, funded by USAID, and the U.N. Development Program, backed by nearly $12 million in mostly European Union funding under a multifaceted project from 2015 to 2018. The Election Commission also receives broader institutional capacity building support under a second $4 million USAID-funded program, the Liberian Administrative and System Strengthening. Our government has a significant investment in Liberia on several fronts. The future direction of this country is important to the United States. Therefore, we have a stake in the next Liberian government building on advances made in democracy and governance under the current government and must continue to provide assistance to that end and insist on no backsliding as we see in far too many countries in Africa today. Most of all, there must be much more done to minimize the impact of corruption in Liberia, which not only robs the people of the benefits of their country's resources and labor, but also discourages foreign investment that could provide a needed boost to development. October's election will tell a lot about where Liberia is going, and we need to keep a close watch on developments in this important African ally.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001--I was in Washington chairing a Veteran's Affairs hearing--when a group of cowards hijacked airliners in order to perpetrate the worst act of terrorism in American history. No one remembers the shock, horror and numbing sorrow more, however, than the families and close friends of the victims. Because it was a surprise attack, there was no chance to fight back that day although when New Jersey's Todd Beamer and other passengers learned what happened to the Twin Towers, Todd famously said ``let's roll'' and attacked the terrorists on board the flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field to preclude another jet from being used as a missile. Who can forget the courageous first responders running up the stairs of burning buildings--with total disregard for their own safety--saving some at the expense of their own lives. On the morning of 9/11, I got a mere glimpse--I say again a glimpse-- into the sense of horror suffered by the victim's families when I couldn't reach my own brother Tom--an American Airlines 757 Captain who often piloted Flight 11 from Logan to LA, the flight that crashed into the North Tower. Stuck in traffic within sight of the burning Pentagon, cell phones were all but gridlocked. At noon, I got through. He and his flight attendant wife Sandy were safe but were in anguish because they knew the pilots and crew on board Flight 11. For the families of the victims--and I got to know and work with several including Kathy Wisniewski who lost her husband and today works on my staff, the Jersey Girls and Theresa Velardi, the news that day was absolutely devastating. Both then--and now 16 years later--words are still inadequate to convey our empathy for those who died and for the victim's families. For many, their faith in God has helped them survive and overcome. Yet for 16 years, the families have had to endure their loss and a broken heart. Which reminds me of that haunting song in Les Miserables after one of the main characters loses many of his friends in a battle at a barricade: There's a grief that can't be spoken There's a pain goes on and on; Empty chairs and empty tables . . . Where my friends will meet no more . . . Yes, empty chairs and empty tables in New Jersey and elsewhere but those chairs and tables are not empty in heaven. Yesterday, I attended a 9/11 memorial in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Theresa Velardi, who lost her dad, Paul James Furmato, on September 11, was eloquent in her moving statement, which I include in the Record: I have not spoken at a memorial like this before, so I hope you will all bear with me as I try to get through this. First, I want to thank Lillian for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I would like to thank everyone who takes care of this memorial and the township of Colts Neck for providing me with a place to come to remember and to be with my Dad. And I also want to thank all of you for coming out today and always keeping the families and first responders of 9/11 in your hearts and your prayers. My father, Paul James Furmato, was an institutional sales trader and a Vice- President at Cantor Fitzgerald. He was taken away from me 16 years ago and my entire family dynamic was changed. I remember waking up morning after morning watching my mother fight back her tears and try her best to raise 3 children on her own. I remember waking up every day after the twin towers crashed wondering, ``does this mean Dad is really never coming home?'' I remember being a Girl Scout in Colts Neck and having to skip Father-Daughter dances because my father was murdered. I remember hoping and praying, even years later, that my Dad would come walking through the door one day and that this was all a really horrible dream. But it wasn't a dream. And my family would be changed forever. The entire country would be changed forever. You don't remember much from when you were 6, but you never forget the feeling of losing a father. You never forget the pain, the devastation, or the confusion. And it wasn't just my family. Families from around the country lost loved ones. There was true devastation felt all around after the twin towers fell. The country went into a state of shock. But shortly thereafter, something incredible happened. We came together. We united with those around us and worked towards repairing New York City, repairing broken families, and repairing the damage in our hearts. In this country, we support each other. In Monmouth County, we support each other. And in my hometown Colts Neck, we support each other. This community picked each other up off the ground. I remember Cedar Drive Middle School teachers and Conover Road Elementary School teachers showing up at my house days after with food and condolences. All types of Colts Neck residents showed up at my door to lend my mom the support and prayers she truly needed. As devastating as 9/11 was for my family and for our entire community, it reminded all of us to help each other and look out for one another. It reminded us that no matter how bad things may get, there is always a better tomorrow. No matter what age we are or what troubles we face, we can overcome. We can fight through it and we can work together to rebuild. My father's life was taken from him at 37 years old. My mother lost her husband, her soul mate after spending 17 years with him. She was left with heartbreak and three children at impressionable ages. Yet she continued to wake up every morning to provide and to care for her children. She refused to let the hatred of others consume her own heart and mind. I grew up watching a woman never give up and I knew I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I am 22 years old. I'm a college graduate from Fordham University with a double degree in Philosophy and Political Science. I run an office as the Executive Director at the Monmouth County Republican Committee. I am working towards my J.D. at Seton Hall Law School on the weekends. I live on my own and I try my very best to balance everything going on in my life. I strive every single day to make my Father proud in Heaven. When life becomes overwhelming or stressful or it all just feels like too much, I come here and I sit right on that bench with Paul James Furmato's name on it. I sit here with my Father beside me. Just this past week, my world felt like it was caving in. But I came here and I sat with my Dad. I prayed I was making him proud in Heaven and I promised him yet again that I will continue to work hard every single day to be the best daughter I can be no matter what life throws my way. At times, life gets difficult. I have seen that and experienced that first hand. We see heartbreak and disasters like the storms passing through Texas and Florida just this past week. The only thing we can do when life hits us hard is overcome. We have to reflect on tragedies like 9/11 and allow them to help us grow.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him and Eliot Engel for sponsoring this important bill. This bill brings together a critical arsenal of stiff and timely sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea. The administration was absolutely right in early February to put Iran on notice regarding its continued testing of ballistic missiles. This bill underscores that warning by imposing expanded sanctions against Iran's missile program, demonstrating that the United States will not sit idly by as Iran augments its ability to militarily blackmail the United States, Israel, and our allies. It also, as the world's largest sponsor of terrorism, imposes terror sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It very importantly, as well, authorizes the imposition of sanctions on individuals responsible for Iran's human rights abuses. The State Department suggests there are as many as 800 political prisoners in Iran alone. It also reminds us and draws attention to Iran's despicable practice of arresting American citizens to use them as bargaining chips. On Russia, Mr. Speaker, the Putin government's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea; indiscriminate bombing in Syria; and threatening behavior toward our NATO allies, above all, in the Baltics makes it--important in respects--the worst actor in the global stage today. Putin's government has passed from threats to aggressive actions against our friends, allies, and innocent people abroad. Let's not forget that in 2008--and I was there in Tbilisi as it was happening--the Russians invaded Georgia and annexed South Ossetia and Abkhazia. As to North Korea, a gulag masquerading as a country, we must cut off all economic lifelines to Kim Jong-un, and punish Pyongyang's clients and its enablers. A regime that murdered Otto Warmbier and then, of course, is working on more missiles and the means to deliver them needs to be taken seriously. This legislation does that with very stiff sanctions. I thank, again, Chairman Royce, Eliot Engel, Majority Leader McCarthy, and Steny Hoyer as the principal sponsors of the bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 3364, the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, introduced by my good friend, Chairman Ed Royce. I'm proud to be a co-sponsor. This bill brings together a critical arsenal of stiff and timely sanctions trained at some of the gravest national security threats our country faces today. The Trump Administration was absolutely right in early February to put Iran ``on notice'' regarding its continued testing of ballistic missiles. This bill underscores that warning by imposing expanded sanctions against Iran's missile program--demonstrating that the United States will not sit idly by as Iran augments its ability to blackmail Israel and other allies. The stakes could hardly be higher. Iran possesses the largest ballistic missile program in the region and its medium-range ballistic missiles are already able to strike Israel and our allies and installations in the Gulf from deep within Iranian territory. Iran's growing space launch program--a thinly veiled testing scheme for intercontinental ballistic missiles--is cause for greater alarm still. Iran is also the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. By requiring the imposition of terror sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, H.R. 3364 treats the IRGC as what it truly is: Iran's principal means of exporting terrorism around the world, particularly to Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bahrain. The U.S. cannot tolerate this brinksmanship and blackmail. Iran dreams of nothing less than regional hegemony and Israel's annihilation. There is no room for compromise with such an adversary. Now is the time to act: Iran is entrenching its influence in Syria and Iraq and insuring these gains with the credibility of its missile threat and militant proxies. We must pass this bill to bring maximum pressure to bear against a mounting threat. Importantly, this bill also authorizes the imposition of sanctions on individuals responsible for Iran's horrifying human rights abuses. In May, the State Department reported to Congress that: ``The Iranian regime's repression of its own people includes reports of over 800 political prisoners, composed of peaceful civic activists, journalists, women's rights activists, religious and ethnic minorities, and opposition political figures.'' This bill would also draw increased attention to Iran's despicable practice of arresting American citizens to use them as bargaining chips. On Friday, the Trump Administration rightfully called Iran out for using these detentions as ``a tool of state policy'' and threatened ``new and serious'' consequences if this practice continues. We must not forget the lives and families of Robert Levinson, Siamak and Baquer Namazi, Xiyue Wang, and others that have been torn apart by Iran's cynical schemes. Mr. Speaker, regarding Russia, the Putin government's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, indiscriminate bombing in Syria, and threatening behavior toward our NATO allies, above all in the Baltics, makes it among the worst actors on the global stage today. Putin's government has passed from threats to aggressive action against our friends, allies and innocent civilians abroad. And it did so long ago, when it invaded Georgia in 2008. I was there, in Tbilisi, several weeks after that invasion began, to work to secure the exit of two young children, constituents of mine, trapped behind Russian lines in South Ossetia. I will never forget the quiet courage of the Georgian people in Tbilisi--not entirely surprised by Putin's invasion--they were too wise for that--uncertain whether the Russian army would proceed to Tbilisi, and determined to soldier on in defense of their country. And then in 2014 the Russian government annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine--each of these incursions was marked by massive human rights violations, violence toward anyone suspected of being unsympathetic to the Russian imperialist cause, and created massive humanitarian crises of displaced persons, which the Russian government did nothing to relieve. These acts of aggression underscore the seriousness with which we must take the Russian government's testing of our limits and our will, by buzzing our ships and planes, harassing our diplomats, and intimidating our allies--as it does for example with the Zapad exercises set to take place in September near the Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian borders. We know from experience that the best way to maintain the peace and keep our country secure is to respond strongly to Russian expansionism and intimidation attempts--this sanctions bill does just that. The large number of political assassinations that have scarred Russian public life since Putin arrived on the scene--the most notorious but not the only attack on the rights of Russian citizens for which the Putin government is responsible. These brutal crimes only underscore the need to respond strongly to Putin's attempts to intimidate us and our allies. Congress has responded strongly to Putin's aggressions and crimes before, for example with the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act and the Global Magnitsky legislation, of which I was the House chief sponsor, taking the lessons of the earlier act and applied them globally, while in its name further memorializing the heroic sacrifice of Sergei Magnitsky. The Magnitsky legislation was so strongly detested by the Putin government that in early 2013, having cosponsored the original Magnitsky legislation, the Russian government refused to issue me a visa to visit Russia to work on international child adoption issues. A State Department official commented to me at the time that as far he knew, I was the first Congressman denied a visa since the Brezhnev era. So, in addition to enacting this new legislation, I want to join Vladimir Kara-Murza's call that the Magnitsky legislation continue to be implemented energetically and fully. Kara-Murza is a Russian democracy activist who twice was nearly killed by sophisticated poisons while visiting Russia--he testified for me at the Helsinki Commission after the first poisoning attempt, in October 2015. Many of the Putin government's murders are motivated by economic crimes and implementation of the Magnitsky legislation should also include U.S. government advocacy on behalf of U.S. investors defrauded by Russian expropriations--the Yukos oil company is the most notorious case of this. As to North Korea--a gulag masquerading as a country--we must cut off all economic lifelines to Kim Jong un and punish Pyongyang's clients and its enablers. A regime that murders Otto Warmbier does not deserve respect and should be considered an imminent threat to the US and its allies because of its nuclear proliferation. We cannot negotiate our way out of these strategic problems. Carrots have not worked, we need bigger sticks. We know sanctions are working. Thae Yong Ho (Thay Young Ho)--North Korea's former deputy ambassador to Britain and the highest ranking defector in twenty years--said that international sanctions are beginning to squeeze the regime. He also said that the spread of information from the outside world is having a real impact. So it shouldn't be a surprise that South Korea has reported that high-level defections are surging. This legislation provides crucial tools and I support them wholeheartedly--as I supported them in May of this year. The Trump Administration will find that it can use the tools we offer today to much greater use than did the last White House. With hundreds of thousands of North Korean laborers abroad--sending as much as $2 billion a year back to the regime in hard currency--we should look at targeting this expatriate labor and the governments and corporations that employ them. Loopholes in our sanctions on North Korea's shipping and financial sectors must be closed. And when we discover that foreign banks have helped Kim Jong un skirt sanctions--as those in China have repeatedly done--we must give those banks and businesses a stark choice: do business with Kim Jong un or the U.S. Cut off Kim Jong un's economic lifelines, punish those who keep his murderous regime afloat, and signal to China and its client state in North Korea that the era of ``strategic patience'' is finally over. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to strongly support this critical measure at a perilous moment for our country and the rest of the planet.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I held a hearing to assess the impact of the Global Food Security Act and judge how it is being implemented. We examined it with an eye toward reauthorization later this Congress. By way of background, as many of you know, the Global Food Security Act was a standout piece of bipartisan legislation that was passed in the last Congress. I was the author of the House version of the bill, which had the support of Ms. Bass and Mr. Meadows from our subcommittee. While GFSA was only signed into law in 2016, it codified a policy that had a far longer history. Like the landmark PEPFAR program, it also bridges multiple administrations. By way of history, it was President Bush, who beginning in 2002, started to elevate the importance of food security in U.S. foreign policy, especially in Africa, via the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA), which was funded through development assistance and implemented through USAID. At the same time, the Millennium Challenge Corporation began making substantial investments in agriculture-led economic growth programs, particularly in Africa. It was from this foundation that President Obama instituted the Feed the Future Initiative, launched at the G8 Meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009. By that time, food insecurity as a national security issue had come to the fore. The years 2007 through 2008 saw a rise in food prices across the world, and the ensuing political turmoil this caused led to the rise, for example, of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Today, we see President Trump and his administration continuing to implement the GFSA. We are also at a point where we can begin to assess the success of implementation, underscoring an important point for us legislators; it is never sufficient simply to pass legislation, but Congress has a constitutionally-mandated duty to make sure that the executive branch faithfully executes the laws that it passes. Among the things we heard about are results from our efforts. Have we been successful, for example, in reducing stunting, one of the key purposes of the Act and an outcome that is measureable? We also heard about the country selection process. How are countries that we decide to partner with chosen? What criteria do we use, and is the criteria measurable and objective? Also, how faithfully is the GFSA's mandate to work with small-holder farmers being implemented? As we look toward reauthorization, we need to ask ourselves what is working, what isn't working, and what can we do better to maximize the effect of our investment. Consider, for example, our nutrition programs aimed at mothers and children during the first 1,000 days of life window, from conception to the second birthday. We know that this period is absolutely critical for achieving healthy outcomes in children that stays with them throughout their lives, helping boost their natural immunities to ward off diseases and giving them a head start in life. We hope to hear from USAID on the successes of our nutrition interventions during the first 1,000 days. But we need to ask ourselves, are we truly firing on all cylinders? Are we achieving the best possible results in terms of nutrition and stunting reduction, or are we failing to maximize our investments. USAID, for example, has a neglected tropical diseases program that addresses intestinal worms and parasites that affect close to one billion people. If this work, however, is siloed--if worms are not addressed concomitantly with our nutrition interventions--the question arises: Are we maximizing our nutrition interventions? In other words, are we feeding the future, or simply feeding the worms? It is relatively inexpensive to conduct deworming interventions among affected populations. The gains, however, can be enormous. One recent study on cost-effectiveness concluded that ``deworming's effect is robustly positive, with a weight gain per dollar spent more than 35 times greater'' than those found in simple school feeding programs. Thus, we need to ask whether we are taking advantage of synergies in our nutrition efforts, by not only including deworming, but also following up with behavior changing WaSH, or water and sanitation/ health instruction. Sometimes the solution of how to keep reinfestation by worms from happening can be as simple as providing children with a pair of shoes, as worms often enter the body through a foot that comes into contact with infected soil, or making sure vegetables are washed thoroughly and peeled. The question for USAID is whether we are fully utilizing such synergies. Tomorrow, the question for us here in Congress will be what we can do in our reauthorization legislation to ensure that USAID is given the necessary direction and tools to prioritize such synergies.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, Liu Xiaobo's premature death was a jarring shock to everyone who admired this champion of freedom and democracy. We mourn his loss because it is a tragic loss for his wife, family and friends and a catastrophic loss for China and the entire world. We owe Liu Xiaobo a debt of gratitude because he demonstrated that the noble ideas of democracy and due process, liberty and the rule of law are not foreign ideas in China. These are universal principles that beat strongly in the hearts of people everywhere from New Jersey to the Ninevah plains of Iraq, from Poland to Peru, and from Burma to Beijing. We owe Liu Xiaobo a debt of gratitude because he reminded us that the desire for democracy and human rights is shared by everyone because each person is endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights. The Chinese Communist Party has tried to curtail his ideas, they call them dangerous and subversive, and they seek to silence, censor, and repress them. Yet, they live on in the hearts of untold millions of Chinese people. With Liu Xiaobo's death, we are also reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King who said ``injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' We should all agree that what was done to Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia was a grave injustice. Liu Xiaobo's imprisonment in 2009 became a death sentence. The blame for this should lie squarely on the Chinese government and for his death they alone should be held accountable. Liu Xiaobo was the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky died after being held in a Nazi concentration camp. The Chinese government complained that it was ``stabbed in the back'' by those expecting it to deal quickly with its client state in North Korea. How shameful it is to play the victim card while a victim of their own repression lay dying. No nation should be judged entirely by crimes of the past, but this crime--the death and silencing of Liu Xiaobo--should follow the Chinese Communist Party like an unwashable, permanent stain. We must never forget Liu Xiaobo's enduring contributions--whether during the Tiananmen Massacre where he helped save the lives of many students or with Charter 08--the treatise urging political and legal reforms in China based on constitutional principles. We must not forget Liu Xiaobo; we must advance and preserve his legacy, and repeatedly confront the Chinese Communist Party with his ideas and memory. In this time of need we must signal the Congress's unanimous support for Liu Xiaobo's family, his wife Liu Xia, and all those bravely standing up for human rights and liberty in China. I was invited by Liu Xiaobo's family to attend the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. It was a moving ceremony; the now famous empty chair spoke volumes about the Chinese Communist Party's abiding fear that human rights and democracy will undermine its power. I will always remember the words of Liu Xiaobo's speech that day about the importance of pressing for human rights: ``Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.'' And he also expressed his hopes for China's future: ``. . . I firmly believe that China's political progress will not stop, and I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme.'' Liu Xiaobo will, sadly, never see a free China. Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to stifle his ideas and those who followed him. In recent years, the government of President Xi Jinping has engaged in an extraordinary assault on the rule of law, human rights, ethnic minority groups, and civil society. As China's economic and military might grows, more and more countries will be afraid to raise subjects that the Chinese Communist Party wants to make taboo. The U.S. stands alone--inadequate as its efforts are at times--in its willingness to keep on raising human rights issues that need to be raised. The U.S. cannot lightly shrug off the mantle of being democracy's defender, no matter how heavy that mantle may become. It is tempting to be pessimistic about China's future and the future of U.S.-China relations. But I am not pessimistic. Constant repression has not dimmed the desires of the Chinese people for freedom and reform. I attribute this fact, in part, to Liu Xiaobo's ideas and example. Nevertheless, the U.S. cannot be morally neutral or silent in the face of the Chinese government's repression of fundamental freedoms. Human rights are not a secondary interest, but one critically linked to U.S. economic and security interests. The U.S. must not shy away from meeting with China's other Nobel Laureate, the Dalai Lama, or other dissidents. We must use Congressionally authorized sanctions to hold Chinese officials accountable for torture and gross abuses. We must connect Internet and press freedoms as both economic and human rights priorities. And we must demand, repeatedly and clearly, that the unconditional release of political prisoners is in the interest of better U.S.-China relations. I believe that someday China will be free. Someday, the people of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. And a nation of free Chinese men and women will honor and celebrate Liu Xiaobo as a hero. He will be honored along with all others like him who have sacrificed so much, and so long, for freedom.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman Ed Royce for yielding. I thank him for his leadership on trafficking, for this bill in particular, for the markup, and for all of the assistance he provided. I also thank Eliot Engel, our ranking member. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank Karen Bass, the lead Democrat on the bill, for her exceptional leadership and her collaboration on this legislation. I want to thank Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McCarthy. I have to say--and I have been working on human trafficking since about 1995, chaired probably more than 30 hearings and written four laws--I have never seen such a deep commitment to fighting trafficking and protecting victims than our leadership. It is unparalleled and it is inspired. Kevin McCarthy helped ensure timely consideration. There are eight committees of referral. Sometimes that is a death knell for any bill. It is so hard to secure agreements and vote them out. Well, each of those chairmen and their staffs worked diligently and in good faith. At the end of the day, the leadership was there. They had our back on the legislation. I want to thank Chairman Royce, again, for his extraordinary leadership as well. Mr. Speaker, ever since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 became law in 2000, combating human trafficking has been a major priority in the United States and, indeed, globally. Over the last 17 years, police and civil society organizations--many of them faith based--have identified and rescued more than 250,000 victims worldwide. Some put that number at close to 300,000. Prosecution of traffickers in the U.S. has increased by more than 500 percent, but, frankly, our task is far from accomplished. The International Labor Organization suggests that nearly 21 million people in the world today are enslaved, most of them women and children. That is unconscionable. Every human life is of infinite value. We have a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable from harm. The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017 is comprehensive. It is bipartisan, and it is designed to strengthen, expand, and create new initiatives to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and prevent this cruelty and exploitation from happening in the first place. Title I of the bill focuses on combating trafficking in the United States. Title II focuses on the world. Title III authorizes appropriations of more than half a billion dollars over 4 years, including reauthorization of the TVPA of 2000. The legislation, Mr. Speaker, is named in honor of the incomparable Frederick Douglass on the eve of his 200th birthday. Born a slave in 1818, he escaped when he was 20 and heroically dedicated his entire life to abolishing slavery and, after emancipation, to ending the Jim Crow laws in order to achieve full equality for African-American citizens. A gifted orator, author, editor, statesman, and Republican, he died in 1895. Human trafficking, Mr. Speaker, is modern-day slavery that needs a Herculean effort to eradicate. Among its numerous provisions and one that is of special interest to the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative--and we worked very closely with them on this--it authorizes HHS grant money to ``establish, expand, and support programs'' to provide age appropriate information to students all across America to avoid becoming victims of sex and labor trafficking as well as to educate school staff to recognize and respond to signs of trafficking. It adopts a number of best practices, like for example making sure that when government employees book rooms, that we utilize hotels where they have initiated efforts and sponsored training to eradicate child sex trafficking. We do the same thing with airlines. The flight attendants--Delta is a classic example--once trained, can spot trafficking in progress, inform the pilot, and when that plane lands or jet lands, ensure that if there is a situation, there is an arrest of the traffickers and a rescue of the woman or children who are being trafficked. We will now try, to the best of our ability, to hold the airlines to account. There needs to be reporting. It is already the law that they should provide this training. Now we want to ensure that training actually happens. Chairman Royce talked about the TIP Report. Just a couple weeks ago, Secretary Tillerson announced the 2017 TIP Report. It is a voluminous and very accurate report about what is happening in 190 countries around the world, including the United States. Those countries that are designated Tier 3, egregious violator, are subject to sanctions.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I just want to commend the Trump administration for finally holding China to account as a Tier 3 violator. A worst offender. The pending bill makes a number of important reforms to the TIP Report and how it is prepared. My hope is that we will have an even better, more accurate, and more effective effort at holding countries to account. Again, this legislation applies to the United States for labor and sex trafficking as well as to the world. Again, I do want to thank all those who have been involved in it. Let me just say we worked on this bill for well over a year with ATEST; Polaris; IJM; World Vision; United; Humanity; ECPAT; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Shared Hope International; CATW; Ambassador Swanee Hunt; the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which provided valuable insight; and others. They were all very much a part of our effort. I also want to thank critical staff, including Luke Murray and Kelly Dixon, from the Majority Leader's Office, who are outstanding--they get the job done, and they ask all the right questions about substance and process and helped us along--Doug Anderson, counsel of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Mary Noonan; my chief of staff, Piero Tozzi; Allison Hollabaugh; Krystal Williams, Karen Bass' staff member; and so many others on the committees that also made such a huge difference in enabling us to get this through all the committees to the floor today. I urge my colleagues to pass the bill.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my very good friend from California for his graciousness in yielding me this time and for his wonderful work as a Member of Congress on human rights and pro-life issues. I thank him for that leadership. Mr. Speaker, tonight, I rise and note to my colleagues that the news of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo's diagnosis of terminal liver cancer was a jarring shock to everyone who admires this champion of freedom and democracy. Tonight, the House has under consideration an urgent resolution, a truly urgent resolution, H. Con. Res. 67, which I introduced, joined by Ms. Pelosi, and several of the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, she and I together, some bipartisanship in a place where we have had little of it lately. But here we are joined, and we are joined very strongly on behalf of Liu Xiaobo and his dire, dire situation, and that of his wife. The legislation urges the Government of the People's Republic of China to unconditionally release Liu Xiaobo, together with his wife, Liu Xia, to allow them to freely meet with friends, family, and counsel, and seek medical treatment wherever they desire. The operative language of the resolution makes it very clear that it recognizes Liu Xiaobo for his decades of peaceful struggle for basic human rights and democracy and, again, urges that he be able to seek medical care, including treatment in the United States or wherever else he would like to receive it. I want to thank Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. This resolution was introduced yesterday. The majority leader made sure that this legislation came to the floor just a few hours ago to ensure that we went on the record as a Congress showing our solidarity of Liu Xiaobo and his wife and our deep, deep compassion and concern for the plight that he finds himself in. I want to thank Speaker Ryan, who also expressed strong concern for Liu Xiaobo, and, of course, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer because this required bipartisan support to bring it up on the UC; and also Ed Royce, the chairman of the full Committee on Foreign Affairs, the famous gentleman from California, and, of course, the ranking member, Eliot Engel. Mr. Speaker, in February of 2010, I led a bipartisan group of lawmakers nominating Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize and, at the same time, nominating two other persecuted Chinese human rights advocates, Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng, to be joint recipients of this most prestigious award. Others, including the great Vaclav Havel, also pushed for Liu to get this important recognition which we had hoped would help push the human rights agenda in China. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee agreed and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his ``long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.'' I attended the Oslo ceremony, at the invitation of the family, along with Leader Pelosi. It was a moving ceremony, Mr. Speaker. The now famous empty chair spoke volumes about the Chinese Communist Party's abiding fear that human rights and democracy will undermine its power. There, on the stage, was this chair without the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. After that, I held several hearings both in the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and also on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which I co-chair with Marco Rubio. And again, we always had a picture of the empty chair where Liu Xiaobo should have been rightly honored and hopefully freed to pursue the righteousness of his human rights work. He said, in absentia, that day: ``Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.'' Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to stifle Liu Xiaobo's ability to speak truth to power. In 2009, he was given an 11-year prison sentence for ``inciting subversion of state power.'' His wife, Liu Xia, also was detained in de facto form ``house arrest'' since 2010. She is in urgent need of medical care, as well, having been hospitalized for a heart condition. Over the past year, authorities have allowed her to visit her husband only on a very few occasions. According to Chinese authorities, Liu's conviction was based on Charter 08, a treatise signed by over 300 intellectuals and activists. That document states that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind, and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values. Sadly, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia, his wife, are not alone in facing unjust repression. As of September 2017, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which collects and maintains probably the most effective and comprehensive political database for any country--and this is on China--contains information on at least 1,400 cases of known political or religious prisoners. According to the annual report, the government of President Xi Jinping has engaged in an extraordinary assault on the rule of law, human rights, ethnic minority groups, and civil society in recent years. Under Xi's leadership, the Chinese Government has pushed through new laws and drafted legislation that would legitimize political, religious, and ethnic repression, further curtail civil liberties, and expand censorship of the internet. And the whole issue of the one child, now maybe two child per couple policy, coercion and population control, continues to harm women and children with extreme hurtfulness. It is just beyond the pale of what a government should be doing to its own people. It is tempting to be pessimistic about China's future and the future of U.S. relations. Frankly, I am not pessimistic, despite the circumstances, because I do believe Liu Xiaobo is the future, and people who have his belief in fundamental human rights. Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by just saying I believe that someday China will be free; someday the people of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights, and a nation of free Chinese men and women will honor and celebrate Liu Xiaobo as a hero. He will be honored, along with all of the others like him, who have sacrificed so much for so long for freedom.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Affairs be discharged from further consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 67, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I made the following remarks at the hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China which I co-chair with Senator Marco Rubio regarding China's crackdown on human rights lawyers: Chinese officials repeatedly tell me I should focus more on the positive aspects of China and not dwell so much on the negative. That is an extremely difficult task when you read the horrifying and sadistic accounts of torture and enforced disappearances experienced by lawyers and rights advocates. It is hard to be positive when you contemplate Liu Xiaobo's cancer diagnosis and the fact that China effectively silenced its most brilliant democracy advocate. The empty chair at Oslo speaks volumes about the Communist Party's abiding fear that freedom will upend the power of the privileged few when they should be seeing liberty as a path to greater peace and prosperity. At a hearing last month in the Subcommittee on Global Human Rights in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I heard testimony from the wives of five detained or disappeared human rights lawyers. These courageous women have become effective advocates from their husbands and for all those detained in the ``709'' crackdown. They described in horrifying detail the physical, mental, and psychological torture experienced by their husbands, including marathon interrogation sessions, sleep deprivation, beatings, crippling leg torture, and prolonged submersion in water. Many of their husbands also were forced to take alarming quantities of drugs including tranquilizers, barbiturates, antipsychotic drugs, and other unknown substances daily. What they described was shocking, offensive, immoral, and inhumane. It is also possible that Chinese officials believe the international community will not hold them accountable. After the hearing, I wrote to the heads of the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, as well as to Secretary of State Tillerson and Ambassador Nikki Haley. I have asked for condemnation of the practice of torture and medical experimentation on prisoners of conscience. I have also asked for investigations so that serious questions will be asked of the Chinese government. Finally, I have asked for accountability. I have urged Secretary Tillerson to start investigations under the Global Magnitsky Act, a bill that I lead on the House side last year, so that any Chinese government officials complicit in torture should never be allowed to benefit from entry to the U.S. or access to our financial system. The issues of torture and ``residential surveillance in a designated location''--effectively enforced disappearances--will be priorities of mine and of this Commission moving forward. I believe these are issues where diverse and multi-level coalitions can be built to raise issues with the Chinese government. I would also like to do more to prioritize the protection of human rights lawyers and their families. At the hearing last month I heard the phrase ``The War on Law'' used to describe the systematic effort to eviscerate the network of human rights lawyers. That phrase struck me because, though the number of human rights lawyers in China is small, what they stand for was nothing less than the rule of law for everyone--particularly those persecuted or aggrieved by the Communist Party. They stand for the right of everyone in China--religious believers, ethnic minority, petitioners, labor activists, or victim of corruption or a barbaric population control policies--to have a fair hearing, due process, and a justice that is not politicized. The Communist Party sees this as a dangerous idea. It means that they should be accountable to the people--to hundreds of millions of people in fact seeking redress for persecution and Party corruption. Xi Jinping is feted in Davos for his commitments to openness and the rule of law, but it is rule of law for the few and privileged and rule by law for the rest. The failure to implement the rule of law, to favor a type of lawlessness in the pursuit of keeping the Communist Party in power, has serious and lasting implications for U.S.-China relations. We must recognize, after the failure of two and a half decades of the engagement policies, that China's domestic repression drives its external aggression, its mercantilist trade policies, and its unimaginable decisions to keep propping up a murderous North Korean regime. I know the Chinese government wants me to focus on positive things. I think one positive development here is that the spouses (and families) of rights advocates and lawyers have given Beijing a rightly deserved headache. They have refused to be silent about their spouse's detentions or disappearances and have used the Internet and media to get out their message. This trend is something new, something different, something we need to honor because they are under great pressure to be silent--through intimidation, harassment, and detention. I want to say to our witness Chongyu (CHONG-YOU) that we appreciate your testimony here today and the fact that you are speaking out on behalf of your father. We want you to know that this Commission is an advocate for you, your family, and your father. If you or your family face reprisals because of your testimony here today, the Congress will take it as a personal affront to the work of this body. I know your petition has gathered 94,000 signatures, please make sure that my name is 94,001. The one thing that gives me hope is that the people of China long for liberty, justice and opportunity. The need for principled and consistent American leadership is more important than ever, as China's growing economic power, and persistent diplomatic efforts, have succeeded in dampening global criticism of its escalating repression and failures to adhere to universal standards. The U.S. must be a beacon of liberty and a champion of individual rights and freedoms. The U.S. must also continue to be a voice for those silenced, jailed, or repressed in China. We cannot . . . will not . . . forget those in China bravely seeking liberty and justice and the unalienable rights we all share. Like China's human rights lawyers--and like Liu Xiaobo--those who bravely seek peaceful change in China. It is their stand for liberty, human rights, and the rule of law that remain the best hope for a peaceful and prosperous future for the U.S. and China.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation, Mr. Speaker, and urge the House to pass this resolution. We need to signal the Congress's unanimous support for Liu Xiaobo, and his wife Liu Xia, in this time of need. The news of Liu Xiaobo diagnosis with terminal liver cancer was a jarring shock to everyone who admires this champion of freedom and democracy. Unfortunately, I have heard talk that the world has forgotten Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese state media says he is irrelevant. We must never forget this Vaclav Havel of China because his efforts to bring human rights and political reforms are so critical to the future of of U.S.-China relations. We must never forget his enduring contributions--whether during the Tiananmen Massacre where he helped save the lives of many students or with Charter 08--the treatise urging political and legal reforms in China based on constitutional principles. For the past seven years, Members of Congress have repeatedly called on China to release unconditionally Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. Today, we similarly ask that the Chinese government end this absurdity and its unjust and lawless treatment of these noble citizens--release them, allow them to freely meet with friends and family, and allow them to seek urgent medical care wherever they desire. In February 2010, I led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in nominating Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize, at the same time nominating two other persecuted human rights advocates, Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng, to be joint recipients of that most prestigious award. The Nobel Committee rightly awarded the Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his ``long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.'' I attended the Oslo ceremony at the invitation of the family-- along with Leader Pelosi. It was a moving ceremony; the now famous empty chair spoke volumes about the Chinese Communist Party's abiding fear that human rights and democracy will undermine its power. I will always remember the moving words of Liu Xiaobo's speech that day: ``Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.'' Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to stifle Liu Xiaobo's ability to speak truth to power. In 2009, Liu was given 11 years in prison for ``inciting subversion of state power.'' His wife Liu Xia was also detained in de facto form ``house arrest'' since 2010. Liu Xia also is in urgent need of medical care having been hospitalized for a heart condition. Over the past year, authorities have allowed her to visit her husband only on a very few occasions. According to Chinese authorities, Liu's conviction was based on Charter 08, a treatise signed by over 300 intellectuals and activists. That document states that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind, and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values. Sadly, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia are not alone in facing unjust repression. As of September 2017, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China'' (CECC) Political Prisoner Database, perhaps the most complete database of its kind in the world, contains information on 1,400 cases of known political or religious prisoners. According to CECC's Annual Report, the government of President Xi Jinping has engaged in an extraordinary assault on the rule of law, human rights, ethnic minority groups, and civil society in recent years. Under Xi's leadership, the Chinese government has pushed through new laws and drafted legislation that would legitimize political, religious, and ethnic repression, further curtail civil liberties, and expand censorship of the Internet. It is tempting to be pessimistic about China's future and the future of U.S.-China relations. I am not pessimistic, despite the circumstance we consider here today. Constant repression has not dimmed the desires of the Chinese people for freedom and reform. I attribute this fact, in part, to Liu Xiaobo's ideas and example. Nevertheless, the U.S. cannot be morally neutral or silent in the face of the Chinese government's repression of fundamental freedoms. We must show leadership and resolve because only the U.S. has the power and prestige to stand up to China's intransigence. The U.S. must not shy away from meeting with China's other Nobel Laureate the Dalai Lama or other dissidents. We must use Congressionally-authorized sanctions to hold Chinese officials accountable for torture and gross abuses. We must connect Internet and press freedoms as both economic and human rights priorities. And we must demand, repeatedly and clearly, that the unconditional release of political prisoners is in the interest of better U.S.-China relations. I believe that someday China will be free. Someday, the people of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. And a nation of free Chinese men and women will honor and celebrate. Liu Xiaobo as a hero. He will be honored along with all others like him who have sacrificed so much, and so long, for freedom.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on June 29, 2017, I was not present for the vote on H.R. 3003. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 342 (Final Passage of H.R. 3003).

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a few words in support of Representative Kristi Noem's Women, Peace and Security Act (H.R. 2484). Among other things, it highlights the role women must play in peacemaking. In the limited time we have, I would just like to highlight the role of one woman who served as a peacemaker, whom I have had the opportunity to get to know--Nuala O'Loan, who served as the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland from 2000 to 2007, and someone who has contributed to our understanding in the Congress as she twice testified at hearings held on the Northern Ireland peace process. Baroness O'Loan--she was made a Dame of the British Empire and a member of the House of Lords in recognition for her role in the cause of peace--had the difficult task of looking into how the police handled the Omagh bombing. That bombing, by a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, was intended to reignite sectarian tension and stop the movement towards peace that was memorialized in the Good Friday Agreement. The bomb was indiscriminate, however, killing both Protestant and Catholic alike, and helped underscore the need for peace. In the ensuing years, Baroness O'Loan became known as an even-handed intermediary. Indeed, she was so even-handed that she was criticized by extremists on both sides, and her retirement party was boycotted by hardliners from the Unionist and Republican camps. On the other hand, the average citizen, whether Protestant or Catholic, supported her in her role as Police Ombudsman in roughly equal numbers, something that was borne out by independent polling. Nuala O'Loan is but one example of a woman serving as peacemaker. There are many more Nualas around the world, and I applaud Congresswoman Noem for encouraging us to recognize the role these women play in helping bring a little light to the darkness.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, the Bible, in the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, Verse 2, tells us that: ``There is a time to plant and a time to harvest.'' That ancient prescription has allowed multitudes to be fed over the millennia, but now ruthless men seeking power have disrupted this cycle, causing man-made famine where none should exist in African countries from South Sudan to Nigeria to Somalia. Potential famine conditions in Africa and Yemen have been called the worst since World War II, even worse than the catastrophic 2011 famine in East Africa. What makes this round of potential famine even more tragic is how preventable it is. For example, South Sudan contains the most arable land in what was once a united Sudan. Aside from oil reserves, agriculture was seen as the key to South Sudan's future success. Now, areas such as the Equatoria provinces, South Sudan's breadbasket, are engulfed in conflict with citizens fleeing the country in the thousands daily. There are more than 4.8 million displaced South Sudanese--1.8 million refugees in neighboring countries and at least 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). South Sudan is experiencing heightened levels of food insecurity with as high as 27 percent of the population in some areas facing famine. Despite the government's contention that people are merely being frightened by rumors of conflict, South Sudan has quickly surpassed Eritrea to become the world's fastest emptying country. Another country seeing a major exodus due to conflict is Somalia. There are an estimated 881,000 Somali refugees, and the anticipated scale of population displacement from Somalia due to pervasive conflict and the threat of starvation will increase refugee flows throughout the region and into Europe. In Somalia, nearly 6.2 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, and more than 2.9 million people are facing crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity, including nearly a million children under the age of five. Nigeria is yet another country close to experiencing famine due to conflict. There are 14 million people in northeast Nigeria who are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 8 million children, and almost 6 million people are also facing severe food insecurity. Almost 9 million Nigerians are projected to suffer from food insecurity by August 2017, including more than 3 million people living in the northeast state of Borno. We focus on the part Boko Haram has played in creating chaos and near famine in Nigeria, and quite rightly so. More than 30,000 lives have been lost in violence related to Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency, but there is a developing threat that could widen the likelihood of food insecurity there. Attacks by Fulani extremists on farmers in Nigeria's Middle Belt are increasing in intensity and could further exacerbate hunger in the region. The El Nino-La Nina weather cycles have caused drought as well as flooding in parts of Africa in recent years. The possibility of drought currently threatens famine in countries ranging from Angola to Sudan to Mozambique to Madagascar. Nevertheless, it is conflict that poses an even greater threat of famine in countries such as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali and could cause or exacerbate famine should fighting disrupt planting-harvesting cycles and markets where locally produced food can be purchased. Ranking Member Bass and I just returned from a mission to South Sudan and Uganda. Humanitarian aid officials repeatedly told us that no matter how much aid is provided, it will not be enough to meet the ever-expanding need. Although we need to do more, no amount of assistance will do the job unless the conflict in South Sudan is definitively ended. Currently, there is not enough food to keep pace with the growing flow of refugees from South Sudan, and rations have been cut at times by half. There has been a cease-fire declared in South Sudan, but many observers believe that is due more to the rainy season preventing large movements of troops and heavy equipment than a genuine determination to end the conflict. This week, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development has convened a conference aimed at bringing the South Sudan conflict to an end. After numerous efforts to reach a lasting cease- fire, one can only hope the realization of the immensity of this crisis will lead the warring parties to actually seek a lasting peace. The hearing I held today was intended to make the appeal both for continued humanitarian aid from our government and others in the international community, but also for a more robust international effort to end conflict in the countries where people are scattered in the millions and desperate levels of hunger are rampant. We must contend with the vagaries of weather, but we shouldn't have to see people suffer for the ambitions of those without mercy seeking power at any cost.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Gallagher family will lay to rest a beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather and great grandfather--Mark Gallagher. I worked with Mark for many years in his capacity as the key U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbyist for the poor and unborn. Mark was a quiet but extraordinarily powerful force. While the full reach of his impactful life can only be known to God, those of us who were blessed to know him witnessed the many ways his persevering work made a positive difference for the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable. First hired by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment in 1974, Mark formally took up the cause just one year after Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn child of all legal protection. He eventually represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as their lead lobbyist until his retirement in 2007. Over the course of those three decades, Mark played an integral role in every pro-life effort in Congress. He educated an entire generation of lawmakers on the arguments for protecting the unborn, at a time when few others could be found on Capitol Hill with this expertise. Mark's skillfulness and serene demeanor was critical to the enactment of and defense of the Hyde amendment--the landmark amendment preventing federal funding of abortion that has saved the lives of at least two million people. Two million people who have been aborted instead survived because public funds were unavailable to effectuate their violent demise. Mark was as concerned about the plight of women facing an unplanned pregnancy as he was about their unborn children. A former worker for U.S. anti-poverty programs like Catholic Charities, he was happy to take part in efforts to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Refundable Child Tax Credit. A brilliant strategist for the causes he served, Mark was always selfless and self-effacing. Thanks to Mark's mastery of intricate details of the rules of Congress, all the legislative recommendations of the Meese Report, i.e. the Attorney General's commission to combat pornography, were enacted into law. Beyond living out a Christ-like care for the vulnerable in the political realm, Mark also labored for souls, becoming a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church in 1996. Someday soon, America will protect the weakest and most vulnerable. And into eternity Mark Gallagher played a critical part in this all- important human rights struggle. We are grateful for the gift of his life and pray for his family in their time of grief.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H. Res. 354, condemning the violence perpetrated against peaceful protesters outside the Turkish Ambassdor's residence during Turkish President Erdogan's visit last month. This timely and critically important measure was introduced by my good friend, and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Ed Royce. Mr. Speaker, as representatives of the American people, we take a solemn oath to ``support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'' This sworn commitment spurs us to speak out now after the violent attack last month on peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C. who were peacefully exercising their First Amendments rights. On that day a group of peaceful demonstrators--including a resident from my home state of New Jersey, Ceren Borazan--gathered outside the Turkish Ambassador's residence to protest the policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Shortly after President Erdogan's arrival at the residence during his official visit to the United States, a contingent of his security guards, joined by some supporters, rushed across the street where the protesters were gathered. Before the demonstrators knew it, this group of thugs was upon them, throwing them to the ground and raining blows upon them. By now we are all familiar with the shocking video images captured of men in dark suits, some with guns, and others in plainclothes mercilessly kicking protesters in their faces while they lie helplessly on the ground. Some demonstrators were outnumbered four to one by their assailants who punched and manhandled them until DC police intervened. When police stepped in, some attackers turned to assault our uniformed officers. Among this group of protesters were Kurdish- and Armenian-Americans, members of minorities with a painful history of persecution and marginalization in their ancestral homelands. These individuals came to the United States to seek the freedom and safety they were deprived in their lands of origin. The United States and its Bill of Rights are a promise to these people that must not be broken. That members of the President's security detail and others felt they could attack these sacred rights with impunity should offend us all. That Erdogan would calmly watch the melee unfold--as video evidence shows--is as galling as it is unsurprising. Indeed, just a year ago his security detail was involved in an all-too-similar incident at a public event in Washington. Mr. Speaker, the steps recommended by this measure should be urgently implemented. Among other things, the United States should charge and prosecute all those involved in the attack. The State Department should request a waiver of immunity for any Turkish officials charged and detained in connection with the incident. Finally, the United States should redouble its efforts to promote democracy and human rights in Turkey. Mr. Speaker, this was a brutal physical assault on a group of peaceful demonstrators in our nation's capital and a brazen insult to all Americans. I urge my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join their voices and votes in strongly condemning this incident and calling for justice.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding, and I thank him for his leadership on this bill. I want to thank Ranking Member Engel for his support and also Majority Leader McCarthy for making sure this bill came to the floor. Without that, we wouldn't be here, so I want to thank him especially for his support. Mr. Speaker, I start off by saying that, since 2013, I have chaired nine congressional hearings focused in whole or in part on atrocities in Iraq and Syria. The distinguished chairman has had another dozen or so such hearings that have brought to light these atrocities. In one of our hearings in December of 2015, Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, testified that ``weak words are not enough,'' noting that 21 human rights organizations, genocide scholars, and religious leaders wrote to President Obama imploring him to recognize the ISIS genocide. At that same hearing, Chaldean Bishop Francis Kalabat said that ``since the fall of Mosul in early June 2014, Christians have endured targeted persecution in the form of forced displacement, sexual violence, and other human rights violations.'' He said, ``ISIS has committed terrific atrocities against the Yazidis,'' and then he bottom-lined it and said the Christians are ``under threat of extinction.'' On May 9, 2016, the House passed Jeff Fortenberry's genocide resolution 393-0. A few days later, Secretary of State John Kerry declared ISIS atrocities to be a genocide. The existential threat to Christians and Yazidis and other minority faiths, however, continues to this day. Some of the fortunate ones have made it to the relative safety of Erbil but, astonishingly, have gotten no assistance from the United States Government. Since 2014, as a matter of fact, the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil has provided almost all of the medical care, food, shelter, and education received by over 13,200 Christian families, almost one-third of the Christians remaining in Iraq, who escaped ISIS. The archdiocese also provides assistance to Yazidis and Muslims. The funding for all of this has been private, with money from Knights of Columbus, Aid to the Church in Need, and a few others. Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, which has donated more than $12 million to the effort, testified in one of my hearings and said the Knights and other private sources have responded. ``But nongovernmental organizations can only do so much.'' ``The rich tapestry,'' as he pointed out, ``of religious pluralism in the region must be preserved now or it will be lost forever,'' noting that there has been an 80 percent decline of Christians in Iraq and 70 percent in Syria. He said: ``With its loss will come increased instability and threats to our own security and that of the world. ``We have a unique opportunity--and, some would say, unique responsibility--to protect the victims of genocide.'' Mr. Speaker, just before Christmas of last year, I traveled to Erbil with a staff delegation at the invitation of the Chaldean archbishop, Bashar Warda, to meet with survivors and to visit an internally displaced person camp of about 6,000 individuals. Both my staff and I were amazed and inspired by the genocide survivors' resiliency and deep faith in the Lord, despite the cruelty that they had endured. There was so much joy, love, and courage despite the loss of family and friends to ISIS. They had deep hope. The children sang Christmas carols--it was December 23 when we were there--with smiles and with reverence. The leaders, especially Archbishop Warda, trusted in God while working unceasingly and unselfishly for others. Because the needs on the ground have always exceeded private support, the archdiocese has had to battle chronic funding crises over these last several years. Archbishop Warda told me recently that they had to temporarily suspend their distribution of medicines, and are on track to run out of money for food sometime this June. H.R. 390 provides authority and direction to the secretary and the administrator of USAID to identify the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs of these communities.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. This bill also authorizes and directs the secretary to fund entities, including faith-based ones, that are effectively providing assistance to meet those needs on the ground. It addresses another urgent aspect of this crisis: evidence linking specific ISIS perpetrators to specific atrocity crimes that is being destroyed or lost. And we have seen this in the past in Rwanda, in Sierra Leone, and in the former Yugoslavia. You have got to collect the information that is actionable in order to prosecute these crimes against humanity. This legislation directs that, and that is why it has the support of all four former U.S. Ambassadors at Large for war crimes issues. It also directs the Secretary of State to work with foreign governments to ensure that they are including identifying information about suspected perpetrators in their security databases and security screening and are prosecuting perpetrators of these horrific crimes. President Trump and Vice President Pence have strongly, publicly, and repeatedly committed the administration to providing relief to Christians, Yazidis, and other genocide survivors. This legislation tangibly supports this commitment and is a blueprint for action. I especially want to thank tonight the coauthor of this legislation, Anna Eshoo. Her tireless efforts on behalf of all Christians and other persecuted religious minorities has been really fantastic, and I want to thank her for that and for working so cooperatively together with me and my staff and the full committee staff. I would also like to thank the great staff work of Nathaniel Hurd, Piero Tozzi in my office, Matt McMurray in Anna Eshoo's office, Doug Anderson and Joan Condon in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Roger Mahan and Luke Murry in the majority leader's office. And, as always, I want to thank Kelly Dixon, who ultimately helped us bring this legislation to the floor. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the statement of Mr. Carl A. Anderson before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. Opening Statement of Mr. Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus (Before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health Global Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, at a hearing titled The ISIS Genocide Declaration: What Next?, May 26, 2019) Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee and to discuss the next steps that need to be taken needed to protect the survivors of ongoing genocide in Iraq and Syria. Let me begin by saying that the House of Representatives, the State Department and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom are all to be commended for the important step of declaring the situation confronting Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East genocide. The world's greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II is unfolding now in the Middle East. In addition to millions of refugees, many of the region's indigenous communities now face extinction. These communities may disappear in less than a decade. But their fate is not inevitable. The United States can avert this unfolding tragedy. A unique historical moment Around the world, people of good will, Muslim and non- Muslim alike, wish to differentiate themselves from the horrific and violent theology espoused by ISIS. It is certainly true that such extremists make up a small percentage of Muslims overall. But among the world's billion Muslims, the majority simply want to raise their families in peace and are scandalized by what ISIS is doing in the name of Islam. Prominent Islamic leaders and scholars from around the world have recently taken an important step in the Marrakesh Declaration. Attempts such as this, which seek to align Islam with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be supported. At the same time, it is clear that Christians, and other indigenous minorities, are experiencing genocide, at the hands of the Islamic State and related groups. Their plight is now at the top of the world's agenda in a way that it never has been before. These factors together create an unparalleled opportunity for the United States, and for all those opposed to ISIS' radical vision--Muslims and non-Muslims alike--to advance an agenda of equality, justice, peace, and accountability in the region. Six principles for sound policy in the region The United States can avert the extinction of indigenous religious and ethnic communities in Iraq and Syria with a policy that contains the following six principles: (1) Increase aid and ensure that it actually reaches those most in need; We are reliably informed that official government and U.N. aid does not reach the Christian genocide survivors in Iraq and Syria. Repeatedly, we hear from Church leaders in the region that Christians--and other genocide survivors--are last in line for assistance from governments. Significantly, the Archdiocese of Erbil, where most Iraqi Christians now live, receives no money from any government whatsoever. If assistance from outside Church affiliated agencies ends in Erbil, Christians there will face a catastrophic humanitarian tragedy within 30 days. The situation is similar in Syria, according to Christian leaders there. Those who face genocide are a tiny fraction of the population. They often must avoid official refugee camps because they are targeted for violence there by extremists. As a result, these minorities often do not get ``official'' aid. This will continue to be the reality unless specific action is taken to bring the aid to where these minorities are forced to reside by continuing violence. The Knights of Columbus and others private sources have responded to this situation. Since 2014, we have raised more than $10.5 million for relief, assisting Christians and other internally displaced persons and refugees in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. We have partnered with dioceses and religious agencies working in the region to provide general relief, food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care. In doing so we assist both Christians and non-Christians. We are also working with church entities to ensure that they are making use of all government or U.N. resources available. But non-governmental organizations can only do so much. Government aid is essential to the long-term survival of these indigenous religious and ethnic minorities. It is urgent that Congress appropriate funding to save those who have escaped genocide. I urge you to consider special emergency appropriations, however modest, to improve the humanitarian conditions on the ground in Iraq. This funding, whatever the vehicle, should come with mechanisms in place--reporting requirements and oversight--to ensure that American aid does not get diverted from its intended purpose. (2) Support the long-term survival in the region of these ancient indigenous religious and ethnic communities; In Iraq, the Christians population has declined by more than 80 percent, and in Syria by nearly 70 percent. American policy should recognize the important differences in the situations of those fleeing violence and those targeted for genocide. And we should prioritize the latter. Consider this analogy. After World War II, there were approximately 50 million refugees, and only a small fraction were Jews. Yet the world understood that Jews, who had survived genocide, faced a qualitatively different situation, and deserved heightened consideration. The same is true today for the indigenous religious and ethnic minorities of the region. They have an indisputable right to live in their country--in whatever region of it they wish. Depending on the circumstances, this may mean where they are originally from, or where they find themselves now, but as survivors of an ongoing genocide, they deserve to be prioritized, not left behind by American policy decisions. (3) Punish the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity; The United States should support action by the U.N. Security Council to refer key perpetrators of genocide for prosecution. Equally important, we should support the Iraqi Central Government and the Kurdish Regional Government's adjudication of the cases of thousands of ISIS fighters and supporters who currently remain in local detention centers. As the population of captured ISIS fighters increases, local detention centers and jails risk becoming their own humanitarian issue. The need to improve this situation cannot be overstated. Additionally, although substantial evidence of genocide exists, the United States should cooperate in taking further action to develop additional documentation and preservation before physical evidence is lost. Appropriations intended to assist in the adjudication of ISIS fighters will be critical in the coming months. (4) Assist victims of genocide in attaining refugee status. A news report last week indicated that of the 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. in May, not one was listed as being Christian or as explicitly coming from any of the groups targeted for genocides. How long will this situation be allowed to continue? The U.S. should appropriate funding and work with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to make provisions for locating and providing status to individuals--such as Yezidis and Christians--that have been targeted for genocide. Many of these genocide survivors fear going into official U.N. refugee camps, where they are targeted. Thus they are overlooked, and find it nearly impossible to acquire official refugee status or immigrate. Congress should act now. Senator Tom Cotton has introduced the Religious Persecution Relief Act, S. 2708, to provide for overlooked minorities in the prioritization of refugees. We support this bill and urge its passage. (5) Prepare now for foreseeable human rights challenges as ISIS-controlled territory is liberated by ensuring that Christians and other minorities have equal rights to decide their future; We should prepare now for the consequences of the liberation of ISIS controlled areas, including Mosul and the Nineveh Region, as well as regions in Syria. We are likely to see another humanitarian crisis as civilians flee the fighting or return to their former communities when fighting ceases. There has been much debate concerning plans for victims of genocide in Iraq. Some have argued for returning people safely to the Nineveh Region, others that they should be allowed to stay in Kurdistan, still others that they be allowed to immigrate. But these are not necessarily mutually exclusive, competing proposals. People should be allowed to decide their own future. And when they do, we should work to ensure they are treated with fairness, dignity and equality. This also means that it will be increasingly important to ensure that the property rights and claims of minority groups are respected. (6) Promote the establishment of internationally agreed upon standards of human rights and religious freedom as conditions for humanitarian and military assistance. The United States should advocate for full and equal rights for religious and ethnic minorities in the region in exchange for our military and humanitarian aid. A necessary first step to prevent genocide is to overcome the social and legal inequality that is its breeding ground. Religious hatred, discrimination and second-class citizenship too often constitute a way of life in the region--and it is a way of life that is an antecedent to genocide. We cannot accept one standard for human rights in the region and another standard for the rest of the world. The guarantees in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--and the First and Fourteenth amendments to our own constitution--regarding equality under the law and freedom of speech and religion must become a reality for all citizens of Iraq, Syria and elsewhere throughout the region. Conclusion The rich tapestry of religious pluralism in the region must be preserved now or it will be lost forever. With its loss will come increased instability and threats to our own security and that of the world. We have a unique opportunity--and some would say, unique responsibility--to protect the victims of genocide. The United States can provide such protection with a policy that includes the principles outlined above. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for your leadership and that of the members of this subcommittee.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, since 2013, I have chaired nine Congressional hearings focused, in whole or in a large part, on atrocities in Iraq and Syria. At one hearing in December of 2015, Professor Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch testified that ``weak words are not enough'' noting that twenty one human rights organizations, genocide scholars, and religious leaders wrote to President Obama imploring him to recognize the ISIS genocide. At the same hearing, Chaldean Bishop Francis Kalabat testified that ``since the fall of Mosul in early June 2014, Christians have endured targeted persecution in the form of forced displacement, sexual violence, and other human rights violations.'' He said ``ISIS has committed horrific atrocities against the Yazidis.'' The bishop said Christians are ``under threat of extinction.'' On May 9, 2016, the House passed Jeff Fortenberry's Genocide resolution 393 to 0. A few days later, Secretary of State John Kerry declared ISIS atrocities to be a genocide. The existential threat to Christians and Yazidis and other minorities continues to this day. Some of the fortunate ones, however, have made it to relative safety in Erbil but astonishingly have not gotten assistance from the United States. Since 2014, the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil has been providing almost all of the medical care, food, shelter and education received by 13,200 Christian families, almost one third of Christians remaining in Iraq, who escaped ISIS. The Archdiocese also provides assistance to Yazidis and Muslims. The funding has been private-- Knights of Columbus, Aid to the Church in Need, and a few others. Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus--which has donated more than $12 million to the effort--testified that the Knights and other private sources have responded, ``But non-governmental organizations can only do so much.'' He also made numerous recommendations including supporting the ``Long term survival in the region of these ancient indigenous religions and ethnic communities. In Iraq, the Christian population has declined by more than 80 percent, and in Syria, it has declined by almost 70 percent . . . The rich tapestry of religious pluralism in the region must be preserved now or it will be lost forever.'' He said, ``With its loss will come increased instability and threats to our own security and that of the world. We have a unique opportunity--and some would say, unique responsibility-- to protect the victims of genocide.'' Just before Christmas last year, I travelled to Erbil at the invitation of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, to meet with survivors and visit an IDP camp. Both my staff and I were amazed and inspired by the genocide survivors resiliency and deep faith in the Lord despite the cruelty they endured. There was much joy, love, and courage despite the loss of family and friends to ISIS. They had hope. The children sang Christmas carols with smiles and reverence. The leaders--especially Archbishop Warda--trust in God while working unceasingly for others. Because the needs on-the-ground have always exceeded private support, however, the Archdiocese has had to battle chronic funding crises. Archbishop Warda told me they recently had to temporarily suspend their distribution of medicines and are on-track to run out of money for food sometime this June. H.R. 390 provides authority and direction to the Secretary and Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development to identify the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs of these communities. The bill also authorizes and directs the Secretary and Administrator to fund entities--including faith-based ones--that are effectively providing assistance to meet those needs on-the-ground. H.R. 390 addresses another urgent aspect of this crisis: Evidence linking specific ISIS perpetrators to specific atrocity crimes is being destroyed or lost. It is vital that evidence that can be used in a range of court settings is collected and preserved. This will enable accountability and support our efforts to counter terrorist groups by demonstrating that the perpetrators are chronic rapists, child abusers, drug dealers and human traffickers. This legislation authorizes and directs the Secretary and Administrator to fund entities that are conducting criminal investigations into perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Iraq. The Commission for International Justice and Accountability is an example of a non-governmental organization that has been conducting such criminal investigations on-the-ground. CIJA has collected and preserved ISIS recruitment forms, foreign fighter passports, and ISIS instructions from ISIS facilities, laptops, hard drives, and memory sticks. It has taken hundreds of witness statements from victims, perpetrators, detained fighters, defectors, insiders, witnesses, and other witnesses. CIJA has developed pretrial briefs and perpetrator profiles that are of a world-class quality. In 2016, CIJA received 409 requests for assistance on cases from law enforcement agencies in many countries, including the Department of Homeland Security and FBI and works closely with both agencies. Yet, CIJA has received no financial support from the U.S. government. H.R. 390 also directs the Secretary to work with foreign governments to ensure that they are including identifying information about suspected perpetrators in their security databases and security screening and are prosecuting perpetrators. ISIS fighters in Iraq are being captured and detained in the battle for Mosul and beyond. Others are escaping the region and attempting to return to their home countries around the world. We should help ensure that in addition to being screened and prosecuted for terrorism, they are screened and prosecuted for atrocity crimes. President Trump and Vice President Pence have strongly, publicly committed the Administration to providing relief to Christians, Yazidis, and other genocide survivors, and ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice. H.R. 390 supports this commitment and is a blueprint for implementation. H.R. 390 has the bipartisan co-sponsorship of 46 members, support from a range of prominent Christian, Yezidi, religious freedom, and accountability organizations, and has been endorsed by all four former U.S. Ambassadors-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. I especially want to acknowledge my co-author and good friend Anna Eshoo. Her tireless efforts on behalf of Christians and other persecuted religious minorities, and the fantastic partnership with her and her staff on this bill, are a testament to the hi-partisanship of H.R. 390 and international religious freedom more broadly. And finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the great staff work of Nathaniel Hurd and Piero Toni in my office. Matt McMurray in Anna Eshoo's office. Doug Anderson and Joan Condon in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Roger Mahan and Luke Murry in the Majority Leader's Office. And Kelly Dixon who ultimately helped us get it to the floor.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, over the past forty-two years, much has changed in Vietnam. The Vietnamese people are a little richer, but still have few rights. The Vietnamese Communist Party has opened up a bit to the outside world, but remains closed to democratic reforms and the rule of law. U.S.-Vietnamese relations have warmed because Vietnam fears China's increasing economic power and its incursions in the South China Sea, but we see few human rights improvements emerge from better relations. Over the past two years, Human Rights Watch has used the words ``dismal'' and ``abysmal'' to describe Vietnam's human rights record. Vietnam scored a 7, the lowest score, on Freedom House's ``Freedom in the World'' index. From sex and labor trafficking to the censorship of the press and Internet; from restrictions on independent labor unions to severe repression of faith communities, the Vietnamese Government and Communist Party is one of the world's worst abusers of human rights. For too long Vietnam has gotten a free pass on human rights. Diplomats are so focused on the fact that Vietnam is ``not China'' that this oppressive police state is granted trade and security benefits without condition. There is a silent human rights crisis going on in Vietnam that must be addressed. Human rights should be a top talking point when President Trump meets next week with Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Doing so will advance U.S. economic and security interests and it will be warmly welcomed by the Vietnamese people. The President has a real opportunity to bring about tangible reforms in Vietnam if he links better U.S.-Vietnam relations to tangible human rights improvements. I have been to Vietnam. I have met with its rights advocates and young activists for decades now, like imprisoned rights activist Nguyen Van Dai. I know there is a younger generation in Vietnam--66% of Vietnam is under the age of 40--that looks to the U.S. as a land of opportunity and freedom. They want the same liberties enjoyed by their relatives in California, Texas, Virginia, Louisiana and so many other places where former Vietnamese refugees have flourished. The Vietnamese people want the U.S. to be a voice for freedom-- because their voice is silenced. No government that represses its own people or restricts fundamental freedoms can be a trusted ally of the United States. No government that censors the Internet, tortures and jails dissidents, and crushes civil society should be given generous trade or security benefits without conditions. The President will face pressure from his advisors and the business community to look at Vietnam through the lens of trade deals and the containment of China. Hopefully, he will be able to see the situation more clearly than past Administrations. Failing to press for real and concrete human rights improvements underestimates U.S. leverage and will disappoint the young generation in Vietnam who are that country's dynamic future. It should be clear by now that Vietnam needs the U.S. markets and security commitments much more than the U.S. needs Vietnam's markets and security cooperation. If history is any guide, the President's, championing of individual rights will meet with some success. If his interest in human rights is sustained, those successes could be tangible and far-reaching. The Vietnamese government has responded to concerns expressed by the last two Administrations when they linked human rights improvements to better U.S.-Vietnam relations. Whether to gain entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or to address U.S. concerns over religious freedom abuses, the Vietnamese government took steps toward reform when pressed by past American Presidents. It is when the U.S. loses interest in human rights that conditions regress. The Communist leaders in Hanoi take our trade benefits and security commitments and continue repressing those seeking political reform and universal freedoms. The business of the Communist Party is staying in power and repressing those they believe will challenge their power. They will not embrace human rights improvements or the rule of law unless it is a firm condition of better relations with the U.S. I am circulating a letter for the signatures of other Members of Congress detailing the strategic opportunities available for the United States and the Vietnamese people if the President pursues a robust human rights agenda. The letter urges the President to pursue Internet freedom, religious freedom, independent labor unions, and the release of prisoners of conscience--as a condition of U.S. assistance. These fundamental freedoms are directly related to U.S. interests in a better business climate, less corruption, investor confidence, expansion of economic freedom, and civil society development. I also wrote to Secretary Rex Tillerson to urge more robust human rights diplomacy in Vietnam, particularly on the issue of religious freedom. I urged the Secretary to use the authorities given him by the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act and the Global Magnitsky Act, legislation I introduced, that was passed into law last year to hold individual government officials accountable for human rights abuses and restrictions on religious freedom. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Vietnam be designated as a ``Country of Particular Concern'' for severe and egregious religious freedom restrictions. That report provides compelling evidence of egregious and ongoing religious freedom violations in Vietnam. The President should follow USCIRF's recommendation and immediately designate Vietnam as a CPC for its religious freedom violations. This designation carries with it potential sanctions and visa denials for Vietnamese government officials complicit in religious freedom abuses. No Vietnamese government official who tortures political dissidents or restrictions the activities of religious communities should profit from access to the U.S. or our financial system. Let me say that the violence and intimidation faced by Hmong and Montagard Christians, by Khmer Krom Buddhists, by the independent Hoa Hao and Cao Dai groups is outrageous. The torture faced by Ms. Tran Thi Hong is shocking. She was on her way to meet religious freedom Ambassador David Saperstein to advocate for the release of her husband Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh. If there are religious prisoners, if forced renunciations of faith are happening, if pagodas and churches and places of worship are forcibly closed--how does Vietnam not meet the criteria for CPC? We know it does. Politics should not play a part in designations. I will be working closely with the State Department to make sure international religious freedom is a diplomatic priority. This fundamental freedom is not merely a humanitarian issue with little strategic value--it is critical to our security and prosperity. Research shows that countries that embrace and protect religious freedom are more economically successful, protect women's rights, and experience less terrorism and political instability. There is not a single country that respects religious freedom that poses a security threat to the U.S. In fact, just the opposite is true--countries who are the worst violators of religious freedom are often those who seek to do Americans the most harm and seek to tear down democratic values and institutions. These facts alone should give us pause in expanding relations with Vietnam. President Trump should not prop up Vietnam's Communist old guard because they are not Vietnam's future. That future lies with Nguyen Van Dai and the many bloggers and advocates of political reform and human rights who seek our freedoms more than our trade. U.S. policy must send the unmistakable message to the Government of Vietnam that human rights improvements are fundamental to better relations, critically linked to our mutual economic and security interests, and will not be ignored or bargained away.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to express my strong support for the significant package of the veteran's bills that we considered in the House both yesterday and today. As the former Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee (2001 through 2005), I am acutely aware of the challenges our veterans face, especially as they transition from military to civilian life. As Chairman, I authored more than a dozen laws to expand health, education, job training and homelessness benefits for the men and women who served in uniform. Thankfully these laws continue to help our veterans today. Still, there are new problems and new issues that urgently need our attention. Massive wait times, forged documents by VA officials, ineptitude, lack of equipment and under-staffing at VA medical facilities are just a few of the significant transgressions that have been exposed and are undermining the quality of service and the treatment our veterans receive. In 2014 and 2016 Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act (P.L. 113-146) and the Faster Care for Veterans Act (P.L. 114-286), respectively, to usher in a complete overhaul of VA systems and to institute new technological services for scheduling and in order to secure more timely appointments. Some, but not nearly enough, progress has occurred. Much more must be done. I commend Chairman Phil Roe, MD and his team at the Veterans Affairs Committee on the package of bills before us this week. All seven will help improve the benefit programs and the delivery of healthcare service for our veterans. For instance, The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (H.R. 2288) will empower veterans who have been denied benefits to have more options as they pursue their appeals. Under the new bill, vets will be able to waive a hearing and submit additional evidence, pursue a hearing and submit additional evidence, or transfer the jurisdiction of their case to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The new options should help cut through some wait time. The VA Scheduling Accountability Act (H.R. 467) would require an annual certification of compliance with scheduling directives. Additionally the bill blocks awards and bonuses to any leadership personnel at any medical center that fails to comply with the scheduling directives. Another bill before us, H.R. 1005 would allow the federal government to enter into agreements with state veteran's homes to pay for adult day health care for certain eligible veterans. The No Hero Left Untreated Act (H.R. 1162) will create a one year pilot program at the VA to use innovative therapy to treat veterans who suffer from invisible wounds, which include post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma, chronic pain, or opiate addiction. As the author of the Veterans Health Programs Improvement Act (P.L. 108-422) which authorized regional veteran polytrauma centers for multiple injuries including TBI, I fully support H.R. 1162 as a way to ensure that the VA is able to adapt to the newest and best practices for treating veterans with these unique traumas and conditions. The Quicker Veterans Benefits Delivery Act of 2017 (H.R. 1725) will require stronger reporting requirements from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding the necessity for in-person disability examinations; and the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2017 (H.R. 1329) will increase the cost-of-living-adjustment for disabled veterans who receive compensation to equal the same rate of increase for citizens who receive Social Security in 2018. Finally, the VA Prescription Data Accountability Act (H.R. 1545) will help combat drug addiction among our veterans by creating better information and data sharing between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the states' recording programs. Mr. Speaker, let me remind my colleagues that while this package of veterans bills marks another step forward, we cannot be lulled into thinking that the Department of Veterans Affairs and the delivery of veterans' benefits and healthcare will be forever fixed simply with the enactment of new legislation, no matter how well written. Good legislation is the necessary, minimum first step. But equally important is the full and consistent implementation of the new laws, along with regular and aggressive oversight by this Congress. We must be vigilant and continue to push to ensure that all veterans get the care they have earned--at the time they need it--not months or years later.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to offer my strong support for all six bills under consideration tonight to prevent children from suffering the horrors of sexual exploitation and ensure justice for traffickers and abusers. I would also like to offer my sincere thanks to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for his consistent work to fight human trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation of children. As the prime author of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and of its 2003 and 2005 reauthorization, I know the heavy lift such bills can be--and also their critical importance. The Majority Leader's personal commitment to tonight's legislation, as well as to moving other anti-trafficking bills over the next few weeks, builds upon the work he has done in previous congresses to effectively help the victims of trafficking who are primarily women and children. Sexual exploitation of children is a human rights violation that results in serious, lifelong consequences for the physical, psychological, and spiritual development and well-being of a child In many instances, it is a form of human trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization, almost 2 million children are still victimized every year by commercial sexual exploitation, which includes the use of girls and boys in sexual activities remunerated in cash or in kind, child sex tourism, the use of children in sex shows (public or private), and the production, promotion and distribution of pornography involving children. Millions of other children suffer the honor and wounding of other forms of sexual abuse; most do not come forward out of misplaced shame, or the fear that the justice system will re-traumatize and then fail them. The Strengthening Children's Safety Act of 2017, H.R. 1842, seeks to strengthen our efforts against repeat child sex offenders and ensure they are subjected to increased penalties. As drafted, the bill will crack down on sex offenders who fail to register and then commit violent crimes under state law. It will also ensure that an offender's prior child-related sex offenses under Uniform Code of Military Justice are taken into account in subsequent prosecutions. The Targeting Child Predators Act of 2017 (H.R. 883) also seeks to improve accountability for suspected crimes against children by ensuring that offenders are not tipped-off to law enforcement investigations of their IP addresses before law enforcement has a chance to gather the critical digital evidence of crimes against children. The Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2017 (H.R. 1188) ensures continued finding for the original Adam Walsh Act with important updates. The original Adam Walsh Act created a national registry of sex offenders and the means to enforce registration. While each state has its own registry, the national registry provides an efficient way to track sex offenders who move between states, and helps to systematize standards across states. The Child Protection Improvement Act of 2017 (H.R. 695), ensures that organizations serving youth have access to the national sex offender registry--so that they are not limited to background checks within their state. This ensures that children are protected from sex offenders whether or not the offender has followed the law and registered in their state. Last year, I applied this concept worldwide with the International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders (P.L. 114- 119), so that countries are warned when individuals on a U.S. sex offender list for a crime against a child is traveling to their country. Since my bill became law, more than 2,000 notifications of pedophile travel have been sent to 64 countries, with a particular emphasis on countries known to be primary destinations for child sex tourism. One of the other bills under consideration tonight, the Global Child Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 1862), will make it easier to prosecute known offenders and others who abuse children abroad by expanding the definition of the term ``illicit sexual contact'' to cover any sexual contact with a child. The TARGET Act (H.R. 1625), encourages accountability for international traffickers by allowing the State Department to provide rewards to people who are willing to bring down international criminal organizations trafficking in women and children. I am a cosponsor of HR 1625 and pleased to see it and all the aforementioned legislation advance tonight. In addition to the legislation we adopt tonight, Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues may know that a strong bipartisan coalition is also working on the comprehensive reauthorization of America's leading anti- trafficking legislation--The Trafficking Victims Protection Act(TVPA). This additional legislation, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 2200), honors the 200th birthday of slavery survivor and great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and will reauthorize $130 million in current funds across several federal programs dedicated to fight human trafficking over the next four years. I am pleased to be the prime author of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act with lead Democrat cosponsor Rep. Karen Bass along with a strong bipartisan group including Chairman Ed Royce, Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Susan Brooks, Lois Frankel, Ann Wagner, Tony Cardenas, Ted Poe, and Ryan Costello. H.R. 2200 is also endorsed by a broad-based coalition of NGOs that work on the frontlines in the battle against human trafficking including. Mr. Speaker, for the past 17 years, we have seen progress on a number of anti-trafficking fronts: more than 250,000 victims have been rescued worldwide; the Department of Justice has federally funded some 42 anti- human trafficking task forces across the United States and more than 85,000 law enforcement officers have been trained. Additionally, over 300 laws around the world, influenced by American leadership, have enacted to combat trafficking. We look forward to building upon this record through passage of The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection, and Reauthorization Act. Some of the important provisions of H.R. 2200 include: Ensuring vulnerable children and other at-risk populations are educated to avoid traffickers; Focusing grants for survivor care on housing for vulnerable groups; Preferring in government travel contracts airlines and hotels that have in place anti-trafficking training and victim reporting policies for their employees; Creating a special complaint mechanism in embassies whereby the U.S. is warned of traffickers exploiting the U.S. entry system; Increasing transparency and oversight of U.S. government grants to fight trafficking; Facilitating trafficking-free supply chains in private business by clarifying in Department of Labor reports the products that incorporate slavery-made goods; Encouraging enforcement of the Tariff Act of 1930's prohibition on the importation of goods made with forced labor; Strengthening federal efforts to reduce demand for services from trafficking victims by increasing prosecution of those who purchase services; Designating one prosecutor in each of the Department of Justice's focus districts to investigate and prosecute labor trafficking cases; Preventing abuse of domestic servants in embassies and diplomatic homes in the U.S.; Encouraging credible and effective use of the trafficking tier ranking system by the U.S. Department of State in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report; Educating procurement officers in U.S. government agencies to apply all U.S. law and regulations preventing purchases of goods made with trafficking or services from contractors who participate in human trafficking; Ensuring that U.S. military assistance does not go to foreign governments that use child soldiers; and Encouraging USAID to integrate human trafficking prevention into disaster relief.