Frank Wolf

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which nearly a million perished in a horrific 100- day span while the world idly stood by. As has been documented in print and film, including Samantha Powers' riveting book, ``A Problem From Hell: American and the Age of Genocide,'' cables were sent, reports of the violence and the targeting of innocents received, and yet the American foreign policy apparatus was largely consumed not with stemming the bloodshed, but rather with avoiding use of the word ``genocide'' less it necessitate a response. And so many people died. Of course, there is the now notorious negligence of the United Nations in this regard, which culminated in a catastrophic moral failure on the part of the international community. Kofi Annan, then head of U.N. peacekeeping, was receiving on-the- ground intelligence from General Dallaire, who was a Canadian general, about the impending tragedy, and yet he repeatedly refused to authorize General Dallaire to seize known weapons caches until it was too late. What horrors might have been prevented had Annan chosen otherwise? Fast-forward several years. President Clinton traveled to the Kigali Airport in Rwanda and issued what has come to be known as the ``Clinton apology'' for failing to do more to stop the violence. Later, President George W. Bush famously wrote ``not on my watch'' in the margin of a report on the Rwandan genocide. No President, Republican or Democrat, wants atrocities to occur on their watch. I venture this much is true of President Obama. And yet every indication points to the fact that the crisis currently unfolding in South Sudan is headed the way of Rwanda. In fact, yesterday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, characterized South Sudan as ``on the verge of catastrophe.'' But with the stakes as high as they are, the situation is simply not being met with the urgency it demands. It is time for bold action. President Obama, who so far has failed on this issue, should immediately dispatch former Presidents George W. Bush, who has a great reputation in Africa, and former President Bill Clinton, who also has a good reputation in Africa, to the region to help negotiate a lasting peace and to convey in no uncertain terms that the fate of South Sudan is a U.S. foreign policy priority. Both of these men, President Bush and President Clinton, have done a great deal on this issue and have remained invested in Africa beyond their Presidencies. This pair of statesmen, hailing from two different political parties, would send a powerful message to the warring factions, and especially as it relates to President Kiir, with whom President Bush and his team forged a lasting relationship during intensive negotiations involved with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and would open immediate lines of communication at a pivotal time. I first visited Sudan in 1989, years before Darfur became a household word, and I have prayed for the day when the people of that long- suffering land would enjoy peace and representative government. I have been five subsequent times, most recently in 2012. For more than two decades, a steady stream of Sudanese activists, Lost Boys and Girls who resettled in the United States, humanitarian groups operating in the region, and others have visited my office. Whether it was the seemingly intractable war between the North and the South, the genocide in Darfur, or, in recent years, the violence in the Nuba Mountains set against the backdrop of the birth of a new nation, I have followed events closely in that part of the world, urging U.S. administrations of every stripe to engage vigorously in pursuit of lasting peace, justice, and rule of law. I asked President Bush to appoint a special envoy. He appointed former Senator John Danforth, who did an incredible job with then- Secretary of State Powell. While I did not support Obama's candidacy, I was heartened and encouraged by his rhetoric on Sudan during the 2008 campaign. I took further encouragement from some of the individuals who joined his foreign policy team--senior advisers with strong human rights credentials and a stated desire to see the United States lead in the prevention of crimes against humanity and other atrocities. Sadly, those words have not translated into action. As I noted earlier, Samantha Power, who rose to prominence for her reporting on genocide prevention, now represents the U.S. at the United Nations in New York. I wish her voice was stronger within this administration on this issue. I urge everyone to read her book. It was a profound book. I urge her to take the message of the book and be a spokesman in this administration. Today, I stand before you as concerned as I ever have been about the state of affairs in South Sudan and the potential for the recent violence to spiral into genocide--a genocide that could defy even the horrors of Rwanda, given that oil reserves are in play. On Monday, I received deeply troubling reports from individuals on the ground about recent atrocities in South Sudan and the lack of an effective U.S. or international response. I heard of civilians, including women and children, indiscriminately targeted and killed. I learned of houses of worship turned from places of sanctuary to mass graves. I was told of ethnic divisions that now run so deep, it could take generations to heal. These reports, coupled with a smattering of news stories from the last several months, belie what can only be characterized as an emergency situation in urgent need of high-level intervention. Consider the following excerpts from media accounts. Voice of America, April 21: The United Nations Mission in South Sudan on Monday accused opposition forces in Bentiu of carrying out targeted killings, including of children, and inciting ``vengeful sexual violence'' against women after they captured the town last week from government troops . . . UNMISS also said that individuals associated with the opposition have been using an FM station in Bentiu to broadcast hate speech. It sort of reminds you of exactly what took place in Rwanda. Will we ever learn? The Washington Post, April 22: Gunmen in South Sudan who targeted civilians, including children and the elderly, left ``piles and piles'' of bodies, many of them in a mosque and a hospital, the United Nations' top official in the country said Tuesday. CNN, April 23: South Sudanese rebels seized a strategic oil town last week, separating terrified residents by ethnicity before killing hundreds . . . Residents sought shelter in churches, mosques, and hospitals when the rebels raided Bentiu town. Fox News, April 3: As rebel forces entered Bentiu last week, residents were led to believe that by entering the mosque, they would be safe . . . But once inside they were robbed of money and mobile phones and a short while later gunmen began killing, both inside the mosque and inside the city hospital . . . If you were not Nuer, nothing could save you. The gunmen killed wantonly, including children and the elderly. The Economist, April 26: Even in a civil war that has been rife with atrocities, the scale of the massacre of civilians in South Sudan's oil hub of Bentiu on April 15-16 plumbed a new depth of hell. The rebel White Army, so-called after the ash its fighters sometimes smear on themselves, killed anyone they suspected of supporting the government, including--it is reported--200 people in a single mosque and others in churches and aid- agency compounds. Local radio broadcasts helped to stir up ethnic hatred to direct the violence at perceived enemies of Riek Machar. No side is winning. Hopes of building a new country from scratch are drowning in blood. I have a photo here--and many others--a graphic visual image of what you have just heard described. It is from the most recent massacre in Bentiu this month. We see pictured the piles of bodies described in the news accounts, and just yesterday morning, I received reports from someone on the ground that another attack in that town could be imminent. Where is the urgency from the Obama administration? Where is the outrage? I read with great interest the recent statements by Kenya's president, in which he said: ``During the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda''--the 20th anniversary is this month--``I expressed our region's disappointment at having done little to nothing at the time to end the slaughter of a million innocent victims, human beings in Rwanda, by a bloodthirsty cabal.'' He went on--and I commend the president of Kenya for saying this: ``I also pledged,'' he said, ``in the name of Kenya and the region that we would never again allow a similar genocide to happen within our shores.'' ``I return,'' he said, ``to the pledge today because of what is happening in parts of Sudan. We are outraged and gravely concerned at seeing the killings of hundreds of innocent civilians caught up in the internal conflict of the South Sudan Liberation Movement.'' ``We refuse,'' he said, ``to be witnesses to such atrocities and to remain helpless and hopeless in their wake.'' President Obama, Vice President Biden, this is happening on your watch. Will you allow it to continue? Will you to refuse to be a witness to the atrocities? News coverage of these events have been sporadic, at best. While most Americans are likely unaware of the horrors being perpetrated in South Sudan, people who are in a position to help know what is happening. Yesterday, I had a press conference with Congressman Pitts and Congressman Smith. Two members of the press--two members, only two members of the press even came. The room was empty. Nobody's covering this story hardly. Will it be like Rwanda, when they all had all the stories, and you remember the movies that they did on Rwanda, looking back? Will the press then cover it, looking back? Will they then say whose fault it was that they didn't act? Where is the media today? Where are the networks? Where is the Obama administration? Cables are now being sent to Washington. Talking points are being drafted at the National Security Council and the State Department. These events are not happening in a vacuum. Will we see the contents of the reports only after it is too late, when enterprising filmmakers and authors dredge up the documents and wonder why no one mustered the will to act? A joint op-ed piece yesterday by long-term South Sudan expert Eric Reeves and John Prendergast, who has been on the scene, who has done so much to bring the attention to these issues, opened with the following line--they say: ``No civilians in the world are in greater danger than those in South Sudan.'' Again, here is what they said: ``No civilians in the world are in greater danger than those in South Sudan.'' You see how powerful--where they say even more than in Ukraine, more than in Syria? The pair continue: Unlike the asymmetric warfare to which we have been accustomed to hearing about in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Darfur, symmetric warfare ensures heavy casualties in military confrontations, but victories and defeats now have more ominous consequences; for in South Sudan, the victors see a military victory as justifying civilian slaughter of the predominant ethnic group of the opposing forces, and with a terrifying momentum, ethnic slaughter leads yet to greater ethnic slaughter. In short, crimes have been committed by both sides. There are no angels in this conflict. There must be accountability for anyone implicated in these atrocities. We have the technology, the capacity, the eyewitness accounts to know who is involved and who is actively violating the ceasefire. Reeves and Prendergast further warn of looming famine, given that the planting season has already been disrupted with more than a million forced out of their homes, and ominously, they predicted that as many as 7 million--7 million--could face starvation this fall. The atrocities must stop. The suffering must cease. What is the end game? America helped give birth to South Sudan. We have a moral obligation to do something and something bold. So I say this: President Obama, you must not allow this to continue on your watch. I call on your predecessors, President Bush and President Clinton, to immediately engage in this crisis before more innocent blood is shed. President Bush would go. President Clinton would go. Can you imagine the image of both President Bush and President Clinton there together? So I close with this last thought: President Obama, Vice President Biden, failure to act--and this will be in the Congressional Record for future generations to see--failure to act will be a stain on your administration and a blot on your conscience. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and remember Jack Hardesty, a longstanding community leader in Clarke County, Virginia, who passed away April 15, 2014 at the age of 82. John Douglas ``Jack'' Hardesty's family has long standing ties to Clarke County dating back to the 1780s. He chose to continue this legacy as an entrepreneur who worked to further his community. Jack may be best known for his work on the Board of Supervisors, serving 17 years as chairman. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Bank of Clarke County, was a trustee for his church and member of the Berryville-Clarke Chamber of Commerce. Jack was named ``Citizen of the Year'' this year by the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber for his lifetime of service. Jack had an incredible impact on Clarke County, organizing the county's first Comprehensive Plan, as well as his efforts to preserve historic farmland and open space in the county. Through his work he has left an indelible mark on the look and feel of his community. Jack's accomplishments in agriculture were also well known. He was recognized as the Outstanding Young Farmer for Virginia in 1955, and later as Distinguished Dairyman of the Year in 1986. Jack is survived by his two sons, John and David, who are both part of his family dairy business. I know he will be missed dearly by both his family and the community as a whole. I submit the following article from The Winchester Star of Mr. Hardesty's story. [From the Winchester Star, Apr. 17, 2014] Community Leader Jack Hardesty Dies (By Val Van Meter) Berryville.--A man who is credited for shaping the way Clarke County looks today died Tuesday after a life of service. John Douglas ``Jack'' Hardesty, 82, was an entrepreneur before that word was the height of compliment. But, while building his family's fortunes, he also aimed to do what was best for his community. ``He has had a tremendous influence on how the county looks and feels,'' said Michael Hobert, current chairman of the Board of Supervisors, a post Hardesty held for the better part of two decades. ``He was responsible for the county's first Comprehensive Plan,'' Hobert noted. That plan is the community's vision on how it wants to develop into the future. ``He helped to establish our identity, and we'll have that identity for a long time into the future.'' His support to institute sliding-scale zoning helped preserve farmland and open space in the county and set a tone that has continued today. Hardesty's family roots in Clarke County go back to the 1780s, and farming was all he wanted to do. In high school, his senior classmates predicted that, within 10 years of their 1950 graduation, he would be milking 100 head of Holsteins. They weren't far off the mark. He formed a partnership with his father and began building Harvue Dairy, which grew from a 25-head, hand-milked herd to a diary producing millions of pounds of milk a year and shipping the genetics of its registered Holsteins all over the world. His importance to agriculture was recognized in 1955, when he was named the Outstanding Young Farmer for Virginia, and it only continued to grow. In 1986 the Virginia State Dairyman's Association named him Distinguished Dairyman of the Year. As a member of the Clarke County Ruritan Club, Hardesty was ``very instrumental'' in purchasing the land for the Clarke County Ruritan fairgrounds. The purchase was arranged in 1960, said Billy Milleson, who chairs the annual Clarke County Fair for the Ruritan Club. ``He and his dad ran the dairy department at the fair for years,'' Milleson said. He said Hardesty was one of the people who saved the fairgrounds when the Virginia Department of Transportation planned to put the Harry Byrd Highway bypass around Berryville. Their preferred route took it right through the fairgrounds, demolishing the grove of huge oak trees that give it so much of its character. Hardesty, Milleson said, ``went to Richmond and got it changed.'' ``He was an authentic man,'' Hobert added. He was genuine. He had integrity and good judgment.'' Former state Sen. Russell Potts Jr. called Hardesty the consummate gentleman. ``He was Mr. Clarke County,'' Potts said, adding that Hardesty got into political life ``for all the right reasons.'' In 1965, Hardesty was appointed to fill the unexpired term of the Russell Voting District representative Bob Withers on the Board of Supervisors. A year later, he ran for election and won. He remained on the board for the next 29 years, serving 17 as chairman. ``The quality of life in Clarke County is a direct result of him insisting on high standards,'' Potts said. ``He loved preservation,'' and the beauty of Clarke County. Milleson said one of Hardesty's greatest characteristics was that he was a good listener. ``He could see the other side,'' he added. In 1963, the stockholders of the Bank of Clarke County selected him to serve on the board of directors. In 1986, he stepped into the chairmanship, replacing the late Eustace Jackson, who had also preceded Hardesty as chairman of the Clarke supervisors. Johnny Milleson, president of the Bank of Clarke, recalled Hardesty was always proud of his county and the bank, which grew from two branches, one in Berryville and one in Boyce, to 11 branches, including nine in Winchester and Frederick County. He said when the two attended a seminar in North Carolina one year, people in the room were announcing their names and how long they had been directors of their respective banks. Most were less than five years, but one man was cheered for serving 21. He said Hardesty winked at him before announcing he'd been on the board of the ``best little bank in the state of Virginia'' for 41 years at that time. The bank president said Hardesty was ``a part of the bank family until his passing.'' At Christmas, Hardesty would circulate through all the bank branches. ``He had a kind word for everyone,'' and knew everyone. He added that he had gone to school with Hardesty's older son, Johnny, and had known the elder Hardesty ``since I can remember. He always had time for you, no matter how busy he was. And, he was a hard worker. Meetings of the Bank of Clarke's board still begin at 6:50 a.m., a custom started by Hardesty, to make sure he got a full day's work in, despite taking time out for meetings. Running a farm, a bank and a county didn't take up all of Hardesty's time. He was a trustee for his church, Crum's Church, a post also held by his father. He helped direct the dairy industry through positions on several organizations, including past president of the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, the Virginia Holstein Association and the Virginia State Dairyman's Association. Three Virginia governors appointed him to committees to advise them on the concerns of local governments. He promoted the larger county economy through membership in the Berryville-Clarke County Chamber of Commerce. This year, the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber, which now represents Clarke County, named Hardesty its ``Citizen of the Year'' for his lifetime of service to the county. He was married to Carter Conley Hardesty, who died in 2003, for 50 years. The couple have two sons, John E. and David M., who are both part of the family dairy business. A funeral service is planned for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church in Berryville. Potts recalled Hardesty protesting when he introduced a bill in the Virginia General Assembly to name a bridge for Jack and Carter Hardesty in the district he represented for so many years. ``I told him, `You don't have any say in it,' '' Potts recalled. Then-Gov. Mark Warner and Sen. Charles ``Chuck'' Robb, along with former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., all came for the ceremony, Potts recalled. Both Democrats and Republicans respected Hardesty. Said Potts, ``If you couldn't get along with Jack Hardesty, you couldn't get along with anyone.'' Contact Val Van Meter at vvanmeter@winchesterstar.com

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and remember the Holocaust survivors in our community. Communities around the world this week commemorated Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. As these individuals, who were small children and teenagers during World War II, are no longer with us, it is vital that we hear and record their personal stories of what happened in the ghettos and concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Europe. We must not forget what they have to say, and we must do everything in our power to ensure that these atrocities never occur anywhere in the world. I submit the following article from The Washington Post on first-hand accounts of those who survived. [From the Washington Post] Washington Area Holocaust Survivors Share Histories in Day of Remembrance (By Katherine Shaver) Blanche Porway remembers the guard tearing her from her mother's hand as they stood in line at the Auschwitz concentration camp with hundreds of Jews and other prisoners. Her mother was led off to the gas chambers while Porway and her older sister were spared, only because the guards deemed them fit enough to work. Porway, then 19, had already survived the ghetto in Lodz, Poland, where her father and brother had starved to death. ``My sister said, `I can't take this,' '' Porway recalled tearfully Sunday. ``But I said, `We have to. We have to live to tell people.' '' Now 90, Porway shared her story at a brunch in Rockville to honor Holocaust survivors. The event, attended by about 40 survivors and their families, coincided with Monday's Holocaust--Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, in Israel. Most of the survivors were residents at the Charles E. Smith Life Communities senior facilities in Rockville, where officials say they have one of the largest groups of Holocaust survivors in the Washington area. They came with their adult children, who had grown up hearing their painful stories, and with grandchildren, who they hoped would learn more. They told of fathers being arrested in the night after an abrupt knock on the door. They told of their synagogues burning, of being boarded onto trains with other Jewish children fleeing the Nazis, of the nuns who hid them in convents. They showed scars on their hands from being forced to work in German factories and cried as they recalled being forced to shovel dirt at gunpoint during years in a labor camp. Many broke into tears as they told their stories, their accents still carrying traces of their native German, French and Polish. ``It's hard to accept what happened, even now,'' Porway, who lives in Chevy Chase, said in a Polish accent, as her voice shook and her eyes teared up. A few moments later, she added quietly, ``I sometimes question if people want to hear it, or if they'll get too upset.'' Joel Appelbaum said he organized the brunch--this was the fourth--to honor Holocaust survivors in memory of his late father, who had stayed at one of the Charles E. Smith facilities. Appelbaum is vice president of the Progress Club, a Rockville social group that paid for the brunch through its charitable foundation. He noted survivors' ages--those at the brunch were between 75 and 100--and the fact that their first-person accounts would soon be left to books and video archives. ``We have a limited window to do this,'' Appelbaum said as younger family members helped their parents and grandparents get seated, often after parking walkers and wheelchairs along the walls. ``Ten years from now,'' Appelbaum said, ``this will not be an event.'' Charles E. Smith community officials said the survivors benefit from sharing their stories, too. Some had spoken little about the Holocaust during their younger years, after they had started new lives in the United States. ``I think at this stage in their lives, they want to talk, and it helps them,'' spokeswoman Emily Tipermas said. ``They feel it's safe for them now to talk, and they understand that they lived through this period of history.'' Yetti Sinnreich said her father, Ben! Sinnreich, who is 99, had one question for her as they sat down to eat: ``Can I speak?'' Yetti Sinnreich, of Potomac, said she grew up hearing about the Holocaust from both parents, who met after the war in a ``displaced persons'' camp in Romania. Her mother, Klara Sinnreich, 97, worked as a seamstress in a labor camp. While growing up, Yetti Sinnreich said, ``I remember my father screaming with nightmares and waking up the house.'' Klara Sinnreich no longer speaks much. But when the microphone came around, Beril Sinnreich raised his hand. He broke into tears as he recalled being forced to march to a work camp. He was 26 when Romanian soldiers came to his home, he said. He lost his entire family in the Holocaust. ``For three days and three nights, I didn't see water,'' Beril Sinnreich said. ``We slept in train wagons. Every night, frozen people were thrown out like garbage.'' They marched for six weeks, he said, and his father died of a heart attack. ``He couldn't walk anymore,'' he said. Beril Sinnreich, stooped with age and wearing a white cap, appeared exhausted as he spoke before the crowd. ``Three years, I was in a concentration camp,'' he said through tears. ``I survived.'' When asked after the brunch what he wanted the children and teenagers in the audience to take away from his story and others, Sinnreich had a short answer: ``It shouldn't happen again.''

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and commend Frank M. Kalder on the occasion of his retirement, having served for nearly 15 years as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In total he provided nearly 31 years of distinguished service to our country. Mr. Kalder began his career in federal service in 1983 as a budget examiner with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Presidential Management Intern program. After OMB, he helped establish the newly-created Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1989. Mr. Kalder went on to serve in important management positions with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Justice Management Division and Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. For the past 15 years, he has served as DEA's CFO, where he has been the recipient of three Presidential Rank Awards. My subcommittee has had the pleasure of working with Frank in this capacity, and can attest to his hard work in communicating DEA's budget needs to ensure the agents have the necessary resources to continue their fight against drug trafficking in this country and the rest of the world. During his time at DEA, Frank ushered in countless improvements and reforms to DEA's financial management practices. Not only was he instrumental in leading the implementation of two updated financial systems, but he also ensured that DEA had a clean financial audit year after year. Because of his efforts, DEA was able to avoid employee furloughs during the recent budget sequester through an innovative rethinking of how DEA allocates funds internally--a process known as zero based budgeting. Frank has served as an inspiration to those who have had the privilege to work for and with him during his tenure. Frank's contributions also extend beyond his role as CFO at DEA. He is an active member of his church, where he has served in various leadership roles throughout the years. He is also an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College, educating future leaders for careers in public service Mr. Speaker, Frank Kalder has left a tangible, lasting imprint on financial management at the DEA and was a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. He will be remembered for his many contributions to DEA's outstanding reputation in the federal financial management community. I wish Frank, his wife Stacy and their family continued success as he enters this next stage of his life, and I ask my colleagues to join us in expressing our appreciation for his tremendous contributions to federal service, our Nation and the Northern Virginia community.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chair, I will vote for H. Con. Res. 96 because I continue to believe the Congress has a responsibility to produce a budget each year. As a longstanding member of the House Appropriations Committee, I feel it is important that Congress have an open and honest debate about the fiscal challenges our country faces, especially our out-of-control entitlement spending that continues to deplete the federal coffers of resources to invest in defense, infrastructure, education, science and research on cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism and other diseases. These investments are what made America great in the 20th century, but are on track to be completely overtaken within a decade due to unchecked entitlement spending growth. When I came to the floor to vote for last year's budget, we were $16.7 trillion in debt. Today, we are over $17.5 trillion in debt. That's a nearly trillion dollar increase in one year. It's projected to grow to over $27 trillion in 10 years, another $10 trillion increase. Our unfunded obligations and liabilities are now projected to be well of $70 trillion, and CBO's February 2014 budget outlook projected this year's deficit to be about $514 billion. These numbers get worse with each passing year. Equally troubling, this mounting debt is increasingly held by foreign countries. In 1970, 6 percent of debt held by the public was in foreign hands. In 1990, it was 19 percent. Today, nearly 50 percent of our publically held debt is in foreign hands--and it is held by countries like China and Saudi Arabia which certainly do not share our interests or values. My vote today reflects my desire to advance the congressional budget process to confront these serious challenges. While there are many good things in this budget, my vote should not be interpreted as a reflection of my satisfaction with the legislation itself. Simply put, I believe this is a flawed proposal that stands no chance of being adopted by both chambers of Congress this year. I continue to have serious concerns with several of the provisions and believe it falls short of being a plan that can garner the bipartisan support necessary to put our nation on a path towards fiscal responsibility. Most notably, this budget once again falls short in its failure to incorporate most of the recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson- Bowles Commission. Regrettably, another year has gone by where the president and both the Republicans and Democrats in Congress have failed to advance the only bipartisan fiscal reforms that would address our debt and deficit in a manner that could result in real progress. As I have repeatedly said, I would much prefer to vote for a bipartisan budget modeled off the Simpson-Bowles plan. It could be improved by incorporating changes in existing law and other proposals, such as those produced by the discussions between the president and Speaker Boehner, and plans offered by Alice Rivlin and Pete Domenici, and Representative Ryan and Senator Wyden. Like the Ryan plan before us today, I do not agree with every line in the Simpson-Bowles plan. But only a budget based on this model can put our nation on a sustainable, long-term path to replace sequestration and reform our nation's entitlement programs so they will exist for future generations. As much as both sides might prefer that their party control both chambers of Congress and the White House, this is simply not the case. And it's unlikely to change until 2016 at the earliest. Either the Congress can get serious about adopting budget reforms that have bipartisan consensus and could be signed into law, or we can continue having these same quixotic debates, year after year, while our debt and deficit grow unabated. The debt and deficit numbers continue to get worse, and none of the actions taken by the Congress--including sequestration--have made a meaningful impact on our fiscal situation. For the last eight years I have been working toward finding consensus on bipartisan budget reforms based on the premise that all Americans, not just one group or another, will have to give something towards reducing our debt and deficits. Starting in 2006, during the Bush Administration, I began advocating for a bipartisan commission--the Securing America's Future Economy (SAFE) Commission--to identify budget reforms that could win the support of both Republicans and Democrats. The Simpson-Bowles Commission, appointed in 2010, was formed largely in response to efforts in the House and Senate to advance the SAFE Commission. The commission's co- chairs, former Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, ultimately produced a package of bipartisan reforms that was serious and effective. Unfortunately, President Obama and congressional leadership have spent the last three years running away from the Simpson-Bowles recommendations. When my colleagues and I have brought legislation to the floor of the House based on these recommendations, the efforts have fallen short due to a lack of support from both Republican and Democrat leadership. I believe their misguided opposition represents a failure of leadership that they will come to regret in the years ahead, as our budget challenges grow more and more dire. To date, we have instead been presented with tepid proposals that fail to meaningfully impact our debt, or proposals, like this budget, that embrace a vision for budget reform that stands little chance of passing and becoming law. This year, President Obama has retreated from even modest budget reforms that he has proposed in the past, such as chained CPI. I believe history will not look kindly on his failure to lead efforts to bring both parties together around meaningful reforms to address this existential national threat. His failure to lead over the last five years is directly reflected in the budget that the House has passed today, which reflects a conservative blueprint for budget reform rather than reforms based on bipartisan consensus. There's a certain irony that the budget approved today continues to draw from only one section of the Simpson-Bowles framework: making our federal workforce contribute more towards its retirement and taking steps towards ending the defined benefit retirement plan. Yet again, the Congress is targeting just one group of Americans for additional sacrifice--just as has been done for offsets in past budget agreements. This flies in the face of the Simpson-Bowles vision of shared sacrifice among all Americans in fixing our debt and deficit and, as I have said many times, is just wrong. To cite the Simpson-Bowles recommendations as an excuse to single out additional cuts to federal employees is disingenuous and inappropriate. My colleagues often forget that while there are many federal employees in the capital region, it is worth noting that more than 85 percent of the workforce is outside of Washington. They also may not realize that more than 65 percent of all federal employees work in agencies that support our national defense capabilities as we continue to fight the War on Terror. The first American killed in Afghanistan, Mike Spann, was a CIA agent and a constituent from my congressional district. CIA, FBI, DEA agents, and State Department employees are serving side-by-side with our military in the fight against the Taliban. Federal employees include the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who are working to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs across our borders. They are the medical researchers at NIH working to develop cures for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and autism. They are the VA doctors and nurses treating veterans from World War II to the present day. They are the NASA astronauts and engineers working to support the International Space Station and build our nation's exploration program. These are just a few examples of the hardworking people that serve our country each day that this budget unfairly targets. I am also concerned with a provision in the budget that would only replace one federal employee for every three vacancies. Do we really want to cut the number of FBI and Border Patrol agents and VA doctors by two-thirds? This proposal amounts to an indiscriminate sequestration of the federal workforce. While there may be some agencies where reductions are necessary, I do not support this indiscriminate approach of doing so. Taken together, these proposals on federal employees may very well undermine the federal workforce. It is often said that budgets are about choices, and I fear that yet another year will go by where we fail to make the tough choices--yet tough choices that members from both parties can support--to make real progress in confronting our debt and deficit. Until the president and congressional leadership start to incorporate the Simpson-Bowles recommendations, or a bold plan like this that gets control of the debt and deficit, into their budgets, we will likely never address the structural reforms that must be made to responsibly get our nation's fiscal house in order. This should be done in a manner that involves shared sacrifice from all Americans, not just certain groups of Americans. I am proud to have served on the House Appropriations Committee for most of my tenure in the Congress, where each year we produce appropriations bills that make tough choices, yet the bills often pass with bipartisan support. Over the last several years, the full Appropriations Committee has made more than $100 billion in cuts to discretionary spending. The Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, which I chair, has contributed more than $12 billion towards those cuts. But we approached these cuts in a responsible manner and I am proud that we have often had bipartisan support for the bills we produce. It can be done, but it requires leadership. Mr. Chair, this budget is constructive for advancing the debate about our nation's fiscal challenges, and my vote today reflects my support for the process. But until this Congress passes a budget based on the bipartisan reforms recommended by the Simpson-Bowles recommendations, it is unlikely we will ever make real progress towards reducing our debt and deficit in a substantial way. It's time for leadership--from the president and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress--to deal with this issue.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, our Nation was founded on two core principles: freedom of speech and freedom of religion, both of which are contained in the First Amendment of the Constitution. No one in America is arrested for criticizing elected officials, including the President. No one in America is imprisoned for going to a mosque on a Friday, a synagogue on a Saturday, or a church on a Sunday. The fact that we as Americans can express ourselves so freely and choose to worship whenever and wherever we want are at the heart of America's greatness. That is why I am so troubled by the recent events surrounding the high-tech entrepreneur and Mozilla cofounder, Brendan Eich, who, despite his unquestioned professional credentials, was forced to resign because of a $1,000 personal donation he made in 2008 in support of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative in support of traditional marriage. Regardless of your views on marriage, any American who values the First Amendment should be deeply troubled that this man was essentially driven from his job because of his personal beliefs. I want to stress his personal beliefs, not his company's, but his own. Nowhere have I read that Mr. Eich ever discriminated against coworkers. In fact, by all accounts, he is a fair and honorable employer. Yet, because of his private beliefs about traditional marriage, which I share, he has been demonized and his livelihood has been compromised. As troubling as this particular incident is, the chilling effect it will have on the broader issues of free speech cannot be overstated. I find it notable that Andrew Sullivan, a leading activist in the gay community, has come to Mr. Eich's defense. Mr. Sullivan has been widely quoted as writing: The whole episode disgusts me, as it should anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today, hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else, then count me out. Yes, public opinion on gay marriage has shifted since 2008, when both then-Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain supported defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman. But America has never been defined by mob rule. Even if just 1 percent of the country supported defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which is hardly the case, that 1 percent still has a right to hold that view, particularly when it is a view based, in many cases, on one's most deeply held faith convictions. I understand that reasonable people can disagree on issues. In fact, robust debate in the public square is itself an American hallmark. What happened last week was not debate. It was stifling of the debate. It was the silencing of dissent. It was compromising of our Nation's most cherished principles: freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The implications are vast and deeply troubling. We should all be concerned. I know I am.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with the people of Kassab, Syria. Their town was overtaken by Islamist rebels late last month. The town's inhabitants, who are largely Armenian Christians, have been forced by jihadist rebels to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in Lebanon and the nearby city of Latakia. I submit an article which ran in yesterday's Washington Post which paints a deeply disturbing picture of the events unfolding in Kassab. This is yet another case of Christians and other religious minorities being pulled into violent conflicts in the Middle East. Throughout the region, small and peaceful minority groups are often the first to suffer collateral damage, as we have seen in recent years not only in Syria, but also in Iraq, in Egypt, and elsewhere. It is especially poignant to recognize the people of Kassab at this time of year, since April 24 is the Genocide Remembrance Day observed by Armenians around the world to commemorate the atrocities committed against their people nearly a hundred years ago. I have advocated for a non-governmental bipartisan Syria Study Group to bring a fresh approach and possibly creative solutions forward to address the ongoing conflict in that country. It is inexcusable for the world to stand by while families are being driven from their homes, children are being killed and ancient communities' very existence threatened. [From the Washington Post, Apr. 2, 2014] Syrian Armenians, Who Had Been Insulated From War, Forced To Flee After Rebel Offensive (By Loveday Morris) Anjar, Lebanon.--Some fled in their nightclothes, others in their farming boots straight from the fields. Many thought they'd be able to return in a few hours but now fear they may never again. Until the shells started raining down late last month, the tiny Syrian village of Kassab and surrounding villages had been largely sheltered from the three-year-old conflict that has devastated other parts of Syria. But now the area is the focus of a rebel offensive in the coastal province of Latakia, and an accompanying social-media storm of disinformation. Kassab, a lush, mountainous idyll abutting the Turkish border, is an ancestral home of Syria's minority ethnic Armenians, Christians who have lived on the land for a millennium. But the attack by jihadist rebels sparked a mass exodus from Kassab and nearby villages. The picturesque Armenian hillside villages in the north of Latakia provide a foothold for a push into the rest of the province--a heartland of Syria's minority Alawites, who are largely supportive of President Bashar al-Assad. The area holds little other strategic value for the opposition, but the limited gains there have boosted rebel morale amid a string of defeats elsewhere, with the leader of the main opposition body, Ahmad al-Jarba, making a rare visit to Syria this week to tour the area and meet with fighters. The Armenian diaspora, including some celebrities, has expressed outrage, demanding that the United States act to protect the Armenian community in Syria. The State Department has said it is ``deeply troubled'' by the developments. Some Syrian government loyalists have launched a propaganda campaign accusing rebels of mass killings and desecrating churches in the area, sparking fierce rebuttals from opposition activists. But the people of Kassab, like the 7 million others who have been displaced by the civil war, are focusing on trying to rebuild their lives after being torn from their land. At least 30 families have fled to neighboring Lebanon, seeking refuge in the Armenian village of Anjar and in the capital, Beirut, and the testimonies of more than a dozen shed some light on the events surrounding the offensive. All but about 30 of the area's roughly 2,500 residents fled within 48 hours of the attack, they said. The fate of those who remained, who were too old or unwilling to leave, is unknown, with communications to the villages cut. There was no major loss of life, they say, with just one known death, that of a local teacher who was hit in her car by a sniper as she tried to flee. Still, the mass exodus is particularly emotional, with Armenians from Kassab having been forced to leave their homes twice in the past century because of persecution by the Turks. The Armenians first fled during the Adana massacre of 1909, when tens of thousands died at the hands of the Ottomans. Then, in 1915, as many as 5,000 residents of Kassab died during the fracturing empire's murderous campaign against the Armenians, which is widely recognized as a genocide. ``Now it's 2014, and we are being displaced again,'' said a 41-year-old farmer's wife who arrived in Lebanon a week ago. Like others fleeing the loyalist area, she spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals if she and her family return. ``But thank God that this time there is no massacre,'' she said. ``We believe that, as Armenians, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'' Once again, the Armenians see the hand of their long- standing enemy behind their displacement, saying the rebel attack was launched from Turkish soil. Many of the farms and homes in what was once a popular tourist spot offer sweeping views of the Turkish border. The offensive, they say, began about 5 a.m. on March 21, with villagers waking to the sound of heavy machine-gun fire, followed by shelling. Two Syrian border posts were first struck, according to the accounts of several residents. With the posts manned only by lightly armed Syrian border police, residents said there was little in the way of defense against the push by jihadist rebel groups, which included the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al- Nusra and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham. Not long after, the main border crossing to Turkey fell, residents said. Villagers had prepared evacuation plans. In case of an attack, instructions were for women and children to congregate in Nabaeen, a village farthest from the Turkish border, with a back road to the city of Latakia. By 7 a.m., one Nabaeen farmer said, about 50 people had gathered at his house. ``People were crying and yelling that they had nothing with them. Some were in their slippers and pajamas,'' he said. ``It was a sad situation.'' Despite the chaos, many grabbed the deeds to their houses-- an instinct, they say, for a people with a history of displacement. Some of the men stayed behind to see how the situation developed. ``We left all our valuables and had nothing more than the clothes we were wearing,'' said one 40- year-old mother of three. As the shelling picked up, by 11 a.m. most of the families had left Nabaeen for the safety of Latakia, 35 miles south, as Syrian army reinforcements made their way north. By March 23, the rebels had reached the center of Kassab. Villagers point to Turkey's shooting down of a Syrian jet attempting to hit the invading fighters later that day as further evidence of Turkish support for rebels. A Turkish diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that no rebels are ``deliberately'' allowed to use the Turkish border and that if there was shelling into Kassab from Turkey on March 21, it was because of new rules of engagement, which allow the country's armed forces to retaliate when fired at to deter further attacks. Turkey also said that the jet it shot down had strayed into its airspace. Jihadist fighters who entered Kassab have gone to great lengths to stress that they are not desecrating churches or hurting civilians. The mother of three said that after she arrived in Latakia with her children, she called home, and a man who identified himself as a member of Ja`hat al-Nusra answered. ``He said, 'Come back, why did you leave your home? We have come here to protect you,' '' she recalled, though she added that he later said she should convert to Islam before returning. ``I pleaded with him, `Eat and drink whatever you like, but please don't destroy the house.' '' But Kassab's displaced residents are not convinced by the jihadists' assurances, and some fear they will never be able to feel safe in the area again, even if the government succeeds in pushing out the rebels. One farmer, who sold his car in Latakia to afford the journey to Lebanon, said his grandmother survived a notorious death march from the village to the city of Horns during the genocide but still returned to Kassab. This time, he's not sure his family will make it back. ``Our roots are there, everything is there,'' his wife said, ``but we can't.''

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a piece published in the Wall Street Journal on February 27 highlighting the latest disappearance into the Chinese security system of the prominent human rights defender Gao Zhisheng. It is deeply alarming that Mr. Gao has been in and out of the Chinese prisons, disappeared, and tortured for almost a decade now. As the op-ed piece by Jared Genser, Gao's pro bono legal counsel, notes, ``. . . no one has seen or heard from him since January 2013.'' Following his most recent disappearance, Gao's courageous wife, who has testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, filed a complaint to the United Nations, urging it to conduct an investigation into his whereabouts. I have ``adopted'' Gao through the Defending Freedoms Project, an initiative of the Lantos Commission, launched in conjunction with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Amnesty International. I am committed to continuing work towards the day when he can breathe the fresh air of freedom. I echo the sentiments of Mr. Genser, who concluded in the Journal piece, ``It is time to reunite Gao Zhisheng with his family. He and his loved ones have suffered long enough.'' Demanding Justice for Gao Zhisheng (By Jared Genser) Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most prominent and courageous human-rights lawyers and prisoners of conscience, has again disappeared into the bowels of the Chinese state's security system. For more than a year, his family has desperately tried to access him in Shaya prison in Xinjiang, a remote province in western China. But all these efforts have been rebuffed and no one has seen or heard from him since January 2013. In response to Mr. Gao's most recent disappearance, his wife on Thursday in Geneva filed a complaint to the United Nations, urging it to conduct an investigation into his whereabouts. A self-taught advocate and legal rights defender, Mr. Gao was once recognized among the country's top 10 lawyers by China's Ministry of Justice. Yet his advocacy for the country's most vulnerable, including factory workers, coal miners, victims of land seizures, and persecuted Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, led the authorities to target Mr. Gao and his family with threats and intimidation starting in 2005. He has been in and out of prisons and subject to disappearances and torture for nearly a decade. Officials closed his law firm, disbarred him and placed his wife, Geng He, and their young children under 24-hour surveillance. Police stationed inside the family's home repeatedly harassed them. In school, the children were taunted and put under constant watch by the police--even when using the restroom. Because of this unbearable treatment, Geng He and her children fled China and have since been granted asylum in the United States. Mr. Gao's family is safe now, but he remains in danger. In 2006, he made a coerced confession to ``inciting subversion'' and was given a suspended three-year prison term. In 2007, Chinese officials tortured him by shocking him with electric batons, holding lit cigarettes up to his eyes, and piercing his genitals with toothpicks. On other occasions, they put him in restraints and beat him repeatedly with handguns. In 2009 and 2010, police disappeared Mr. Gao and tortured him further. In December 2011, just before the expiration of his suspended sentence and after 20 months of having been held in unknown locations, the Xinhua news agency announced that Mr. Gao would be imprisoned for the remainder of his original sentence. Since then, family members have been allowed to visit him only twice for half an hour on each occasion. Although scheduled for release on Aug. 22, he has now disappeared once again, leaving his family with renewed and urgent questions about his health and safety. Mr. Gao's imprisonment, torture and disappearances have brought tremendous suffering to him and his family. In testifying recently before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gao's daughter Grace reflected on her family's insurmountable pain and loneliness. ``I believe that when we speak out for my father . . . we protect our own freedom and values,'' she said. Despite Mr. Gao's latest disappearance, it is hoped he is managing to endure. But hope must be accompanied by action and it is more urgent than ever that China not be allowed to disappear Gao Zhisheng again with impunity. On Thursday, his wife lodged a complaint with the U.N. Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, a body of the Human Rights Council. The submission notes that Mr. Gao's family is ``distraught because they have no idea whether he is even alive.'' It goes on to emphasize the Chinese government is violating its own laws allowing for regular family visits, written correspondence, and access to counsel. Ms. Geng hopes the Working Group will urge the Chinese government to conduct an investigation into Mr. Gao's disappearance. Although the process itself can take many months, the Working Group has a good history of receiving specific replies from the Chinese government to its concerns. In addition, merely by highlighting Mr. Gao's disappearance publicly and triggering a U.N. inquiry, his family has put intense pressure on the Chinese government to respond. While this alone is a helpful step forward, much more needs to be done. The international community, including the United States and United Nations, must demand proof from the Chinese government that Mr. Gao is alive and insist that his family be granted monthly access to him as is required by Chinese law. The world must urge Mr. Gao's immediate and unconditional release. At a minimum, foreign leaders should press Beijing to release Mr. Gao on time instead of finding renewed excuses to extend his detention, as it has done in other cases. Washington must also exert pressure on the Chinese government to confirm that Mr. Gao will be provided a Chinese passport and the ability to travel to America upon his release. It is time to reunite Gao Zhisheng with his family. He and his loved ones have suffered long enough.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and remember a dear friend, Mayor M. Jane Seeman, who selflessly served the Vienna, Virginia, community for more than a decade and passed away on February 23, 2014, at the age of 76. Jane was born on June 1, 1937, in Hays, Kansas. She graduated from Fort Hays State University with a bachelor's degree in economics and business. While in college, she met her husband, Rodger, whom she married in 1959, and in 1968 the couple moved to Vienna so that Rodger could pursue a job with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Seemans shared a passion for public service, with Rodger serving on the Vienna Town Council for nearly two decades. When he passed away in 1996, his wife completed his unfinished term, going on to win two terms of her own before successfully running for Mayor in 2000. Jane was well-respected and much-admired by the Vienna community, winning reelection six times. While greatly involved in the community, Jane understood well the importance of enjoying life to its fullest. She was passionately devoted to her children and grandchildren and, as a travel enthusiast, made a point to include her family on her many ventures. Jane was a longtime sports fan, cheering on the Washington Nationals for many years. Of Jane's many commitments, perhaps her greatest was to her Christian faith, which motivated and sustained her throughout her life. She was a beloved member of the Vienna Presbyterian Church, which she attended for more than forty years. Jane's son, Bill, perhaps said it best when he declared that 76 years was hardly enough time for his mother. She will be sincerely missed by her family, friends, and the Vienna community, but her legacy will long-endure. While we mourn her loss, we also importantly celebrate the exemplary life of love, faith, and humble service by which we will always remember her. I submit the following article from the McLean Sun Gazette, which pays tribute to Jane's admirable life. [Mar. 3, 2014] Vienna Mayor Eulogized for Devotion to Family, Town (By Brian Trompeter) Vienna bade farewell to its longtime Mayor M. Jane Seeman in a Feb. 28 funeral service that drew hundreds of people and featured remembrances from her children and grandchildren. Seeman, 76, who had served on the Vienna Town Council since late 1996 and as mayor since 2000, died of lung cancer Feb. 23. Mourners filled the lower sanctuary level and some of the balcony area at Vienna Presbyterian Church, which Seeman had attended since fall 1968. A broad swath of the Vienna community came to the service, including Seeman's Vienna Town Council colleagues, some Board of Supervisors members and at least one member of Congress. ``I think we shut down Vienna with all of us being here,'' said Pastor Peter James. The mayor's daughter, Linda Colbert, said the family had been inundated with messages from friends following her mother's death and that those outpourings of support helped the family cope with their loss. ``My mother was my best friend. She was also my first friend,'' Colbert said. ``We always loved to talk to each other.'' The late mayor volunteered more than 3,000 hours of her time at Patrick Henry Library and loved chatting with patrons, asking them about the books they were turning in or checking out. The mayor was keenly interested in people's lives and dedicated to serving others and the town, Colbert said. ``She served because she wanted to, not for a pat on the back or to be recognized,'' she said. Madena Jane Seeman was born June 1, 1937, in Hays, Kan., to parents Madena and Herbert Seeman. The future mayor wrote for a newspaper in that town of about 10,000 people, then attended Fort Hays State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in economics and business. She met her future husband, Rodger, at the university and married him on June 1, 1959. Seeman became a rabid fan of the University of Kansas Jayhawks while the couple lived in Lawrence, Kan. The Seemans later lived in Kansas City, then moved to Vienna in 1968 after Rodger Seeman took a job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Seemans bought a house on Blackstone Terrace, N.W., for $25,000 and lived there until their deaths. They had two sons and one daughter. Rodger Seeman served on the Town Council from the early 1980s until his death in November 1996. His wife was appointed to fill his unexpired term and after being elected to full terms in 1997 and 1999, she ran for mayor in 2000, following the death of Mayor Charles Robinson Jr. The mayor won re-election six times, but had decided not to seek re- election this May. One of her sons, Bill Seeman of Fairfax Station, said his parents were determined to give their kids ``fantastic childhoods.'' Seeman recalled his days of playing baseball on crude schoolyard fields and then getting to pitch at Yeonas Field, which had dugouts and other ``big-league'' amenities. He pitched disastrously there, though, and blamed his performance on the new experience of throwing from a raised mound. That night, the boy's parents worked in their back yard to build him a raised pitching mound. The mayor was a big sports fan, loved the Washington Nationals and had a crush on player Bryce Harper, Bill Seeman said. She also enjoyed traveling and ventured to such places as France, Belgium, Russia and Greece. The mayor took her family on a cruise in Alaska a couple years ago and took Bill Seeman and his sons on jaunts to sports hall of fame facilities in Springfield, Mass., and Cooperstown, N.Y., as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, he said. ``Seventy-six years really was not enough for my mom,'' Bill Seeman said. ``She lived about 10 normal people's lives. She was a rare gift to all of us.'' Music played a central role in the memorial service. Pat Talamantes played the organ and those in attendance sang the hymns ``Great Is Thy Faithfulness'' and ``Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.'' One of Seeman's granddaughters, Hannah Colbert, sang ``Amazing Grace'' while her father, Michael Colbert, accompanied her on guitar. Colbert choked up on the final stanza and had to be comforted. Pastor James later told her she never needed to apologize for being emotionally moved by that song. After the service, a funeral procession led by Fairfax County and Vienna police motorcycle officers went from the church down Maple Avenue to Flint Hill Cemetery in Oakton, where Seeman was buried near her late husband. Following the burial, mourners attended a reception back at the church. Vienna Town Hall closed early that afternoon so town employees could attend the 2 p.m. funeral. Flag were flown at half-mast at the Vienna Town Green, the creation of which Seeman considered to be the Town Council's biggest accomplishment during her tenure.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for his courtesy. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to discuss something very close to me. I want to talk about stuttering. I have been a lifelong stutterer, and when I was young I experienced some very difficult times, but that is a story really for another day. More than 70 million people stutter. One in every 100 people in the world stutter. In the U.S., more than 3 million Americans stutter. You probably have a friend, a neighbor, a classmate, a coworker, or a family member who stutters. Most people do. About 5 percent of all children go through a stuttering phase that lasts 6 months or more. Some will recover by late childhood, but one out of every 100 children will be left with long-term stuttering. I would like to take this time to tell you a little bit more about stuttering, what it is and how family members and friends can help. Stuttering is a disorder where the flow of speech is broken by repetition, prolongations, or abnormal stoppages of sounds and syllables. For some people, unusual facial and body movements may happen when they try to speak. Stuttering is most likely caused by four factors: One, Genetics; Two, child development. For example, children with other speech and language problems or developmental delays are more likely to stutter; Three, the makeup of the brain. An ongoing research study by Dr. Anne Smith with the Purdue University Stuttering Project shows that people who stutter seem to process speech and language differently than those who don't; And four, lastly, family dynamics have an impact. High expectations and fast-paced lifestyles can also contribute to stuttering. People who stutter are no different from those who do not stutter. In fact, studies by Dr. Ehud Yairi at the University of Illinois show that people who stutter are as intelligent and as well-adjusted as those who don't. Contrary to what many people believe, stuttering can be treated. I want to let anyone know out there who stutters or who has a child who stutters, much can be done. Speech-language pathologists, therapists trained to help deal with speech issues like stuttering often work in schools, clinics, at universities, and in private practice to help treat stuttering. The most important thing, and many experts agree: early intervention is key. The earlier we can identify stuttering in our children and get them the help they need, the better chances we have at helping them to speak more fluently. If you stutter, or if a child or loved one stutters, or if you even think they might be stuttering, get help immediately. One of the best ways to help is by visiting the Stuttering Foundation. The foundation was started by Malcolm Fraser more than 70 years ago. His book, called ``Self-Therapy for the Stutterer,'' was originally published in 1978, and still is one of the best books on stuttering available. You can visit the foundation's Web site at www.stutteringhelp.org. They have lots of well-trusted, expert information available for free, including Malcolm Fraser's book, as well as countless brochures and videos and other materials for parents and teachers. Unfortunately, there is no instant miracle cure for stuttering, no surgery, no pills, no intensive weekend retreats. Stuttering takes time and effort and commitment to work through. Some people outgrow it. Some people respond well to years of therapy and learn to speak fluently, with almost no trace of difficulty. For many others, stuttering becomes a lifelong struggle, as it has for me. For those of us who stutter, and for the millions of parents with children who stutter, we all know stuttering becomes more challenging for teenagers. Kids can be tough on classmates who stutter and, for some, the teasing and the mocking can be too much. We must help people who stutter understand that there are many people who know firsthand how difficult it is for someone who stutters, and that help is available. We need to be patient, kind, understanding, and attentive. We need to know and show that we care. If you stutter, let me just tell you something: Don't give up. So much can be done. I thank the gentleman for giving me the time.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, much ink has been used regarding Secretary of State John Kerry's comments this weekend characterizing Vladimir Putin's outrageous incursion into Ukraine as a ``19th century act in the 21st century.'' But if we are looking through the lens of history, it is also worth noting what a small community of Syrian Christians has been forced to endure. Writing in National Review Online this week, stalwart religious freedom advocate Nina Shea authored a piece, headlined, ``Syrian Jihadists Are Forcing Christians to Become Dhimmis Under Seventh- Century Rules.'' Shea notes: The religious persecution in Syria deepened this week, as evidenced by a written ultimatum purportedly distributed by the rebel jihadist group ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, to Christians in the northern providence capital of Raqqa. Rejecting conversion to Islam or death, some 20 Christian leaders of that city held firm in their faith and submitted to the Islamists' demands to live by as dhimmis. Shea continued to explain the implications of this status. She said: Under this arrangement, in exchange for their lives and the ability to worship as Christians, they must abide by purported seventh-century rules of Caliph Umar. According to the Raqqa ultimatum, these include bans on renovating and rebuilding churches and monasteries, many of which need repair because they have been shelled and blown up over the past 3 years, and bans against the public display of crosses and Christian symbols and the ringing of bells. She went on to say: They are forbidden from reading Scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims outside to hear, and the practice of their faith must be confined within the walls of their remaining churches, not exercised publicly at, for example, weddings or funerals. Many have remarked that Raqqa was once one of Syria's most liberal cities. Its Christian community numbered about 3,000 before the conflict. They have since been devastated by violence and migration. Their exact number today is unknown. This month marks the anniversary of the uprising which eventually spiraled into the war and violence which has terrorized Syria for 3 years now. Muslims and Christians alike have experienced horrific violence. But, as Shea quotes: The Christians who remain in Raqqa must now bear the additional suffering of dhimmitude. Their plight, while more stark, given the official nature of their subjugation, parallels, in many ways, that of other besieged religious minorities, specifically Christians throughout the broader Middle East. The latest outrage finally garnered a statement from the Department of State's spokesman. But a statement provides little solace to a people facing death, forced conversion, or, in the case of these Christian leaders who refused to abandon their faith, an exacting toll to abide by the dictates of their conscience. Such an outrage demands a response from policymakers and faith leaders alike. I have joined with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and others in sending a letter to Secretary Kerry urging the Department of State to cooperate with a Syria Study Group to be facilitated by the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council. The study group would be charged with producing a report as quickly as possible that would help the administration and Congress identify and implement ways for bringing this crisis to a close in a manner fully consistent with the interests and the political transition objectives of the United States. Surely the protection of ancient faith communities like Syria's Christian community is one such interest. Meanwhile, I believe that it is critical for the faith community in the West, specifically the Church in America, to find its voice on behalf of our marginalized and persecuted brothers and sisters abroad, be they in Syria, Egypt, or Iraq. I meet regularly with representatives of these groups. They are desperate for help, or at least the solidarity, and they cannot understand the seeming lack of urgency by their brethren here in America, and, frankly, nor can I.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, this picture depicts South Sudanese women in a food distribution line. Another desperate woman at the fore is hunched over barbed wire. Violence, displacement, and starvation plague the world's newest nation, but that doesn't have to be so. Months ago, I wrote the Obama administration urging that they invite former President George W. Bush and the Bush Institute to engage in the crisis, given that President Bush had forged lasting relationships with South Sudanese leaders during the negotiation of peace in 2005. The Obama administration, perhaps constrained by pride, has failed to act, and the very nation the U.S. helped birth is perishing in its infancy.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit an excerpt from remarks made by my friend Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, upon receiving the John Leland Award from the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in December. In his statement, Dr. George succinctly spells out the different ways in which countries around the world undermine religious freedom, whether through hostility toward religions, sponsorship of radicalism, enforcement of unjust laws or failure to protect citizens against religious violence. Today, religious freedom is in peril around the world. In his remarks, Dr. George admirably shows Americans what they can do to secure greater liberty for people of faith, and of no faith, who are in harm's way because of what they believe. We are privileged to live in a country where freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed--may we strive to secure this right for citizens of all countries. Robert P. George, John Leland Award, Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Rayburn Gold Room, Washington, DC, Friday, December 13, 2013 [excerpts] . . . So why does religious freedom matter? Why should promoting and defending it abroad, no less than honoring it at home, be a high priority for our country? The way some people see it, the reason for respecting religious freedom is purely instrumental and self-interested. If you and I disagree in matters of religion, I should tolerate your beliefs and religious practices so that you will tolerate mine. Religious freedom, on this view, is not so much a moral or human right as it is a kind of mutual nonaggression pact. It's not difficult to see the attraction of this view or to explain why some people hold it. A world in which each community lives in fear that another will seize power and oppress its practitioners is hardly an ideal state of affairs for any of them--except, of course, the group that happens to come out on top. But that is exactly what happens where there is little or no religious freedom protection. Everyone fears what will happen to their own group. And so the answer to the problem is clear. Each group tolerates the other groups so that it, too, will be tolerated. But there's a problem with this view. The problem is not that it's in any way inaccurate or untrue. Instead, the problem is that it doesn't go far enough. It ignores the fact that at its core, religious freedom means something far deeper and more profound than people grudgingly tolerating each another in a kind of modus vivendi. It means the right to be who we truly are as human beings. The fact is that as human beings, we are drawn to ponder life's deepest questions and seek meaningful, truthful answers. Where do we come from? What is our destiny? Is there a transcendent source of meaning and value? Is there a ``higher law'' that pulls us above personal interest in order to ``do unto others as we would have them do unto us?'' No matter how these questions are answered, one thing is indisputable: Human beings can't stop asking them, and would be diminished precisely as human beings if they were to try to do so. And that suggests that the religious quest is a constitutive part of our humanity--an aspect of our flourishing as the kind of creatures we are, namely, rational, intelligent, and free actors. And this, in turn, suggests that we must cherish and honor, preserve and protect, the right of persons to ask and answer these questions as best they can, and, within the broadest limits, to lead their lives with authenticity and integrity in line with their best judgments of conscience. And so, both as individuals and together with others in community, religious freedom means the right to ponder life's origins, meaning and purpose; to explore the deepest questions about human nature, dignity, and destiny; to decide what is to be believed and not to be believed; and, within the limits of justice for all, to comply with what one conscientiously judges to be one's religious obligations-- openly, peacefully, and without fear. John Henry Newman once observed that ``conscience has rights because it has duties.'' We honor the rights of conscience in matters of faith because people must be free to lead lives of authenticity and integrity by fulfilling what they believe to be their solemn duties. But authenticity and integrity are directly threatened whenever there is coercion or compulsion in matters of faith or belief. Indeed, coercion does not produce genuine conviction, but pretense and lack of authenticity. Clearly, a coerced faith is no faith at all. Compulsion may cause a person to manifest the outward signs of belief or unbelief, but it cannot produce the interior acts of intellect and will that constitute genuine faith. Therefore, it is essential that freedom of religion or belief include the right to hold any belief or none at all, to change one's beliefs and religious affiliation, to bear witness to these beliefs in public as well as private, and corporately as well as individually, and to act on one's religiously inspired convictions about justice and the common good in carrying out the duties of citizenship. And it is vital that religious liberty's full protections be extended to those whose answers to life's deepest questions reject belief in the transcendent. Because the right to freedom of religion or belief is so central to human personhood, we would expect that in places where it is dishonored, societies would be less happy and secure. And according to a growing number of studies, that is precisely the case across the world. These studies show that countries that protect religious liberty are more secure and stable than those that do not, and nations that trample on this freedom provide fertile ground for war and poverty, terror and radical movements. In other words, not only do religious freedom abuses violate the core of our humanity, they do grave harm to the well-being of societies. They do so politically--as religious freedom abuses are highly correlated with the absence of democracy and the presence of other human rights abuses. They do so economically--as religious persecution destabilizes communities and marginalizes the persecuted, causing their talents and abilities to go unrealized, robbing a nation of added productivity, and reducing that nation's ability to fight poverty and create abundance for its citizens. They do so morally--since wherever religious freedom is dishonored, the benefit of religion in molding character is diminished, and with it, the self-discipline necessary to handle the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. And finally, they do so socially--since wherever religious freedom is abused, peace and security become ever more elusive. For the United States, all of this has a direct bearing on our own security. For example, of the four countries that hosted Osama bin Laden during his notorious life--Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Pakistan--each is an incubator of terrorism in the form of violent religious extremism, and all have perpetrated or tolerated repeated religious freedom violations. And as we all know, the 9/11 attacks on our country were plotted in Afghanistan, which was run by the Taliban which originated in Pakistan, with 15 of the 19 attackers coming from Saudi Arabia. In December of last year, the Institute for Economics and Peace, an Australian think tank, released a ranking of nations based on the number of terrorist attacks launched between 2002 and 2011. At the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, we consider seven of these countries--Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Somalia, Nigeria, and Russia--to be serious violators of religious liberty. . . . Clearly, religious freedom matters greatly. And sadly, according to a recent Pew study, 75 percent of the world's people--more than 5 billion human beings--live in countries with governments that significantly restrict this fundamental right. Such restrictions range from burdensome rules and regulations on building houses of worship to detention and imprisonment, torture and murder. . . . All of these abuses violate not just American standards of religious freedom, but international human rights standards and covenants as well. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, in Article 18, that: ``Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.'' Since 1966, the governments of 167 countries have signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a binding treaty with protections similar to Article 18. Nations around the world also affirmed the 1981 Declaration on Religious Intolerance, and other regional bodies, such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, also confirm religious freedom as a fundamental liberty. . . . As an independent, bipartisan, U.S. federal government advisory body, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is firmly committed to the human rights standards found in these documents. As a key part of its mandate, USCIRF monitors religious freedom worldwide and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and to Congress. Based on our monitoring of religious freedom conditions, we have seen a number of discernible patterns to religious persecution. First, we have seen the following categories of religious freedom violations engaged in or tolerated by governments: state hostility; state sponsorship; state enforcement; and state failure. The second pattern we have seen is that in every one of these categories, Christians are among the persecuted. And a third pattern we've noted is the stubborn persistence of anti-Semitism worldwide, including in the nations of Western Europe, where it again appears to be on the rise. As to the categories of religious freedom abuses I just mentioned, state hostility involves the government actively persecuting people or groups on account of their beliefs. State sponsorship refers to the government actively promoting--and sometimes even exporting--ideas and propaganda, often of a violent, extremist nature, that include hostility to the religious freedom of others. State enforcement refers to the government applying laws and statutes such as anti-blasphemy codes to individuals, often members of religious minorities, thus violating freedom of expression as well as freedom of religion or belief. And state failure means that the government is neglecting to take action to protect those whom others are targeting due to their beliefs, creating a climate of impunity in which religious minorities or dissenters are threatened, intimidated, or even attacked and killed. When it comes to state hostility toward religions, one of the worst persecutors is Iran's theocratic regime. The Iranian government has executed people for ``waging war against God,'' while relentlessly targeting reformers among the Shi'a Muslim majority, as well as religious minorities, including Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Bahai's, and Christians. The Iranian regime has also stirred up anti-Semitism and promoted Holocaust denial. Regarding state sponsorship of radical ideology which targets the religious freedom of others, Saudi Arabia continues to export its own extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam through textbooks and other literature which teach hatred and even violence toward other religious groups. Regarding state enforcement of laws and statutes that repress freedom of expression and religion, Egypt and Pakistan enforce anti-blasphemy or anti-defamation codes, with religious minorities bearing the brunt of the enforcement. Regarding state failure to protect religious freedom, the actions of the governments of Egypt and Pakistan exemplify those of nations which do not protect their citizens against religion-related violence. Ironically, both nations' enforcement of blasphemy codes fuels some of the worst violence by encouraging vigilantes to target perceived transgressors. . . . In Egypt, since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, including the periods of time before, during, and after President Morsi's rule, the government has tolerated widespread abuses against religious minorities, including Coptic Orthodox and other Christians, and Bahai's, Shi'a Muslims, and dissident Sunni Muslims. It has failed to make serious efforts to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice or to respond to virulent anti-Semitism in state-controlled media. In Pakistan, the government's longtime failure to protect religious freedom was on brutal display in 2011 with the assassinations of Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim who was Governor of Punjab province, and Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs and a valiant religious freedom advocate. Both officials were killed for opposing Pakistan's blasphemy law, which is used as a weapon of repression against Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This year was clearly one of the worst for both Shi'a Muslims and for Christians in Pakistan, as attacks by extremists on these communities accelerated with impunity. Clearly, impunity remains one of the world's most serious and growing religious freedom concerns and challenges. Across much of the world, there have been incidents of religiously- related violence which are not being addressed by investigations, trials, or punishments. . . . And so, let me conclude by saying that for those of us who care about religious freedom, we have a job to do. First and foremost, each of us as citizens needs to make the case to our fellow Americans on behalf of supporting religious freedom abroad. We need to explain why this matters for our country and for our world. We must tell others the story about what is happening to victims of religious persecution around the world. We must not let them be forgotten or let their plight be ignored. And then, as we increase our numbers on the ground, we can move Washington to do the right thing by supporting religious freedom. We must make it clear to those in public office that we expect them to honor religious freedom both at home and abroad, and that we intend to hold them electorally accountable if they fail to do that. We must insist that religious freedom be given the priority it is due under the International Religious Freedom Act in the conduct of our international diplomacy and foreign policy. Trade considerations are important; geopolitical strategic considerations are important; but religious freedom is important, too. It is not a second-class concern--at least not since IRFA became the law of the land. . . . I have not spoken much today about domestic religious freedom issues. I do not want to close, however, without saying this: The first and most important way in which the President of the United States can promote religious freedom abroad is by honoring religious freedom here at home. Again, speaking for myself, and not on this occasion as Chairman of USCIRF, I call on President Obama to withdraw the HHS mandates that threaten religious freedom in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act--and to do so before being compelled to withdraw those mandates by the Supreme Court in the lawsuits now pending. Indeed, the administration should--across the board, at home and abroad-- embrace a robust view of religious liberty, one going beyond the mere ``freedom of worship''--one that respects the right of religious believers and religious institutions to honor the requirements of their consciences without governmental interference, except in those circumstances--mercifully rare in our own country--where restrictions on religious freedom are necessary to protect the religious freedom of others or to prevent violence or other intolerable harms. . . .

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and remember former U.S. Representative and Brigadier General Vicente T. ``Ben'' Blaz, who passed away on January 8, 2014 in Fairfax, Virginia at the age of 85. Gen. Blaz was born on February 14, 1928, in Hagatna, the capital of Guam. At 13, he was forced into a Japanese detention camp following the Japanese seizure of the island immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. While a detainee, Gen. Blaz witnessed the torture and murder of his fellow Chammorros--natives of Guam--until American Marines liberated the island in 1944. Following the war, Blaz learned English and received a scholarship to study at the University of Notre Dame. Soon after graduation, he joined the Marine Corps, where he served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, earning the Bronze Star. He then served in the Joint Staff for a number of years, including under General Lemeul Shephard, who liberated his home from the Japanese many years earlier. Blaz was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1977. He was the first non-white soldier to attain this rank within the Marine Corps. Gen. Blaz served three more years before retiring from the military and returning home to Guam. There he worked as a teacher and farmer until his election to the U.S. Congress in 1982. For eight years, he served as Guam's non-voting representative in the House, and held committee assignments on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Armed Forces Committee. During his time in Congress, he focused on veterans' education issues, as well as the reorganization of Guam's judicial system. Following his retirement in 1992, Gen. Blaz published a memoir, as well as books and television documentaries about Guam's history and culture. He also spent time in Virginia's 10th District in Fairfax County, where he passed away last month. He is survived by his two sons, Tom and Mike Blaz, as well as two brothers, one sister and five grandchildren. I submit the following obituary from the Washington Post on Gen. Blaz's amazing story. [From the Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2014] Vicente T. `Ben' Blaz, Marine General and Guam Delegate, Dies at 85 (By Matt Schudel), Vicente T. ``Ben'' Blaz, who survived a Japanese prison camp during World War II and later became a Marine Corps brigadier general and Guam's representative in Congress, died Jan. 8 at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax County. He was 85. The cause was acute respiratory failure, his son Tom Blaz said. Gen. Blaz was 13 when he was captured by Japanese forces who overran the U.S. territory of Guam on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was one of many native Chamorros, as natives of Guam are often called, held in a detention camp and pressed into forced labor, building airfields for the Japanese. He was later held in a Japanese prison camp, where he saw fellow inmates beheaded. ``As a boy, I stood behind barbed wire,'' he told The Washington Post in 1977. ``There was a pervasive sense of personal insecurity. That probably is more damaging to your feeling of wellbeing than hunger.'' In 1944, he was freed when U.S. Marines reclaimed Guam from the Japanese. He asked a young Marine how he could go to the United States. ``The first thing you have to do is learn to speak English,'' he recalled the Marine saying. Gen. Blaz spoke primarily the local Chamorro language at the time. ``He taught me a few words and told me, of all things, to listen to the radio, and talk as they do.'' After graduating in 1951 from the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, Gen. Blaz joined the Marine Corps. He served during the Korean War and was an artillery officer in the Vietnam War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He held several jobs with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and once served under Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., a Marine general who led the U.S. forces that recaptured Guam in 1944. When he was promoted to brigadier general in 1977, Gen. Blaz became the first person from Guam and the first non- white Marine to reach the rank of general. At the time, he was director of information for the Marine Corps, in charge of rebuilding the image of the Marines after the Vietnam War. After retiring from the military in 1980, Gen. Blaz returned to Guam to farm and to teach. He made an unsuccessful bid as a Republican for Guam's non-voting congressional seat in 1982. Two years later he won a closely contested election, defeating Antonio B. Won Pat, who had served as Guam's delegate since 1973, when the territory first received representation in Congress. Gen. Blaz, who was a member of the Armed Forces and Foreign Affairs committees, was the only retired general serving in Congress at the time. He had few legislative victories in his limited role in Congress, but he was instrumental in reorganizing the judicial system on Guam and was a strong advocate for improved educational benefits for veterans. Gen. Blaz served four terms before losing a reelection bid in 1992 to Robert A. Underwood. Vicente Tornas Blaz Garrido was born Feb. 14, 1928, in what is now Hagatna, the capital of Guam, and grew up in a farming community. Guam, which is about 30 miles long, has a population of about 140,000 and is the southernmost island in the Marianas chain. It became a U.S. territory after the Spanish-American War in 1898. In 1947, Gen. Blaz received a scholarship to attend Notre Dame. After a 22-day boat trip, he arrived in San Francisco and told a cabdriver to take him to Notre Dame. He was dropped off at a Catholic girls' school with a similar name, where he presented his papers to the nuns. They put him on a train to Indiana. While serving in the Marine Corps, he received a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University in 1963. He had a home in Fairfax County since 1969 and was a member of St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church in Fairfax. His wife of 58 years, Ann Evers Blaz, died in May 2013. Survivors include two sons, Tom Blaz of Fairfax and Mike Blaz of Fairfax Station; two brothers; a sister; and five grandchildren. After Congress, Gen. Blaz wrote a memoir and books about Guam and also made a series of historical and cultural television documentaries about his native island. In Congress and later in life, Gen. Blaz became known for a rueful description of the people of Guam, U.S. citizens who serve in disproportionate numbers in the military but do not have full representation in Congress: ``Equal in war, unequal in peace.''

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, last week the Drudge Report featured an article with a striking headline, ``The World's Most Ancient Christian Communities Are Being Destroyed--and No One Cares.'' This sentiment was expressed in no uncertain terms yesterday at an event in my district at St. John the Beloved in McLean, Virginia. People from around the Greater Washington, D.C., area gathered to hear directly from five senior Syrian Christian leaders, part of a delegation from the war-ravaged country and the first of its kind that I know of to visit the U.S. since the hostilities began. These men will speak at The Heritage Foundation at 1 p.m. today and will meet with Members of Congress tomorrow. Their story and that of their communities bears telling not only to policymakers, but to the American church at large, for they represent the very cradle of Christendom. They spoke movingly of their identity as Syrian Christians with ancient roots predating the apostle Paul. Today these communities face violence, kidnapping, sexual assault, displacement, and more. According to the Barnabus Fund, which is hosting this delegation, an estimated 600,000 Christians in Syria have already fled the country or lost their lives. Of course, general violence plagues Syria, but this ancient Christian community finds itself targeted by Islamist elements in the country, including a significant number of foreign jihadists who have flocked to the battlefield. Several messages emerged at the talk yesterday, but one held particular relevance for the faith community in America. These Syrian Christian leaders made a plea for engagement from the church in the West. Specifically, they sought for American churches to ``adopt'' specific Syrian churches--to commit to praying on their behalf and advocating for them when possible. The need is great, but so too is the opportunity. The plight of Christians in Syria, while horrific, is in some respects a similar story. Time and again, Syrian Christians remark that they fear their fate that befell their brethren in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands fled after being targeted by rival Islamist groups. Today, Iraq's Christian population has fallen from as many as 1.4 million in 2003 to roughly 200,000 today. In fact, throughout the Middle East, Christian communities are increasingly under siege and imperiled. Christianity is at risk of being ripped from the very fabric of the Middle East when, for centuries, it has been part of the rich tapestry of that region. Will we permit it to happen on our watch? Will we answer their pleas for help, or will their cries fall on deaf ears? I pray it is not too late.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, today I missed roll call vote 22, on consideration of a motion to recommit with instructions for H.R. 3362, and rollcall vote 23, on final passage of H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act, because I was chairing the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on ``Defending Freedoms: Highlighting the Plight of Prisoners of Conscience around the World.'' This hearing addressed the plight of prisoners of conscience who are currently unjustly detained by repressive governments all over the world and explored strategies for securing their release. Witnesses traveled at their own expense from across the country and all over the world, including Israel and Europe, to testify before the commission. We heard from Mr. Natan Sharansky, the noted human rights activist who spent nine years in the Soviet Gulag and current Chairman of the Executive for the Jewish Agency for Israel; Ms. Geng He, wife of imprisoned Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was accompanied by Mr. Jared Genser, founder, Freedom Now and pro bono counsel for Gao Zhisheng; Mr. Josh Colangelo-Bryan, pro bono attorney on behalf of imprisoned Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab; and Mrs. Tran Thi Ngoc Minh, mother of imprisoned Vietnamese labor activist Do Thi Minh Hanh. Dr. Robert P. George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Mr. Gal Beckerman, author, When They Come for Us We'll be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry also testified. I felt it was important to continue this hearing as these witnesses were advocating for the lives of their friends and loved ones. Had I been present I would have voted ``no'' on roll call 22, the motion to recommit, and ``aye'' on roll call 23, final passage of H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act, as I fully support efforts to require transparency in the operation of American Health Benefit Exchanges.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill and want to acknowledge and thank Mr. Rogers. We came here together in 1981, and I think what Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Lowey have done, along with Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby, has been amazing. I also want to thank my friend, Mr. Fattah, for his partnership and help. Thank you. You have done a great job. I want to acknowledge the staff, Mike Ringler, Leslie Albright, Jeff Ashford, Diana Simpson and Colin Samples, as well as Bob Bonner and Matt Smith. They have done an incredible job. If the American people could have seen the hours--and I want to thank them. This bill today totals $51.6 billion, which is $1.44 billion below the enacted 2013 level. We have reduced spending by more than $12 billion for agencies funded in the CJS. There is no reason why anyone would vote against this bill. We are even $200 million below FY 2008. So they have done an incredible job. The bill also includes $8.3 billion for the FBI to fight crime and protect the Nation from further terrorist attacks, and it expands the FBI's capabilities. Also, in addition, there is $1 million for an independent review to report to Congress, to be conducted by an outside commission to look at the progress made over the last decade on the implementation of the 9/ 11 Commission. I lost several hundred people from my district who died, and we lost 3,000 Americans. We want to find out what recommendations were made, how well the FBI is doing, and so that is very, very important. I expect the FBI to cooperate, and I know they will. I appreciate Mr. Fattah, and also Mr. Mollohan, who is not here. We establish the Charles Colson, Chuck Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections. We cannot put men and women in prison for years and do nothing, and I think this offers an opportunity to really reform the prison commission system. Then Mr. Goodlatte and the Judiciary Committee can do amazing things. The bill also brings about repatriation programs to bring jobs back to America, not to have companies going abroad but to come back, and I appreciate the Secretary of Commerce Pritzker really cooperating and working on this. Lastly, it funds the sciences at a very, very high level. With regard to NASA, the bill includes $17.65 billion for NASA, including funding for America's next generation space launch system, the Orion Crew Vehicle, as well as full funding for cutting-edge aeronautics and research to keep America competitive. Again, I just want to close by congratulating and thanking Mr. Rogers. We came here in 1981. We were considered Reagan robots. I wasn't supposed to be here, and another guy who wasn't supposed to be here, Chris Smith, he is still here, and Mr. Rogers. They will be the leaders of the class that is left. We had 54. I just want to thank him for what he has done, and the staff on both sides, and the Members, for bringing this bill and returning to regular order. Again, Mr. Fattah, my fellow native Philadelphian, thank you for everything that you have done. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes the fiscal year 2014 Commerce- Justice-Science appropriations act. I would like to thank my colleague and Ranking Member, Mr. Fattah, for his support throughout this process. I would also extend my thanks to Chairman Rogers, Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby. I also want to thank the CJS subcommittee Majority staff--Mike Ringler, Leslie Albright, Jeff Ashford, Diana Simpson and Colin Samples--as well as Bob Bonner and Matt Smith on the Minority staff. The final CJS bill before the House today totals $51.6 billion, which is $1.4 billion below the enacted fiscal year 2013 level. Since Republicans assumed the majority in the House, we have reduced spending by more than $12 billion for agencies funded in the CJS appropriations bill. The FY 2013 level is even $200 million below the FY 2008 level. At the same time the bill also provides funding for a variety of critical national priorities, and prevents furloughs for federal employees this year. The bill includes $8.3 billion for the FBI to fight crime and protect the nation from further terrorist attacks and expands the FBI's capability to investigate and attribute cyber intrusions, which the new Director has identified as his biggest challenge. In addition, there is $1 million for an independent review and report to Congress to be conducted by an outside commission to look at progress made over the last decade on the implementation the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission as well as to look at how the FBI is responding to the evolving threat of terrorism, including the threat from domestic radicalization. I expect the FBI to support this important effort by ensuring that the review has the independence, flexibility and resources necessary to produce an excellent and unbiased report to the Congress. The bill establishes the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections to develop practical, data-driven policy options to increase public safety, reduce recidivism, and control the growth of spending on corrections. In the Department of Commerce, the bill includes funding for the National Weather Service to provide critical weather information to the public. We need to enhance efforts to bring good jobs back to America, especially manufacturing jobs. This bill continues a job repatriation task force established last year, and includes grant funding to enable encourage repatriations. It also calls on the department to hold a national repatriation conference this year, and I appreciate Secretary Priztker's proactive leadership in coordinating this conference. The bill includes important funding for fundamental scientific research. $7.2 billion is included for the NSF. NIST research activities receive $850 million, an increase of $42 million. Finally, the bill includes $17.65 billion for NASA, including funding for America's next generation Space Launch System and the Orion Crew Vehicle as well as full funding for cutting edge aeronautics research to keep America competitive. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Winchester City Sheriff Lenny Millholland who retired on December 31, 2013. Sheriff Millholland has served the city of Winchester since 1979. He began his career in law enforcement in Cumberland, Maryland, where he worked for two years in the sheriff's office before accepting a position with the Winchester Police Department. After reaching the rank of lieutenant, he ran for city sheriff taking office in 2002--a particularly challenging time in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. A graduate of the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Training Academy, the Maryland State Police K9 Academy, FBI National Academy Session 188, and the National Sheriff's Institute in Longmont, Colorado, his record of law enforcement training is impressive. Additionally, over the course of his term as sheriff, he was appointed to several committees and boards that serve law enforcement and local non-profit organizations. He is also a past president of the Virginia Sheriff's Institute, which trains sheriffs in Virginia, and was recently honored by the Horseshoe Curve Benevolent Association for his outstanding service to the community. I have had the privilege of knowing and working with Lenny many times over the years. He has been a committed public servant to the Shenandoah Valley and I wish him all the best in his retirement. I submit the following Winchester Star article on Sheriff Millholland's exceptional career of service to the Winchester community. [From the Winchester Star, Dec. 30, 2013] Retiring Sheriff Ready To Relax, See What Comes (By Melissa Boughton) Winchester, VA.--Lenny Milholland has one more day on the job as city sheriff, then he plans to lie low and see what the future holds. ``I just want to see if I like retirement first,'' he said Friday when asked what was next for the veteran law enforcement officer. The 56-year-old Democrat announced in April that he would not seek a fourth term as Winchester city sheriff. He officially leaves his post Tuesday. Taking over the position is Republican Les Taylor, who defeated Democrat Leonard Bauserman in the Nov. 5 election. His first day on the job is Wednesday. ``It's been a good ride, it truly has,'' said Millholland, who has served as city sheriff since 2002. ``And my people have been the best.'' He has no shortage of compliments for his staff and those who work in the Joint Judicial Center at 5 N. Kent St. In fact, Millholland said, if he had one piece of advice for his successor, it would be to treat the employees at the courthouse right, especially the Winchester Sheriff's Office deputies. ``They are an extension of you,'' he said. The city sheriff's office is responsible for security at the Joint Judicial Center and warrant service within the city, among myriad other duties. Never without a smile, Millholland has been a fixture in local law enforcement since 1979, when he joined the Winchester Police Department as a patrol officer. On Friday, he sat back in his chair and reminisced about applying for the job. ``I opened up the Cumberland (Md.) Times and it said `police officer wanted.' '' He got the job, and the rest is history. Millholland's law enforcement career began in Cumberland, Md., where he worked for two years in the Sheriff's Office. In Winchester, he was a patrol officer until May 1988, when he and his canine were stabbed with a Samurai sword while responding to an incident on Cameron Street. The dog, Apollo, eventually had to be put down, and Millholland's injuries required dozens of stitches. Millholland returned to work the next day but moved to the Criminal Investigations Division, where he stayed until 1998, when he attended the FBI Academy. Two promotions later, Millholland, then a lieutenant, decided to run for city sheriff. ``I was involved in a department shooting and it affected the way that I looked at a lot of things,'' he said. Millholland took office as city sheriff in 2002 and got right to work. ``It was right after 9/11, so you had a whole different way people viewed security,'' he said. ``We didn't have metal detectors, we didn't have X-ray machines--if you wanted to come into [the courthouse], you just came in.'' Millholland made the security at the Joint Judicial Center what it is today, with X-ray machines, metal detectors and wands for deputies to search people when necessary. ``I think my biggest goal was to make sure that nothing happened at the courthouse under my watch,'' he said. ``And I've got three more days to make sure that comes to fruition.'' He added that another major goal he had when he took office was to treat everyone he worked with well. ``It's all about the people you meet along the way,'' Millholland said. His most memorable moments on the job were when ``his guys'' received rewards and accolades for their work, he said. ``It's a great office, it's a great group of people,'' Millholland said, adding that he hopes the office will keep progressing under the new leadership. Millholland said a lot of people have asked him about his plans for the future, but a recent medical issue has made everything uncertain. Though he didn't elaborate, his doctor told him he was ``pretty lucky.'' ``It makes you wonder how short life can be,'' Millholland said. He added that many of the people he used to have dealings with, including former Winchester Circuit Court Clerk Mike Foreman, have died, and that he realizes he could have been one of them. ``[Mike Foreman, before he died,] told me to get out while I could still remember why I wanted out, and while I could still do something else.'' Known for his jovial, larger-than-life personality and enthusiastic community involvement, Millholland smiled when asked if he plans to take a post-retirement vacation. ``Me and Santa Claus are probably going to go find someplace warm and stay there for a while,'' he joked.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a letter a Washington Post obituary commemorating the life and legacy of Richard Williamson who passed away this weekend at the age of 64. I had the distinct privilege of working with Rich on a myriad of issues, including Sudan. Rich had a keen understanding of the issues marked by a welcome sense of moral clarity. His advice and counsel were reliably sound. Many will mourn his loss, not the least of which are the Sudanese people whose basic human rights he championed. [From the Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2013] Richard Williamson, R.I.P (By Jennifer Rubin) Richard S. Williamson was not a household name, but for decades he was a tireless public servant and resolute defender of America's national security. He passed away suddenly this weekend; he was 64. A release from the McCain Institute recounts, ``He was involved in a wide variety of civic organizations, including serving as a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, as senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and as a trustee of Freedom House. Williamson was also Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Reagan White House, Ambassador to the United Nations Offices in Vienna (including the International Atomic Energy Agency), Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, Ambassador to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs, Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Republican Party's nominee for U.S. Senate in 1993.'' While he lost that Senate race to Carol Moseley Braun, he was an accomplished lawyer, author and speaker. I came to know Richard in his capacity as a senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008 and Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. He was a staunch advocate for his candidates, and beyond that for the principle that foreign policy is the most critical aspect of any presidency and therefore must be a topic of debate in presidential elections. When other policy advisers pleaded to downplay foreign policy, Richard insisted it deserved a full airing. Many of the positions he helped his candidates articulate--the danger of Russian aggression, the Obama administration's duplicity in Libya, the rise of the Iran- Syria axis, the need for adequate national security spending and the need to speak boldly on behalf of human rights--have proved entirely accurate. The country would have been greatly served had he returned to public office. In the hurly-burly of a presidential campaign Richard was unflappable, honest and gracious treasured qualities in a public servant. In the best sense of the phrase, he was an old-school gentleman. Elliott Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser who knew Richard well, e-mails: ``Rich Williamson was a happy warrior. He was an unflappable soldier of freedom, serving several Republican presidents in the Cold War and then the war against terror, and always, always, in the peaceful but often very rough battle against the Democrats. His ready smile, his sharp political instincts, and his dedication to public service will be long remembered.'' He adds, ``In politics there's a lot of ego and self promotion, but Rich was there to help the party and serve the nation. In the next Republican administration he would have had a very senior foreign policy position, and when that day comes we will miss his counsel, his calm, and his unchanging good humor. He was a wonderful man.'' His passing reminds us how essential a strong foreign policy is to the country's well-being. He stood up for a strong America, one that leads the Free World. In addition to conservative groups, including the RNC, which have remarked on his passing, I would hope in the near future our current U.N. ambassador and others in the elite foreign policy establishment who knew him well will honor his achievements. He, as they know, was never one to put partisanship above country. He will be missed.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Judge Thomas D. Horne, an integral member of Loudoun County's justice system for more than three decades, who retired at the beginning of this month. Judge Horne graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1965 and went on to attend William and Mary Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1969. He began his career as a judge advocate for the Marines and in 1979, his love of the courtroom led him to become the county's first elected commonwealth's attorney. In 1982, he was appointed to the Loudoun Circuit Court and since then has heard some of Loudoun's most prominent cases, including the 2002 first-degree murder trial of Claire Schwartz, who was found guilty of killing her father, as well as the nation's first ``spam'' case involving email advertisements. Although he is one Virginia's most respected circuit court judges and described by his colleagues a ``the epitome of fairness''--his leadership extends far beyond the courtroom. He helped create a bench book for judges in Virginia, which has become an indispensable resource for those involved in the legal profession. Additionally, he spearheaded the nation's first victim-witness program and started a week-long law camp mentoring teenagers interested in law. Outside of the legal realm, Judge Horne serves his community in other ways. In the 1980's he played an important role in the development of youth soccer programs in Loudoun and later formed the Loudoun County Youth Lacrosse League. I have had the privilege of knowing Tom for many years. I hope that he enjoys retirement with his wife, Patricia, and their children, Rob and Jennifer, and grandchildren, knowing that he has been a pillar of the Loudoun community for decades. I wish him all the best and thank him for his outstanding service, both inside and outside of the courtroom. I submit the following Leesburg Today article on Judge Horne's remarkable accomplishments. [From the Leesburg Today, Dec. 5, 2013] The Epitome of Fairness': Horne Retires, After Three Decades On Loudoun Bench (By Erika Jacobson Moore) Sitting in his office at the Loudoun County Courthouse, Judge Thomas D. Horne is reminiscing about his high school football coach in Baltimore. After being cut during tryouts for other sports, Horne saw a flyer about a meeting for football. So he went. There, coach George Young--a future New York Giants general manager and NFL vice president--told the group, ``I won't cut you. You'll cut yourself.'' Horne joined the football team and Young became a mentor to the teenager. Then, when it came time for Horne to consider college, Young stepped up. ``I didn't have any money, but every weekend he took me to see schools,'' Horne remembered. That was when Horne first learned anything about Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. ``I didn't know what it was. I thought it must have been in Germany somewhere. But he said, `This is the school for you.' So I went.'' It was his time at Muhlenberg that put Horne on the path that eventually led him to Loudoun, where he spent more than three decades as a cornerstone in the county's legal system. ``The point is: you can make a difference in someone else's life. And you should,'' he said. It is with that philosophy that Horne has approached his life and more than 30 years on the bench in Loudoun's courtrooms. This week marks the first time since the late 1970s that Horne is not a formal part of Loudoun's legal landscape. Horne retired from the bench Dec. 1, a result of the Virginia requirement that judges retire when they reach age 70. He plans to continue on a part-time basis after the New Year until the General Assembly appoints his replacement. ``I try to set an attitude in the courtroom that respects everybody,'' he said. ``You have to make people understand that you are listening. That is sometimes all people want.'' Known for often taking cases ``under advisement'' before issuing an opinion or ruling, Horne said that is intentional--designed to give him time to really examine the arguments and consider both sides. ``You have to be able to look at things objectively . . . people can disagree with whether you came up with the right or wrong answer, that's one of the great things about this system. But you have to take the time,'' he said, adding with a laugh, ``Of course, I always think I came up with the right answer.'' Horne's strides to ensure fairness and compassion were always present in his courtroom, according to those who have watched his career. Leesburg attorney Rhonda Paice, who credits Horne with her decision to become a lawyer, said Horne is ``the epitome of everything I thought was right with that [legal] profession.'' In high school, Paice shadowed Horne when he was an assistant commonwealth's attorney and then worked as his courtroom clerk the summer after she graduated from college in 1983. ``He was an extremely skilled trial attorney,'' she recalled. ``He was very polished in the courtroom. But he never really took advantage. ``Everything he did as a prosecutor it was really him thinking, is this furthering the ends of justice? He was just really advanced at walking the line between doing his job as a prosecutor, but doing it in the right circumstances and giving people a break when they needed it.'' Bill Mims, who was elected to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia in 2010, practiced law in front of Horne when he was an attorney in Loudoun, and echoed those sentiments. In an email, Mims harkened back to the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who said, ``Justice is fairness.'' ``Judge Horne is the epitome of fairness,'' Mims wrote. ``He always applies the law faithfully, but also with equity. A judge can receive no higher praise.'' Clerk of the Circuit Court Gary Clemens first met Horne in the early 1990s, when he was a witness in a domestic case. ``Even at that point I was very impressed with his demeanor, his compassion and actual interest in the people who were before him with a court proceeding,'' Clemens said. When Clemens became an investigator with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office a few years later, he began spending more time in Horne's courtroom. ``You could tell he had respect for everyone who appeared before him, even the criminal defendants,'' he said. ``He ensured those rights were upheld. You could tell that with the way he was talking and how he treated them he wasn't really judging them, he was just upholding the law and applying the law.'' The Loudoun Circuit Court has been stretched this year with Horne and Judge Burke F. McCahill picking up additional cases after the General Assembly failed to appoint a replacement for Judge James Chamblin, who retired in April. Judge Stephen E. Sincavage was appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell this summer, but must be confirmed by the state legislature in the upcoming session. Even with the additional work in his final year, a week before his retirement Horne said he was in position to have everything on his docket completed before he left. That comes as no surprise to the people who know him best, many who touted his work ethic on the bench. Clemens says there are many nights when Horne would be the last one working in the courthouse, ``sometimes as late as 8 p.m. and I would go down the hall and his light is on and he is in there. ``He just has that commitment to the profession,'' Clemens said. ``Most importantly it was his commitment to the people involved. These were people with a very important issue in their lives and he realized that. So he was willing to work very late at night or even come in on the weekends.'' After graduating from Muhlenberg in 1965, Horne went to the College of William and Mary, earning his law degree in 1969 and then serving as a judge advocate in the Marines. Eventually, Horne and his family moved to Leesburg. ``At the start of my career, it was a completely different place,'' he said, recalling his practice was set up in a building with doctors' offices and he ``always had pregnant women and people with eye problems dropping in accidentally.'' Horne served as an assistant commonwealth's attorney in the 1970s--it was a part-time position so he kept his private practice as well. ``You were on a first-name basis with everyone,'' he said. ``But in 1972, Leesburg was still a fairly closed society. The newspaper was still really a society column, about who was vacationing . . . and I'm just a guy who moved here from Reston with my family.'' In 1979, he campaigned to be the county's first elected commonwealth's attorney. Horne said he felt drawn to public service. ``I love the courtroom. I love the challenge of the courtroom,'' he said. Former Clerk of the Court Fred Howard first got to know Horne during that 1979 campaign, and he recalls Horne's commitment coming through as he campaigned. ``He walked all the way across Loudoun County,'' Howard said. ``He would stop and do campaign stops along the way, but he walked the entire county. I even wrote a song for his campaign . . . he walked `from the hills of Northern Loudoun to the plains of Sterling Park'.'' After Horne was elected Commonwealth's Attorney, Howard said he always was struck by how dedicated to the legal process he was, with one case coming to mind immediately. A man had been charged with breaking and entering, but said he was innocent because he had been at McDonald's at the time of the crime--even going so far as to say what he ate. Horne went back and checked the man's alibi, finding out that the day of the crime was the only day that restaurant had ever been closed. ``He was always very thorough,'' Howard recalled. ``The look on that boy's face was priceless.'' Since being appointed to the Loudoun Circuit Court in 1982, Horne has presided over some of Loudoun's most well known cases--from one of the earliest ``shaken baby'' manslaughter cases in 1995, which ended in a mistrial and resulted in a guilty plea to a child abuse charge, to the 2002 first-degree murder trial of Clara Schwartz, who was found guilty of killing her father and luring two men into the plot. He also heard the first SPAM case in the country, where he sentenced a North Carolina man to prison for flooding AOL accounts with thousands of bulk email advertisements. The case was tried in Loudoun because AOL is located in the county. The Virginia Supreme Court later deemed the anti-spam statute in the Virginia State Code unconstitutional, something Horne had called into question when imposing his sentence. There was the 1999 case where the ability of the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority, which is made up of representatives of Maryland, Virginia and DC, to condemn land in Virginia was challenged. ``That was interesting,'' Horne said, ``because it involved the Compact Clause of the Constitution.'' The Compact Clause states that without the consent of Congress no state can enter into an agreement or compact with another state. ``Whoever thought I would be hearing a case like that here in Loudoun County?'' Horne said with a smile. And then, of course, for years, Horne has heard land use case after land use case as Loudoun's development ramped up. ``In the early 2000s there was always some sort of land use case on the docket,'' he said. And many of them brought up complicated legal questions, and involved multiple plaintiffs. He handled legal challenges that resulted from a large- scale Board of Supervisors-initiated downzoning. ``You're working on rezonings with 200 plaintiffs and all these lawyers at the top of their game and it's just you,'' Horne said, acknowledging he appreciates ``good lawyering'' in his courtroom. Domestic relations cases were always a staple of Horne's docket, including divorce and child custody cases. In those, he often got the ``greatest satisfaction'' because ``in some of these cases the parents are just litigating constantly.'' ``It's when I hear from one of those kids and they say they have bonded again with both parents that I get such a sense of satisfaction,'' he said, recalling one case in particular, in which a wife did not want her husband to have any contact with their children. The father was going overseas to Iraq and ``I was able to create a moment'' for the father and his children, Horne recalled. ``He ended up going over there and he was killed. And that was the last moment they had together.'' Horne's influence in the courtroom stretches beyond Leesburg, as well. He was an integral part of the effort to create the bench book for judges in the commonwealth. The book serves as a reference for judges, attorneys and other members of the legal profession. He also worked on the judicial boundary realignment that benchmarks how many judges are needed in Virginia, and in specific localities, based on the number of case hours worked, the number of cases and how many judges are needed to handle the total. The document easily makes the case, Horne said, for the need to fill his position quickly, and to add a fourth judge in the circuit court in Loudoun. Horne recalled how he recently had someone tell him they had never seen him get upset until he had to tell someone that he could not hear their case. ``We just don't have the manpower,'' he said of Loudoun's Circuit Court. The ability to make a difference also drove Horne's work outside the courtroom. As a prosecutor he helped start the county's victim-witness program, the first of its kind in the nation. ``You are trying to bring [victims] a sense of closure. That is really what this is all about; you're trying to reach that closure for people,'' he said. More than a dozen years ago, he started Law Camp for high school students in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which brings lawyers together to train students to conduct moot court trials, give speeches and hear from guest speakers. Paice recalled being called into Horne's office with a couple other attorneys. He said, I have this idea and I want to do this camp, a sleepover that will last a week, and we'll have lawyers who will mentor [teenagers] and then Friday they will try a case,'' Paice said. ``We all sort of looked at each other like, you want to what now? He said he thought it was a worthwhile project for the Loudoun Bar. He thought the legal profession gets a bad rap, and it can be hard for kids to see how much good lawyers can do. He said, `I think that is a really good program to showcase the things that lawyers do in the community.' '' Ian Duggan, a Loudoun Valley High School graduate, participated in law camp in 2002. Now a JAG serving in Turkey, he credits his interest in law directly to his interactions with Horne. Duggan first met Horne in the eighth grade, when Horne was coaching him in lacrosse and ``knew [Horne] had a passion for the law.'' Then when he got into high school and participated in law camp, it further spurred his interest in the legal profession. ``Looking at him as a lawyer, he is a good example of what you want to be,'' Duggan said in a phone interview from Turkey. ``I saw the way people respected him. He did a good job of bringing a lot of people from the Bar out and supporting the effort. Not many people could do that.'' Horne, along with McCahill, also presided over Loudoun's Drug Court until the Board of Supervisors cut its funding last year. A common target for budget cuts before it was eliminated in 2012, Horne often spoke passionately about the program and the impact it can have, telling supervisors in 2009 that he would ``rather take home hours of homework'' than see the program cut. He calls his work for the community ``an extension of being a judge.'' ``I tell the new judges--that is my advice--don't go and hide. Don't sit up on high. Be out in the community; get out with people. Yes, you have your judicial ethics, and you don't talk about your cases, but you need to talk with people, and know them and understand them. You need to understand people,'' he said. And Horne's influence on Loudoun's community stretches far beyond the legal system. In the early 1980s, he helped youth soccer form in the county, and at the end of that decade he formed the Loudoun County Youth Lacrosse League. The sport was one of his passions growing up, and one he passed on to his son, Rob. ``I distinctly remember our first catch, I had my baseball mitt and then we would trade off [with the lacrosse stick],'' Rob Horne said. ``I really took to it very quickly. I think he saw how passionate I was about the sport, and he wanted to provide me with an outlet . . . and in 1989 he founded lacrosse in the county.'' Rob Horne said his father is his hero, in no small part because of his passion for his community and his ability to be just as passionate about his family. Growing up the son of a judge, Rob Horne always faced questions about a perceived strict household. ``[My friends] thought that things were incredibly strict and heavy handed in our house. They were not,'' he said. ``My father had an amazing ability to leave the office, the courthouse, behind. He never carried any of that baggage home.'' In addition to his dedication to youth sports, Horne is a former Boy Scouts cub master, Loudoun County High School PTA president and the first chairman of Loudoun County High School's all-night, drug-free graduation organizing committee. ``He has this selfless approach that he has taken throughout his adult life in all facets of our community,'' the younger Horne, now a teacher at Middleburg Academy, said. ``It is this inexhaustible energy that he has. That is something that I have really tried to draw from him. When you undertake an endeavor, you really see it through. Be passionate about what it is that you do, either professionally or in some extracurricular activity.'' Beyond the tangible work Horne does in Loudoun that will be absent with his retirement, it is the intangible that will be impossible to replace. ``I have dreaded 2013 for so long,'' Paice said. ``I have always had a feeling that as long as he was in that courthouse justice was going to be done, whether it was in front of him or not. Divorce, criminal, land use, he was going to be there to be sure that justice was done. And he is not going to be there. It is totally an end of an era for this community.'' Duggan, who also worked for him as a law clerk one summer, said one of the things Horne worked to instill in him was the importance of people--something he tries to remember every day he works as an attorney. Duggan said he has an ``indelible mark'' on him of Horne placing his hands on his shoulders and telling him: ``The law programs, the buildings they are all great, but at the end of the day it is the people that really make the system work . . . it doesn't matter if you don't have the right people.''

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the 15-month anniversary of the Benghazi attack. Once again, another anniversary has come and gone with no new answers about what happened that night or just what so many Americans, reportedly around two dozen, were doing at a secret CIA base in Benghazi to begin with. Another anniversary has come and gone with no new public hearings. By my count, the last public hearing was held on September 18, nearly 3 months ago, and no new public hearings are being held. The keyword is ``public.'' But perhaps most important, another anniversary has come and gone with absolutely no one being held responsible for the security and intelligence failures leading up to the attack, and no one has been brought to justice. And despite several recent developments related to the Benghazi investigation, practically nothing has been done in Congress to address them. First, we have recently learned that CIA Director John Brennan distorted the facts in letters to the House Intelligence Committee and me when he claimed that Benghazi survivors were not made to sign new nondisclosure agreements. Another major development is a November 24 article published by Breitbart reporting surprising new comments by Kevin Kolbye, the FBI's lead investigator for Benghazi, who stated for the first time that the FBI arrived on the scene in Benghazi within days, not weeks, of the attack. According to the article by Kerry Picket: The Washington Post reported that while the FBI had legats in Algiers and Cairo, a team of FBI investigators could not get into Benghazi 2 days after the attack. Kolbye disputes this. ``We were there,'' he said. Is Agent Kolbye correct? Was the FBI secretly on the ground in Benghazi within days of the attack? If so, why is this being kept from the public? Once again, the Congress should know and, to my knowledge, has never asked Agent Kolbye to testify. Equally important, why is it that we are learning additional comments before a paid audience of $400 a ticket? You had to pay $400 to hear this guy speak, but he has never spoken for free to the American people. This is just like when the American people heard new information about that night from retired General Ham when he appeared at a big-ticket event in Aspen. The American people did not hear. If you paid the money in Aspen, you got to hear. I guess there was no need to tell the Congress and the public what happened that night since paid audiences will hear through conferences, through books, and maybe even a movie. Finally, I return to my concerns first raised on the House floor in July that the large CIA base in Benghazi may have been used to support covert operations with regard to Syria, including the possible transfer of weapons collected in Libya to Syrian rebels, possibly in coordination with third parties of foreign countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. These concerns need to be addressed now more than ever after reports yesterday that both the U.S. and the United Kingdom have cut off support to rebels in northern Syria along the Turkish border after the Islamic front, a coalition of jihadi extremist fighters, overran bases run by the Free Syrian Army and seized their weapons and resources. According to a report from the BBC yesterday, the U.S. and European countries have reportedly facilitated secret arms shipments to Syrian rebels, allegedly including antiaircraft weapons commonly referred to as ``MANPADS,'' just like the weapons collected in Libya over the last 2 years. A separate Washington Post article stated: A covert CIA program providing lethal aid to the rebels, consisting mostly of small arms and ammunition channeled to southern Syria through Jordan, would continue unchanged. It is particularly noteworthy that during the same period of time the CIA was operating in Benghazi and U.S. weapons collection in Libya were underway, respected national security reporter Mark Hosenball wrote August 1, 2012: President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, U.S. sources familiar with the matter said. Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence ``finding,'' broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad. Hosenball continued: A U.S. Government source acknowledged that under provisions of the Presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies. NBC said the shoulder-fired missiles, also known as MANPADS, had been delivered to the rebels via Turkey. Are these the same secret arms shipments that were just seized by the Islamic extremists in northern Syria? Have these weapons, transferred with alleged U.S. covert support, been used to kill innocent civilians, Christians, and Muslims? Don't the American people have a right to know if their tax dollars are being spent to supply Islamic extremists with weapons to use against Christians and Muslims? We need a select committee. The current process is not working. It is time for the administration and the Congress to say what the CIA was doing in Benghazi and elsewhere around Syria. A Wall Street Journal article from August detailed just how closely Saudi Arabia was working with the CIA to train and arm Syrian rebels, despite some concerns that the weapons could fall in the hands of the extremists. It appears those concerns are coming true, but the American people still aren't being told the truth about the U.S. role in arming the Syrians and the role of the CIA base in Benghazi. It's time for answers. It's time for a select committee on Benghazi.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. I thank the chair. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of legislation I have cosponsored, the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act. I particularly want to thank the bill sponsors, Gregg Harper, Eric Cantor, and Mr. Welch of Vermont, for honoring the memory of my constituent, Gabriella Miller, Loudoun County's volunteer of the year. Gabriella was a 10-year-old straight A student at Loudoun County Day School, who died on October 26 after a courageous 1-year battle with an inoperable brain cancer tumor. In a short amount of time, they achieved many goals. She started the Smashing Walnuts Foundation--which refers to the walnut-sized tumor in her brain--a childhood cancer foundation; she co-wrote a children's book and received an honorary degree from Shenandoah University out in Winchester, Virginia. Last December at her request I wrote to Macy's as part of the massive 250,000 letter campaign she organized to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Gabriella raised a lot of money, and more importantly she touched a lot of lives; and I am sure she touched a lot of lives of Members who are in this body. The bill before us today will help supplement existing NIH research efforts for childhood cancers and disorders by creating a 10-year pediatric research initiative fund, paid for with the remaining Presidential Election Campaign Fund. I know her parents, Mark and Ellyn, who are with us here today. Her younger brother Jake and her family and friends know of the remarkable impact she has had on our community, on our country, and on families that are facing this nationwide. I urge, hopefully, a unanimous vote on this.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a letter I sent last week to Attorney General Eric Holder, my fourth this year on the topic (I also submit the previous four), pressing him and the Department of Justice to prioritize combatting sex trafficking on the Internet. I specifically highlighted the Web site Backpage.com, which time and again has been proven to be a conduit for the buying and selling of human beings, including minors. My letter was prompted by a Washington Post article, which I also submit for the Record, which details the exploitation of a young local girl on Backpage.com. Attorney General Holder has failed to shut down or even publicly shame Backpage.com, one of the major vehicles for trafficking in this country. Enough is enough. I am not going to drop this issue until every mother and father in this nation has the peace of mind that our government is doing everything it can to confront this criminal enterprise. Backpage.com is profiting from the sexual exploitation of minors. This must not be permitted to continue. December 6, 2013. Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Dear Attorney General Holder: The lead article in the Metro section of today's Washington Post provided yet another sad account of a young girl being sexually trafficked on the Web site Backpage.com. What makes it even more tragic is that the alleged pimp is a D.C. police officer. Enclosed is a copy of the article. I marked the reference to Backpage.com. For five years, I have been asking you and your department to deal with this problem. You have given a lot of speeches, but have you ever even publicly called out Backpage.com for its critical role in facilitating sex trafficking? When are you and your department going to get serious about solving this problem? How many more young girls are going to become victims before the department deals with this? From now on, I'm going to hold you personally accountable for each victim trafficked on that Web site--each someone's daughter, sister, or mother. I'm asking you--not as attorney general but as a father--to use your remaining time in office to find a way to end Backpage.com's trafficking of young girls and women. Best wishes, Sincerely, Frank R. Wolf, Member of Congress.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of The Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, a Virginia-based 501(c)(3), non-profit, non- partisan organization, established in 2004 to provide severely wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families, with emergency financial assistance and other support services to help them recover from their injuries and rebuild their lives. CSAH is headquartered in Leesburg, which in my Congressional district in Loudoun County, and serves military veterans and their families living in the Commonwealth as well as nationally. All funds needed to develop and manage programs that advance its mission come from contributions to CSAH by individual citizens, corporate donors and foundations. The mission of the Coalition is to ensure that our war-weary nation should not lose sight of its obligations to those who are protecting our freedoms. These true American heroes often receive little or no support from the nation for which they sacrificed so much. Because of a shortage of funding and an interminable bureaucratic backlog at the Veterans Administration, they wait for roughly a year, on average, to receive disability pay and benefits. Thousands do not get proper care for PTSD because it is largely misunderstood. Under the leadership of David Walker, who serves as President and CEO, the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes helps severely wounded veterans and families of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom living in the Commonwealth of Virginia and across the country recover from their injuries and illnesses by providing emergency financial aid and other support services, in hopes that the veterans are able to transition successfully into civilian life. Additionally, the Coalition's emergency aid services responds to trends associated with suicide among veterans (24 per day), a sky-rocking divorce rate (60 percent among actives), and growing domestic abuse. Last year as one of his first acts, Walker restructured The Coalition's budget so that it could give more directly to veterans and organizations that support them, with programs that include: emergency financial aid to help through crisis situations (evictions, car repossessions, etc.); training seminars; a call center program to provide veterans and spouses the opportunity to work on a part-time basis (some of the program's participants have moved on to part-time or full-time employment in the private sector); equine-therapy programs and more. In 2013 alone, the Coalition will have donated nearly $1 million in direct aid to veterans, in addition to managing the many other CSAH programs that are available to wounded veterans (conferences, holiday gift checks, education and training, etc.). The Coalition has made eight grants totaling over $80,000 to organizations based in Virginia and Washington, D.C., including: Horses Helping Heroes Project, which provides no-cost, equine-assisted activities and therapies for wounded veterans in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia; Institute for Veterans Education and Training (IVET), which offers week-long training programs for veterans and their spouses; over $50,000 to complete the construction of transitional housing for formerly homeless veterans living in Washington, D.C.; Final Salute, Inc., to provide safe and suitable transitional housing for homeless female veterans; Boulder Crest Retreat in Bluemont, VA, a new retreat for veterans seeking physical, mental and spiritual recovery from the wounds of war; Dog Tag Bakery, a not-for-profit venture dedicated to helping wounded veterans re-assimilate to civilian life by providing on-the-job bakery training and a tailor-made curriculum at the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University; etc. In addition, this year, The Coalition was nominated for the Virginia First Lady's Opportunity Hall of Fame Awards, which recognizes leading Virginia nonprofits. In April 2013, WTOP radio (CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.) commended The Coalition by calling it a key resource responding to the problem of the growing back-log of U.S. Veterans Administration disability claims (which can take on average up to one year before veterans receive their disability payments). Virginia has a proud tradition of military service to our nation, and is the grateful home of millions of veterans and their families. I am especially proud of the work of the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes and the work it is doing to fill a terrible void in our society. I commend The Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, which honors and remembers our heroes by helping them transition into civilian life so they may prosper.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, a profound 3-hour debate took place in the House of Commons on the persecution of Christians globally. Multiple British parliamentarians argued with great passion and persuasion that this is the human rights issue of our day and one which demands great attention on the part of the British Government, and the West more broadly. In some respect, it is a sad commentary that such a conversation was remarkable, and yet it was. When was the last time this body, this Congress, let alone this administration or the State Department, spent even a fraction of that time talking about the thousands of people of faith who daily face discrimination, persecution, violence, and even death simply because of their most deeply held beliefs? It is worth noting that several weeks earlier the House of Commons had a debate on the persecution of Christians, specifically in the Middle East. There was an overwhelming number of speakers, too many more than the allotted time. This week's debate starts to satisfy that interest. In comparison, we have before us relatively modest legislation that has languished in the Senate for two consecutive Congresses now which would create a special envoy within the U.S. Department of State charged with advocating for vulnerable religious minorities in the Middle East and east Central Asia. How do we explain the utter lack of urgency on the part of our own government to address an epic exodus, that of Christianity from its very birthplace? The House of Commons debate is timely, not simply because of the magnitude and pervasiveness of the problem, but also because millions of professing Christians around the world have just embarked on the Advent season in anticipation of celebrating the birth of Jesus, a birth marked by its humble beginnings in a small Middle Eastern town called Bethlehem. Yet, as British member of Parliament, Sir Tony Baldry, noted with a sad irony: There is now practically no country--from Morocco to Pakistan--in which Christians can freely practice their religion. He continued: There is a severe danger, as we start to celebrate the feast of Christmas in this country, that all Christianity will be almost completely erased from the traditional Middle East Holy Land of the Bible. Joseph would not now be advised to take Mary to Egypt to avoid the dangers of Herod, because Jesus would just not be safe there today. To follow on Sir Baldry's line of thinking, the patriarch Abraham would also have a difficult time surviving in Iraq having come from Ur, which is now Nasiriyah. Jonah would be hard pressed to make it to Nineveh, and Paul could scarcely travel the road to Damascus in Syria. The debate in the House of Commons began with a staggering statistic, namely, that one Christian is killed every 11 minutes somewhere on Earth for their faith. While the focus of the House of Commons' debate was on persecuted Christians, several MPs noted that whether or not you are a person of faith, all should be concerned by this troubling trend. Ultimately, freedom of religion and belief is a bellwether for other cherished freedoms. Where this ``first freedom'' is compromised, the whole of human rights is under assault. In country after country, freedom of religion is indeed compromised, and Christians, to borrow a phrase from history, are in the eye of the ``gathering storm.'' This is perhaps no more true than in the Middle East. Here we see governmental, societal, and communal violence and repression against religious communities which specifically targets religious minorities, including Christians. These realities have been exasperated by the so-called Arab Spring, a spring which has devolved into winter for many of the most vulnerable in these societies, foremost among them, ancient Christian communities. With the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Coptic Christians, numbering roughly 8 to 10 million, are leaving in droves in the face of increased repression, persecution, and violence. They were increasingly marginalized with the ascendency of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, recent events in Egypt indicate a rejection, in part, of the Brotherhood's approach, but the situation is fluid, and news reports indicate that Islamists are taking advantage of the unrest to target Coptic Christians. Similarly, Iraq's Christian population has plummeted. Churches have now been targeted, believers kidnapped for ransom, and families threatened with violence if they stay. During the debate in the House of Commons, Canon Andrew White, famously dubbed the ``Vicar of Baghdad'' as he oversees the only Anglican Church in Iraq, was quoted as saying that Christians ``are frightened even to walk to church because they might come under attack. All the churches are targets.'' He went on to say, ``We used to have 1.5 million Christians. Now we have probably only 200,000 left. There are more Iraqi Christians,'' he said, ``in Chicago than there are here.'' That is amazing. And this body, this Congress, this administration, silent. The issues I have just outlined must be viewed not simply as today's news but, rather, through the lens of history. A phrase not often heard outside of the majority Muslim world is ``First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.'' The ``Saturday people'' are, of course, the Jewish people. Except for Israel, the once vibrant communities and countries throughout the region are now decimated. In 1948, the Jewish population of Iraq was roughly 150,000. Today, no more than four individuals remain. In Egypt, the Jewish population was once as many as 80,000. Now roughly 20 remain. It appears a similar fate may await the ancient Christian community in these same lands. If the Middle East is effectively emptied of the Christian faith, this will have great geopolitical and, I would argue, spiritual implications. But rather than being met with urgency, vision, or creativity, our government's response has been anemic and, at times, outright baffling, especially to the communities most impacted by the changing Middle East landscape. Multiple other countries were mentioned during the House of Commons debate, including, but not limited to, China, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. And keep in mind, the Obama administration has not pushed Iran for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini. He sits in prison, his life is endangered, and this administration is silent. It was rightly noted, with some degree of irony, that, despite the blood spilt in Afghanistan by British and American forces alike, not a single church--not a single church--remains in that nation. One member of Parliament, Rehman Chishti, focused on the nation of Pakistan, where he was born. He said: I come from a Muslim background. My father was an imam. When I saw the topic was persecution of Christians in the 21st century, I knew that it was absolutely right and proper to have a debate on that subject. It is important for the world to realize that persecution goes on. He continued, and I quote: The Blasphemy law is at the root of much suffering and persecution of Christians in Pakistan. And then he specifically mentioned the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of six, who, for years, has languished in prison and faces the death penalty for her alleged crimes. Do you ever hear her name mentioned on the floor of the House? Do you ever hear her name mentioned at the State Department briefings? Do you ever hear her name mentioned at the White House? Does anyone even know who she is? Does anyone even care? She faces death, the death penalty, for her alleged crimes. Too often, when confronted with these types of cases, the State Department offers unsatisfactory assurances that they ``raised the issue'' during private bilateral discussions, that is, if they raised it at all. Or perhaps the Department issues a bland statement ``condemning the violence,'' and then acts as if this is somehow a courageous or principled response to a bloody assault on innocent human life. This State Department and this President ought to learn from President Reagan and his State Department. President Reagan always advocated for those who were persecuted. And Secretary Baker and the Bush administration always advocated. This administration is silent. And, quite frankly, this Congress, House, and Senate are silent. The suffering church takes little solace in this approach, nor should we. In fact, I profoundly reject this approach. The Congress should profoundly reject this approach. And I humbly submit, the church in the West should demand more, for, if not them, who? With a few notable exceptions, among them the Catholic Church, specifically, Cardinal Dolan, who, in his farewell address as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, beckoned the bishops to extend their efforts to the ``dramatic front lines of this battle, where Christians are paying for their fidelity with their lives.'' Too few in the American church are burdened with this point of action for their suffering brethren. Reverend Martin Luther King's ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail'' is addressed to his fellow--and everyone ought to read Martin Luther King's ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail.'' It was addressed to his fellow clergymen. Earlier in the letter, he speaks of his love for the church, a love that I share, but then he goes on to admonish his fellow clergymen. This is what Martin Luther King said: I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt I would be supported by the White church. I felt that the White ministers, priests, rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents. All too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows. Could we not substitute a few words and be left with a similar critique today? Might the imprisoned Pakistani Christian lament, ``I thought I would be supported by the church in the West''? Might the fearful Coptic Christians cry, ``I thought the ministers in America would be among our strongest allies''? If the church slumbers, Washington will scarcely lead the way. Do not expect the Congress or the administration to lead the way if the church does not lead the way. Advent is the season of expectant waiting rich and spiritual meaning for believers the world over. My prayer this Advent is that the suffering church would no longer suffer alone, and that we would stand with them and seek a day when, in the words of the beloved Christian carol, ``all oppression shall cease.'' Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.