Ed Royce: “I would like to start by thanking Senator Nelson for advancing this measure through the other body. I would also like to…”

“I would like to start by thanking Senator Nelson for advancing this measure through the other body. I would also like to recognize the good work of Chairman Emeritus Ros-Lehtinen as well as Congressman Deutch for their companion resolution which passed this body in June with the unanimous support of our colleagues. The horrors wrought by the Nazi regime did not end when the prisoners finally walked out from behind the barbed wire fences in 1945. The aftereffects of Hitler's death camps still haunt the lives of those who remain. Tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors throughout the world live in poverty. The problem is staggering. There are 195,000 survivors and their families, according to the Registry of Holocaust Survivors, that remain. Most of those survivors, original survivors, are in their eighties today. The world loses 1,000 of those survivors every month. But today, more than one in four lack sufficient access to or funds for necessary medical, home care, mental health care, medicine, and transportation--essential tools which would allow them to live their final years in comfort and in dignity. For decades, Germany has instituted and funded a number of aid programs in recognition of its moral obligation to guarantee for those survivors--to guarantee--a chance at such a life.…”