Ed Royce: “In closing, I want to once again recognize our colleague, Ranking Member Eliot Engel, not only for authoring this bill…”

“In closing, I want to once again recognize our colleague, Ranking Member Eliot Engel, not only for authoring this bill, but, over the years, for raising this issue with his colleagues, with the President of the United States, with the media, and with the NGO community in order to try to get action. And I thank, also, other Members who contributed on this bill. Our committee, as Eliot has shared with you, has heard firsthand accounts of the suffering. I guess the one thing I would say is that the EU has finally been moved to take steps recently. We welcome those steps to sanction those within the Assad regime responsible for the brutal air campaign against innocent civilians in Aleppo. We heard firsthand accounts not only of the suffering, but we heard the testimony from Raed Saleh of the Syrian White Helmets. These are the doctors and the nurses and the volunteers who actually, when the bombs come, run toward the areas that have been hit in order to try to get the injured civilians medical treatment. They try to provide relief for these victims. They have lost over 600 doctors and nurses. Doctors and nurses come from all over the world to try to assist. When Mr. Engel told you about these bunker-buster bombs that are being dropped from the air, they are being dropped on civilians, but they are also being dropped on the hospitals. In Aleppo, there are six hospitals. Four of them have been destroyed.…”