Wendy Sherman: “Having no further speakers, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing. The bill before us…”

“Having no further speakers, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing. The bill before us represents a number of different bills in the Senate and the House, all of which have been blended together. All of these bills contain important complementary measures to counter one of the most important human rights violations of the present day, detention of over 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang Province of China. In particular, as chair of the Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation Subcommittee, back in February of last year, I joined with our ranking member, Ted Yoho, and Congressman Connolly and Congresswoman Wagner in introducing the Uighur Act. That legislation added to this bill the imposition of sanctions on individuals and entities found to have committed gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups and other persons in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. This bill, I should point out, is not one that just expresses the view of Congress; not one that just demands reports be issued by the State Department to refocus the world on what is going with the Uyghurs and others. This bill imposes sanctions on those responsible.…”