Political Quotes

“As always, I thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their work in always bringing forth solid, bipartisan bills to the House floor. Mr. Speaker, I offer my full support for Ambassador Ann Wagner's bill before us today, H.R. 3030, the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, of which I am proud to be a cosponsor. This bill takes necessary and overdue steps to make preventing genocide and other atrocities a priority in our foreign policy. Indeed, this bill makes it clear that it will be the policy of the United States that the prevention of genocide and other atrocities is not only in our national security interests, but it is a core moral responsibility for us to do so. Far too often, these acts have been met with indifference, indifference from responsible nations and indifference from those who are not directly impacted by the mass murders and the torment and the destruction. Elie Wiesel, this bill's namesake, challenged us to always take sides, to not allow indifference or neutrality to dictate our actions. As he said, ``Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.'' Our values and ideals as Americans dictate that we must do what we can to prevent genocide, to prevent atrocities, and to prevent human rights violations. This bill enshrines those principles.…”