Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to rise in support of Chris Smith's bill, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018. I again thank Chairman Royce and our esteemed ranking member, Eliot Engel, for their efforts in bringing this important and bipartisan bill to the floor. This commonsense bill authorizes Federal agencies to provide assistance to entities that are working to hold accountable those responsible for genocide, for crimes against humanity, and for war crimes in Iraq and Syria. Over the last 7 years, sadly, ISIS has explicitly targeted and murdered tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of religious and ethnic minorities, mostly Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. We need to ensure that the proper people are being held accountable by giving the administration all of the tools that it needs to coordinate with and support the organizations that can identify and can prosecute those responsible. In addition, Mr. Smith's bill prioritizes emergency assistance to these religious and ethnic minority groups that are targeted by ISIS and continue to face persecution. Syrians remain in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, of stabilization assistance. We must ensure that these religious and ethnic minorities are getting the help they desperately need. I thank my colleague, Chris Smith, such a strong human rights defender, for authoring this important bill and giving this authority to the administration.…”