On the recordMay 20, 2020
I rise for two reasons: one, for a very short comment on political prisoners in foreign lands, and the other one on how the CARES Act is developing and the reaction to it. First of all, our country is now hopefully recovering from COVID-19, so I want to take this opportunity to address the plight of an extremely vulnerable population--political prisoners abroad. In Turkey, Syria, China, and a lot of other countries, political prisoners remain locked away in crowded prisons without adequate medical care. The spread of COVID-19 among this population dramatically increases the risk of serious medical consequences or even death. Authoritarian regimes only risk further destabilization of their countries by jailing the innocent. Political prisoners ought to be released, and they ought to be released now.
