Chris Van Hollen: “I want to salute my friend and colleague, the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Toomey, for his remarks and for his…”

“I want to salute my friend and colleague, the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Toomey, for his remarks and for his leadership on this very vital issue of standing up for the rights and freedom of people in Hong Kong and, as he said, sending a signal to others around the world who would seek to stamp out human rights and political freedom. When Senator Toomey and I saw that the Chinese Communist Party was taking its more recent steps to crack down on freedom in Hong Kong, we introduced the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. That act just passed the U.S. Senate unanimously last week and was sent to the House of Representatives. This is a very fast turnaround from either of the Chambers in the U.S. Congress. I want to thank Speaker Pelosi and her Republican partner and all the Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives for coming together so quickly on this legislation. The legislation before us made a technical fix to the bill that Senator Toomey and I introduced in which this Senate passed out last week a technical fix to comply with the constitutional requirements as to where a bill that might generate revenue begins. With that technical fix, Speaker Pelosi and the Republican leadership sent it right back. Why did they send it right back so quickly? Because this is an urgent moment. In fact, our timing could not be more critical. On Tuesday, President Xi imposed a national security law on Hong Kong by fiat.…”