Chris Smith

I am pleased to have introduced with Senator Rubio and Senator Cardin the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

The democratic aspirations of the people of Hong Kong cannot be indefinitely suppressed.

Maintaining Hong Kong's autonomy is a critical U.S. interest.

As long as I have the privilege of serving as chair of the China Commission, the House chair, I promise to continue shining a light on Hong Kong.

This new legislation, I want to thank Karen Bass, who is the principal cosponsor.

Thank you for your leadership on this committee, for the bipartisan way that you handle the issues, making sure that we work as a team.

It is bipartisan. It is named after Frederick Douglass.

I think that for the most part the Trafficking in Persons Office and the TIP Report gets it right.

If we create these new norms of understanding that this is not about child prostitution, that this is child rape and the perpetrators have to be treated accordingly, that is when we will see a shift.

If Tier 3 and the other tier rankings were simply an accurate assessment of the government's TIP performance, it wouldn't need to be dramatic or disruptive.

The reason that the State Department doesn't want to put countries on Tier 3 is because it is largely viewed as the pariah's club.

The law on the Federal level I think gets it right. We can always do more, but we need to be admonishing the States to comport to that definition as quickly as possible.

This new bill honors the extraordinary legacy of one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.

The politicized rankings such as Malaysia's upgrade in 2015... occurred because other interests prevailed over factual accounting.

I would also caution against this upcoming report being vindictive against those past years, right? Because that perpetuates the politicization of the report.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act authorizes $130 million over 4 years to prevent human trafficking.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership. I especially thank my good friend and colleague, Ms. Bass, for this resolution. Mr. Speaker, last August, my staff director Greg Simpkins and I visited Juba, South…

I want to give President Trump and his team an opportunity to build on the fact that the fighting in the two areas has ceased.

The stoppage in the fighting in the two areas has been a positive development and needs to be sustained.

President Trump should either amend the January 2017 Executive order lifting some sanctions or ask Congress to draft legislation.

I joined with a group of House and Senate members including one of our subcommittee's members, Congressman Meadows, in working with elements of the Sudanese Government in the eventually successful effort to vacate the sentence and allow…

A law that is unenforced is just sitting on the table. We need enforcement, and that is going to be my mantra going forward, I can assure you.

I hope the same thing happens on the Senate side, to begin an all-out effort to enforce the law, the U.S.

The Americans don't enforce their own law. There have been no sanctions meted out to any nation under the Obama administration, and that has got to change with this administration.