Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is the third time I have stood on the House floor to argue in favor of passing this bill, to argue that we need to dial up the pressure on the Assad regime; that we need to crack down on his enablers, namely, Iran and Russia; and that we need to push for a political solution that will end the years of horrific bloodshed. I made that case in November 2016, when the House unanimously passed a version of this bill. I did it again in May of 2017, and again it passed unanimously, only to languish in the other body for the rest of the Congress, stopped by one single Senator. In Syria, in the last 26 months that have come since the House first passed this bill, the suffering has continued. Over the last few weeks, in the Rukban refugee camp, 13 babies froze to death, and 50,000 more displaced people in this camp are at grave risk. They have nowhere else to go. Unchecked, the Assad regime will likely move in and massacre these innocent people. I could go on and on, detailing the horrors the Syrian people have endured at the hands of this butcher, Assad. I could describe the atrocities we saw in photographs smuggled out of Syria by Caesar, the government photographer who defected and after whom this bill is named. But after years of unremitting bloodshed, it is long past time for more talk about Syria. We need action, and my legislation would be an important step in the right direction.…”