Political Quotes

“I commend my colleague, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), for his passionate advocacy for the persecuted and for bringing this to our attention. I have had the opportunity to participate in the debate in the committee on this most important issue. I do think this bill is important for all of us in dealing with these tragedies. I stand before my colleagues in support of this legislation, knowing that religious persecution is a problem in this world. And we always have to remind ourselves why the United States of America was created. How did it get its roots? Why did people come to the United States? And let us always be respectful to all religions and all faiths and all beliefs in the world. Nearly 2 years ago I cosponsored House Resolution 515, condemning persecution of Christians worldwide. Since that time I have been closely involved in trying to craft better policies for us to address religious persecution worldwide. I wholeheartedly support the attention that this bill has brought to the issue and a number of its provisions, particularly in training our foreign service and immigration officers. Still, we have more progress to make to reach our goal of the most effective, comprehensive legislation possible. We must address, report on and respond to religious persecution not only at its most violent stage of rape, murder and torture as defined in this bill, but before it escalates to such terrible levels.”