On the recordNovember 30, 2023
I appreciate the spirit of this amendment. I appreciate my colleague. I appreciate this bill, which I am supporting. I agree that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and I want nothing more than for them to be taken down. What I have not heard from my colleague within my party is all the good that has happened thanks to Qatar's efforts in the last few weeks. There is a whole lot of bad to talk about, but I didn't hear anything about the hostage negotiations that would not be happening without the people of Qatar, without the leadership there. I thank the Qatari leadership for helping us get those hostages out. A couple weeks ago, I had a family member of a 12-year-old boy in my office that said, Congressman, will you do anything you can? We are trying to get these hostages out. The people of Israel want them out, and we are not making any progress. What can you do? You know what I did? I went down to the Qatari Embassy. I sent someone down and said, I want to speak to you guys. We need some action. We need more efforts. We need more results. In the last week, what we have seen are hostages coming out of the Gaza strip. Now, there are those that say we shouldn't negotiate with terrorists. The people of Israel--and I defer to the Israelis on this matter because they are the ones living among these folks. They are saying they want these hostages back. They are saying they want to work with the Qataris in bringing them back. They have thanked them for their efforts.…
