On the recordApril 15, 2015
I address the House to discuss a number of concerns that I believe we need to confront as quickly as possible. Yesterday and today commemorate, sadly, the snatching of over 200 girls from northern Nigeria--the area in which the girls lost their innocence and their right to a good quality of life. It was in the dark of night when heinous thugs, armed with horrific weapons, burst into the dorm rooms of sleeping girls who were preparing to take exams to improve their lives. Their parents had worked hard. They were like any other parents here in the United States or around the world, loving their children; and these heinous thugs with their vile leader, Boko Haram, stole them--stole their innocence and, in a certain sense, their virginity. Now we are struggling to find them. For over a year, many of us pressed the Nigerian Government to find and bring back the girls. In the spring of 2014, I traveled to the northern state with my colleague Ms. Wilson and with my colleague from Texas, and we met with broken families and with the girls who had escaped. We saw the northern state. We were not welcomed by the words that we were saying, which was ``bring the girls back.'' We met with generals in our military. We saw our military's compassion under the Africa Command, and we saw that they were ready to be of assistance. Those generals, I must say, said that they were ready. In the course, Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people.…
