[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 27, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9600-H9604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2017
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 390) to provide
emergency relief for victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and
war crimes in Iraq and Syria, for accountability for perpetrators of
these crimes, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the Senate amendments is as follows:
Senate amendments:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Iraq and Syria Genocide
Relief and Accountability Act of 2018''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Secretary of State of State declared on March 17,
2016, and on August 15, 2017, that Daesh (also known as the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS) is responsible for
genocide, crimes against humanity, and other atrocity crimes
against religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and
Syria, including Christians, Yezidis, and Shia, among other
religious and ethnic groups.
(2) According to the Department of State's annual reports
on international religious freedom--
(A) the number of Christians living in Iraq has dropped
from an estimated 800,000 to 1,400,000 in 2002 to fewer than
250,000 in 2017; and
(B) the number of Yezidis living in Iraq has fluctuated
from 500,000 in 2013, to between 350,000 and 400,000 in 2016,
and between 600,000 and 750,000 in 2017.
(3) The annual reports on international religious freedom
further suggest that--
(A) Christian communities living in Syria, which had
accounted for between 8 and 10 percent of Syria's total
population in 2010, are now ``considerably'' smaller as a
result of the civil war, and
[[Page H9601]]
(B) there was a population of approximately 80,000 Yezidis
before the commencement of the conflict in Syria.
(4) Local communities and entities have sought to mitigate
the impact of violence directed against religious and ethnic
minorities in Iraq and Syria, including the Chaldean Catholic
Archdiocese of Erbil (Kurdistan Region of Iraq), which has
used predominantly private funds to provide assistance to
internally displaced Christians, Yezidis, and Muslims
throughout the greater Erbil region, while significant needs
and diminishing resources have made it increasingly difficult
to continue these efforts.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
(C) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs of the Senate;
(D) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
(E) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate;
(F) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives;
(G) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives;
(H) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives;
(I) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives; and
(J) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the
House of Representatives.
(2) Foreign terrorist organization.--The term ``foreign
terrorist organization'' mean an organization designated by
the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization
pursuant to section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)).
(3) Humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs.--The
term ``humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs'',
with respect to an individual, includes water, sanitation,
hygiene, food security and nutrition, shelter and housing,
reconstruction, medical, education, psychosocial needs, and
other assistance to address basic human needs, including
stabilization assistance (as defined by the Stabilization
Assistance Review in ``A Framework for Maximizing the
Effectiveness of U.S. Government Efforts to Stabilize
Conflict-Affected Areas, 2018).
(4) Hybrid court.--The term ``hybrid court'' means a court
with a combination of domestic and international lawyers,
judges, and personnel.
(5) Internationalized domestic court.--The term
``internationalized domestic court'' means a domestic court
with the support of international advisers.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to ensure that
assistance for humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery
needs of individuals who are or were nationals and residents
of Iraq or Syria, and of communities in and from those
countries, is directed toward those individuals and
communities with the greatest need, including those
individuals from communities of religious and ethnic
minorities, and communities of religious and ethnic
minorities, that the Secretary of State declared were
targeted for genocide, crimes against humanity, or war
crimes, and have been identified as being at risk of
persecution, forced migration, genocide, crimes against
humanity, or war crimes.
SEC. 5. ACTIONS TO PROMOTE ACCOUNTABILITY IN IRAQ FOR
GENOCIDE, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, AND WAR
CRIMES.
(a) Assistance.--The Secretary of State and the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development are authorized to provide assistance, including
financial and technical assistance, as necessary and
appropriate, to support the efforts of entities, including
nongovernmental organizations with expertise in international
criminal investigations and law, to address genocide, crimes
against humanity, or war crimes, and their constituent crimes
by ISIS in Iraq by--
(1) conducting criminal investigations;
(2) developing indigenous investigative and judicial
skills, including by partnering, directly mentoring, and
providing necessary equipment and infrastructure to
effectively adjudicating cases consistent with due process
and respect for the rule of law; and
(3) collecting and preserving evidence and the chain of
evidence, including for use in prosecutions in domestic
courts, hybrid courts, and internationalized domestic courts,
consistent with the activities described in subsection (b).
(b) Actions by Foreign Governments.--The Secretary of
State, in consultation with the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National
Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, shall encourage governments of foreign
countries--
(1) to include information in appropriate security
databases and security screening procedures of such countries
to identify suspected ISIS members for whom credible evidence
exists of having committed genocide, crimes against humanity,
or war crimes, and their constituent crimes, in Iraq; and
(2) to apprehend and prosecute such ISIS members for
genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes, as
appropriate.
(c) Consultation.--In carrying out subsection (a), the
Secretary of State shall consult with and consider credible
information from entities described in such subsection.
SEC. 6. IDENTIFICATION OF AND ASSISTANCE TO ADDRESS
HUMANITARIAN, STABILIZATION, AND RECOVERY NEEDS
OF CERTAIN PERSONS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA.
(a) Identification.--The Secretary of State, in
consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator
of the United States Agency for International Development,
and Director of National Intelligence, shall seek to
identify--
(1) threats of persecution and other early-warning
indicators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war
crimes against individuals who are or were nationals and
residents of Iraq or Syria, are members of religious or
ethnic minority groups in such countries, and against whom
the Secretary of State has determined ISIS has committed
genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes;
(2) the religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq or
Syria identified pursuant to paragraph (1) that are at risk
of forced migration, within or across the borders of Iraq,
Syria, or a country of first asylum, and the primary reasons
for such risk;
(3)(A) the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs
of individuals described in paragraphs (1) and (2), including
the assistance provided by the United States and by the
United Nations, respectively--
(i) to address the humanitarian, stabilization, and
recovery needs of such individuals; and
(ii) to mitigate the risks of forced migration of such
individuals; and
(B) assistance provided through the Funding Facility for
Immediate Stabilization and Funding Facility for Expanded
Stabilization; and
(4) to the extent practicable and appropriate--
(A) the entities, including faith-based entities, that are
providing assistance to address the humanitarian,
stabilization, and recovery needs of individuals described in
paragraphs (1) and (2); and
(B) the extent to which the United States is providing
assistance to or through the entities referred to in
subparagraph (A).
(b) Additional Consultation.--In carrying out subsection
(a), the Secretary of State shall consult with, and consider
credible information from--
(1) individuals described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of such
subsection; and
(2) the entities described in paragraph (4)(A) of such
subsection.
(c) Assistance.--The Secretary of State and the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development are authorized to provide assistance, including
financial and technical assistance as necessary and
appropriate, to support the entities described in subsection
(a)(4)(A).
SEC. 7. REPORT.
(a) Implementation Report.--Not later than 90 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State
shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional
committees that includes--
(1) a detailed description of the efforts taken, and
efforts proposed to be taken, to implement the provisions of
this Act;
(2) an assessment of--
(A) the feasibility and advisability of prosecuting ISIS
members for whom credible evidence exists of having committed
genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes in Iraq,
including in domestic courts in Iraq, hybrid courts, and
internationalized domestic courts; and
(B) the measures needed--
(i) to ensure effective criminal investigations of such
individuals; and
(ii) to effectively collect and preserve evidence, and
preserve the chain of evidence, for prosecution; and
(3) recommendations for legislative remedies and
administrative actions to facilitate the implementation of
this Act.
(b) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) shall
be submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a
classified annex, if necessary.
Amend the title so as to read: ``An Act to provide relief for victims
of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes who are members of
religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and Syria, for
accountability for perpetrators of these crimes, and for other
purposes.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I rise today to urge strong support for H.R. 390, the bipartisan Iraq
and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act.
I want to begin by offering my special thanks to Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy for his strong and sustained support for the victims of
genocide, for
[[Page H9602]]
this bill, and for the work of his amazing staff, especially Luke
Murry, who has done yeoman's work on making sure that this moves
forward; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his chief of staff,
Sharon Soderstrom, for their work; as well as our friends on the Senate
side.
I especially want to thank Ed Royce, our chairman, and Ranking Member
Eliot Engel for their wonderful support for this bill, and for all the
Members.
I want to thank Anna Eshoo, who has been tenacious in her support for
genocide-targeted communities in Iraq and Syria, and Matt McMurray, her
chief of staff, who has also been a great friend to work with on this
legislation.
My thanks to Mary Noonan, my chief of staff; Piero Tozzi, my staff
director for the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee; Nathaniel Hurd at the
U.S. Helsinki Commission, who has been lead staffer on the bill; David
Trimble, senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute; and so many
others who have been a part of this effort to get this across the
finish line.
Mr. Speaker, in September of 2013, I chaired my first of 10
congressional hearings focused in whole or in part on Christians,
Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities targeted by ISIS for
genocide and other atrocity crimes, frustrated and deeply disappointed
that the previous administration was failing to direct aid to these
survivors and to support criminal investigations into the perpetrators.
Three years later, on September 8, 2016, I introduced H.R. 5961.
It was clear then, as it is now, that local overstretched,
underfunded groups on the ground were being forced to fill a huge gap,
like the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in the Kurdistan region
of Iraq, supported by the Knights of Columbus under the extraordinary
leadership of Carl Anderson and by Aid to the Church in Need. To date,
the Knights of Columbus has contributed $20 million and Aid to the
Church in Need has contributed more than $60 million to the response
for these people who are the survivors of genocide. Without this
support from private charities, Mr. Speaker, many people, especially
children, would have died or have been afflicted with serious disease
or disability.
Where was the United States? Nowhere to be found.
Just before Christmas of 2016, I led a delegation to Erbil at the
invitation of the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, who was
heroically leading the effort to sustain more than 70,000 Christians
who had fled ISIS, as well as some Yazidis and Muslims.
There I met with genocide survivors, almost all of whom told me that
they had family members who were murdered, tortured, beaten, and raped
by ISIS. Their stories were tragic beyond words and heartbreaking
beyond words, but members of my delegation and I were in awe of their
deep and abiding faith in God, their resiliency, and their courage.
They simply would not quit. They would move on and try to live a life
and try to thrive.
We visited a camp of 6,000 internally displaced persons, managed by
the archdiocese, that the U.S. Government had not even visited until
just before our trip in 2016, even though it was only 10 minutes away
from the consulate. I was told I shouldn't go because it was too
dangerous. I asked, ``Was there a specific threat?'' and there wasn't.
When we got there, we were met by about 250 to 300 children, all
about fourth or fifth graders or thereabouts, singing Christmas carols,
and I felt, ``Boy, that is a real threatening situation.'' It was
foolish in the extreme.
They needed our help. They were not getting enough food. They were
not getting enough medicine, and their shelter was very meager, to say
the least.
On January 10, 2017, I introduced H.R. 390, a stronger version of the
previous bill. The House unanimously passed it--again, totally
bipartisan--on June 6. On October 11, the Senate passed it with a
slightly amended version, which is why it is here before the House
today for reconsideration.
{time} 1800
H.R. 390 authorizes the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for
International Development and the Secretary of State to direct
humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery assistance to these
communities to enable them to survive and someday thrive in Iraq and
Syria.
It also authorizes the Secretary and the Administrator to fund
entities conducting criminal investigations into ISIS perpetrators who
committed atrocity crimes in Iraq. The evidence these entities collect
and preserve will be used to apprehend, prosecute, and convict
perpetrators in a range of court settings.
We have learned from the courts in Rwanda, in Sierra Leone, as well
as the court in Yugoslavia, you have to capture this information. You
have to get the testimonies from survivors and eyewitnesses to
effectuate effective prosecutions.
The surviving religious and ethnic communities have begun to receive
some targeted aid from the United States under the leadership of Vice
President Pence, USAID Administrator Green, and Secretary Pompeo. The
governments of Hungary and Poland, as well, have stepped up to provide
assistance to those in need.
However, we have to move quickly on this bill and on implementation
on this. As Archbishop Warda, the head of Chaldean Catholic Church
there, told me today: ``Christians in Iraq are still at the brink of
extinction. H.R. 390 is vital to our survival. If it becomes law,
implementation must be full and fast. Otherwise, the help it provides
will be too late for us.''
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this measure. A huge amount of work
has gone into this bill. I especially thank Representative Smith of New
Jersey, who has been a tireless advocate on behalf of victims of
genocide. He always has been, and he always will be.
His efforts have helped to ensure that religious minorities still
have a place in Iraq and Syria, that their presence remains part of the
fabric of the Middle East.
ISIS sought to eliminate religious minorities. That is why Congress
fought to designate the crimes against them genocide.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has heard hours upon hours of
testimony from genocide victims: a Yazidi man recounting the beheading
of thousands of Yazidi fighters, women who detailed gang rape and sex
slavery. We heard from a number of survivors that international
assistance was not moving quickly enough to get people resettled in
their homes and communities of origin.
This bill would help to ease those people's suffering and bring to
justice those who are responsible. It would authorize assistance for
groups investigating and prosecuting crimes against humanity and war
crimes. And it would require our government to identify those who are
vulnerable to genocide and war crimes, to help with their recovery and
stability in the future.
This bill will be an important tool in reaching our goal in Iraq and
Syria, preventing the resurgence of ISIS. We cannot allow this barbaric
group to take over territory or control people ever again.
In Iraq, this means addressing the root causes of conflict that
motivated people to join an extremist organization like ISIS in the
first place.
It also means pushing back on Iranian influence because Iran
envisions an Iraq overcome by sectarian strife and intolerance.
In Syria, that means finding a political solution that does not
include Assad.
Bashar al-Assad is a magnet for extremism, and he continues to employ
the worst violence against his own people. Since Assad's thugs took the
life of the first protester in Syria, more than half a million more
Syrians have been killed, and more than 11 million people have lost
their homes.
I remain convinced and concerned about what our military is doing in
Syria. In the waning days of ISIS in Syria, how do we intend to justify
the presence of our military? This is a slippery slope to perpetual
American boots on the ground, and we have to be careful.
In addition, if my legislation, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection
Act, becomes law, we can provide the administration the leverage it
needs to
[[Page H9603]]
push for a political solution to provide justice to Assad's many
victims and to prevent the United States from getting further mired
into another war in the Middle East.
The only solution to the crisis in Syria is a political solution, and
the Caesar Act would help pave a path toward that sustainable,
political solution.
I urge the other body to pass the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection
Act so we can get it to the President's desk. I believe the other body
would pass my bill, but for a single member of that body who is holding
it up for reasons which members of both parties don't understand. I
urge him to lift that hold so that this bill can become law.
Mr. Speaker, I also urge my colleagues to pass the bill before us
today, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the chairwoman emeritus of
the Foreign Affairs Committee who currently chairs the Subcommittee on
the Middle East and North Africa.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to rise in support of
Chris Smith's bill, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and
Accountability Act of 2018.
I again thank Chairman Royce and our esteemed ranking member, Eliot
Engel, for their efforts in bringing this important and bipartisan bill
to the floor.
This commonsense bill authorizes Federal agencies to provide
assistance to entities that are working to hold accountable those
responsible for genocide, for crimes against humanity, and for war
crimes in Iraq and Syria.
Over the last 7 years, sadly, ISIS has explicitly targeted and
murdered tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of religious and ethnic
minorities, mostly Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria.
We need to ensure that the proper people are being held accountable
by giving the administration all of the tools that it needs to
coordinate with and support the organizations that can identify and can
prosecute those responsible.
In addition, Mr. Smith's bill prioritizes emergency assistance to
these religious and ethnic minority groups that are targeted by ISIS
and continue to face persecution.
Syrians remain in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, of
stabilization assistance. We must ensure that these religious and
ethnic minorities are getting the help they desperately need.
I thank my colleague, Chris Smith, such a strong human rights
defender, for authoring this important bill and giving this authority
to the administration. I urge all of my colleagues to give it their
strong bipartisan support.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, let me again thank Mr. Smith and Chairman
Royce for their hard work and leadership. The violence and suffering
that has overtaken Syria and Iraq in recent years is heartbreaking, and
it is infuriating, but we cannot allow the magnitude of the problem to
discourage us from trying to work toward a solution step by step.
This bill puts a focus on some of the most vulnerable groups caught
up in this crisis. It will help to ease their plight, and it will help
to provide them a measure of justice.
Before I close, Mr. Speaker, I again thank you, Mr. Poe, for your
friendship and for your hard work, and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for her
friendship and her hard work.
Chairman Royce just stepped out, but I want to say that we always
talk about the bipartisan work that we have done on the Foreign Affairs
Committee. We always say that the Foreign Affairs Committee is the most
bipartisan committee in Congress, and it should be. It has to be
because partisanship really should stop at the water's edge. When we
are talking about global interests, we have the same interests.
That is one of the wonderful things about the Foreign Affairs
Committee. I don't know if I will have a chance to say this again in
this Congress, so that is why I want to say it now: Ed Royce has been a
magnificent chairman and a magnificent friend. He has led this
committee into bipartisanship on virtually all matters involving the
global stage, and we have become a more effective committee because of
his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Royce for a job well done. It has been
a pleasure serving with him and all the members on the committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief. I thank, again, Eliot Engel,
Chairman Royce, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is the former chairwoman
of the committee. I thank her for her very kind remarks. She has been a
leader on human rights herself all over the world, especially with
regard to Iran and some of the legislation she has gotten enacted into
law. I thank her for that extraordinary leadership.
Again, this is an example of us pulling together and helping a group
of people, survivors of ISIS genocide, who are in desperate need of
assistance. We are now past the emergency level in most cases.
When we originally introduced the bill, I named it ``the emergency.''
We didn't get it passed fast enough, but there is so much more that
remains to be done when it comes to recovery and sustainability of
these precious lives that have been so wounded by ISIS through mass
murder and genocide, which has been recognized by both the Obama
administration and the Trump administration.
So this is an idea whose time has come, and my hope is that it will
be implemented faithfully and aggressively from the moment it is
signed.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE of California. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by recognizing
the efforts of Mr. Smith, Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global
Health and Global Human Rights, and Ranking Member Engel for their
strong leadership on this critical issue.
Mr. Speaker, for seven years, the world has watched the brutal
dictator Assad inflict untold suffering on the Syrian people. Since the
beginning of the conflict, half a million people have been killed and
13 million--largely women and children--remain in dire need of basic
humanitarian assistance in Syria.
Over the course of this deadly conflict, we have seen Assad and his
backers--Russia in the air, and Iran on the ground--commit atrocious
war crimes, including using chemical weapons on civilians. I am sure I
am not the only one who will never forget the footage shown before our
Committee of a Syrian doctor trying to revive two young children,
foaming at the mouth, after chlorine bombs rained down on their
village; or the testimony of Caesar, a former regime police
photographer, who bravely smuggled thousands of images cataloguing the
gruesome and methodical torture in Assad's prisons out of Syria.
But the brutal Assad regime is not the only terror the Syrian people
have had to endure--his brutality paved the way for ISIS to expand in
the country as well. Exploiting the chaos created by the conflict in
Syria, ISIS burst onto the scene in 2014 by declaring themselves and
their supposed ``caliphate''--and committing obscene, horrific acts in
an effort to spread their nihilistic, death-filled ideology.
Today, thanks to the service of our brave men and women in uniform,
ISIS is receding. But we cannot forget the incredible evil they
unleashed--while in power, they committed unfathomable violence against
Christians and Yezidis in Syria and Iraq, and terrorized the Muslim
communities unlucky enough to fall under their ``caliphate.''
Congress played a critical role in calling these atrocities by their
correct name--genocide. This was a very important first step--allowing
for assistance to get to minority communities desperately in need. Even
now, there is still an urgent need for assistance to these vulnerable
communities, which have been devastated by ISIS' efforts to wipe them
out. These ancient communities, whose roots go back centuries, include
Christians, Yezidis, Assyrians, Syriacs, Turkomens, and many others.
Their presence in Iraq and Syria is crucial to the social fabric of
these nations.
H.R. 390 offers additional, immediate relief for these vulnerable
communities and also directs the State Department to do more to support
efforts to collect and preserve evidence of ``genocide, crimes against
humanity, and war crimes'' so that someday, justice might be served.
I urge Members to support this bill and send it straight to the
President so that the possibility of justice and accountability for
these atrocities can give hope to those suffering today.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
[[Page H9604]]
Smith) that the House suspend the rules and concur in the Senate
amendments to the bill, H.R. 390.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the Senate amendments were concurred in.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________