[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.

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