[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 195 (Thursday, December 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7266-S7267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    COMMEMORATING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPERATION PROVIDE COMFORT

  Mr. KING. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 612, S. Con Res. 
16.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the concurrent 
resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 16) commemorating the 
     30th anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution, which had been reported from the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, with an amendment to strike all after the resolving 
clause and insert the part printed in italic, and with an amendment to 
the preamble to insert the part printed in italic, as follows:
       Whereas, in March 1991, Saddam Hussein responded to an 
     uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan with a violent military campaign 
     that included the use of chemical weapons against the 
     citizens of Iraqi Kurdistan, most of whom were unarmed 
     civilians;
       Whereas Saddam Hussein's forces killed approximately 
     200,000 Iraqi Kurds, destroyed approximately 4,500 Iraqi 
     Kurdish villages, and displaced hundreds of thousands of 
     Iraqi Kurds who fled to the northern and eastern borders of 
     Iraq, fearing that the regime would use chemical weapons 
     against them, as it did during Saddam Hussein's Anfal 
     campaign, including the Halabja chemical weapon attack only 3 
     years before;
       Whereas, at one point in the early days of the 1991 crisis, 
     the daily death toll of fleeing Iraqi Kurds exceeded 1,000, 
     with victims succumbing to exposure, malnutrition, and 
     disease;
       Whereas, the United States, in response to the unfolding 
     humanitarian catastrophe, led Operation Provide Comfort, 
     delivering humanitarian relief and enforcing a no-fly zone, 
     saving the lives of countless thousands of Iraqi Kurds from 
     near certain death on the freezing and rugged border 
     mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan;
       Whereas Operation Provide Comfort provided security and 
     stability in Iraqi Kurdistan; and
       Whereas the Kurdistan regional government and the Kurdish 
     Peshmerga remain steadfast partners of the United States in 
     the fight against extremism and terrorism: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring),
     That Congress--
       (1) commemorates the 30th anniversary of Operation Provide 
     Comfort;
       (2) recognizes and honors the soldiers, diplomats, 
     political leaders, and coalition partners of the United 
     States who implemented Operation Provide Comfort;
       (3) recognizes and honors the nearly 2,000,000 Iraqis, 
     mostly Kurds, who were displaced by the Hussein regime and 
     who survived starvation and exposure, and for whom Operation 
     Provide Comfort offered assistance, security, and a chance 
     for a new life;
       (4) encourages Iraqi Kurdish leaders to continue to uphold 
     the values of democracy, human rights, and freedom; and
       (5) reaffirms--
       (A) the strong partnership between the United States and 
     the Iraqi Kurds, which exists in complementarity with the 
     United States strong partnership with the Government of Iraq; 
     and
       (B) the enduring respect and support of Congress for Iraqi 
     Kurds, who continue to stand with the United States in shared 
     opposition to extremism and terrorism.

  Mr. KING. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute 
amendment be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the 
committee-reported substitute amendment to the preamble be agreed to; 
the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider 
be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action 
or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The committee-reported amendment in the nature of a substitute was 
agreed to.

[[Page S7267]]

  The resolution (S. Con. Res. 16), as amended, was agreed to.
  The committee-reported amendment to the preamble in the nature of a 
substitute was agreed to.
  The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.

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