[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4761-4762]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SPECIAL IMMIGRANT VISAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this morning's New York Times had a 
jarring reminder of the fate for those Afghans who put their trust in 
the United States when they decided to help us as interpreters, as 
guides, providing a variety of services that made the American mission 
possible. Indeed, our soldiers, our diplomats, countless Americans have 
put their lives in the hands of these brave partners. There was a 
promise, that we would be there for them, just as they were there for 
us.
  Sadly, this is a promise that has been broken time and time again. 
For the last 10 years, I have been working on an initiative to have the 
special immigrant visas to allow these trusted partners, whose lives 
are now at risk, to escape to safety and freedom in the United States.
  Too often we have had a program mostly in name only. Visas were 
authorized, but through lack of attention, resources, commitment, 
focus, the paperwork languished. People have been in a bureaucratic 
hell, impossible conditions created, and to be met by despair and too 
often threats, injury, and, sadly, death of the people who trusted us. 
During the height of the government shutdown, we were nonetheless able 
to come together to bring the program back to life, or at least put it 
on life support.
  I deeply appreciate the staff of Majority Leader Cantor and Minority 
Whip Hoyer. Their key staff members worked with a bipartisan coalition. 
Special thanks to Adam Kinzinger and Tulsi Gabbard, two new Members of 
Congress who served in theater in the Middle East, who know what the 
problems are and our commitment to those who helped us.
  Because of this team we were able not only to keep it alive, we 
secured some real advances in the Defense Authorization Act. We are 
hearing noises from the administration and the many bureaucracies 
involved: the State Department, Homeland Security, FBI. There are lots 
of places for the system to break down, yet there appears to be some 
greater commitment but still not enough action.
  Again, this morning, there is a reminder of the reality of our 
government having failed to deliver. For too many of us, it is a story 
in The New

[[Page 4762]]

York Times. But for the Iraqis and the Afghans left behind, they don't 
need a story in a foreign newspaper, except the people who are featured 
in these stories miraculously often get their cases expedited. For the 
rest of these poor souls, they have a daily reminder of the threats, 
the assaults, of what it means to be left in the tender mercies of al 
Qaeda and the Taliban.
  Next month, I will be introducing legislation for the next steps. I 
would strongly urge my colleagues to remember that brief moment when we 
came together during the shutdown to keep the program alive.
  Please join me in cosponsoring the legislation because it is not 
enough just to keep the program alive. Let's come together to make the 
program work so those partners of America in Afghanistan and Iraq 
themselves can be kept alive.

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