[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13077]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     AFGHAN SPECIAL IMMIGRANT VISAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to urge--indeed, to 
plead--with my colleagues to cosponsor bipartisan legislation that 
Representative Kinzinger and I will be introducing this afternoon, 
which would authorize 1,000 additional special immigrant visas to allow 
the United States to bring our Afghan allies to safety here in America. 
Earlier this week, Senators McCain and Shaheen introduced identical 
legislation in the other body.
  The need for this bill is urgent. Indeed, Congress should have acted 
yesterday. That is because the State Department has confirmed now that 
they have completely run out of the visas we authorized in December. In 
a way, that is good news.
  Remember how in previous years the State and other agencies never 
remotely came close to using the visas that were authorized, which 
consigned these poor souls to the seventh circle of bureaucratic hell. 
Processing was so slow and abysmal that only 32 of our Afghan allies 
received a visa in 2012. People were left in limbo--or worse--while the 
Taliban hunted them down, kidnapped their siblings, murdered their 
parents--capturing them, torturing, beheading them.
  But the administration responded to the demand from Congress for 
significant reform in the program, and the agency has aggressively 
attacked the visa-eligible backlog. Despite the processing--on average, 
400 visas each month since January--years of a failed system means 
that, today, there remains an astonishing 6,340 brave men and women 
waiting in limbo.
  If Congress does not act before we adjourn for the August recess, it 
means we will be slamming the door to safety for hundreds of our Afghan 
allies and their families. With each day that passes, these are people 
whose lives and those of their families are left to the tender mercies 
of the Taliban--seeking revenge.
  Mr. Speaker, Representative Kinzinger and I have a nonpartisan, fully 
paid-for bill--House leadership willing--that could pass on the floor 
in the blink of an eye. All we have to do--what we must do--is choose 
to make it a priority. Remember, we have done this before. Reforms that 
enabled the program to work passed as an amendment to the National 
Defense Authorization Act on this floor by, I found, an inspiring 420-3 
margin. Passing this bill is not only the right thing to do for these 
poor souls, it is in our own national security interest.
  As Secretary Kerry pointed out in urging Congress to grant more 
visas, ``The way a country winds down a war in a faraway place and 
stands by those who risk their own safety to help us in the fight sends 
a powerful message to the world that is not soon forgotten.''
  Whether or not you supported the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, what 
matters now is where we stand in keeping our commitments. This bill, 
authorizing an additional 1,000 visas for the balance of this current 
fiscal year, is a Band-Aid--but a critical one. We are going to have to 
act again in the coming months to deal with fiscal year 2015, starting 
in October.
  For too long, it was the State and other agencies that failed to make 
this the priority it needed to be. Now that they have upped the 
attention, the focus, the resources, and the commitment, let's not let 
Congress be the obstacle. Innocent lives are at stake. American honor 
is on the line.
  I urge my colleagues to do everything they can in the coming days to 
bring this bill to the floor. It is our duty to save the lives of those 
who risked so much to help us when we needed them.

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