Imposing New Sanctions on Human Rights Abusers
Floor Speech
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Schiff, for his remarks on genocide and turning our back on the facts that we find around the world. I really appreciate his thoughts.
I want to rise today and talk to my colleagues and the American people about the atrocities in Syria and call on my colleagues in the Senate to expeditiously vote on a bill authored here in the House by the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, H.R. 1677, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2017.
This legislation imposes new sanctions on human rights abusers in the sad state of affairs in Syria and those who facilitate the Assad regime's atrocities, and it encourages negotiations to bring about a lasting political solution there. It also authorizes the State Department to support entities that are collecting and preserving the chain of evidence for the eventual prosecution of those who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria since March of 2011.
The world has witnessed many generational examples of butchery and genocide by menaces, including Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and many others. But in the last 7 years, the world has allowed us to recognize a new name for evil and cruelty in this millennium: Bashar al-Assad and his henchmen.
For the last 7 years, the world has expressed outrage, yet twiddled their thumbs while this modern-day Hitler annihilates the civilian population of Syria.
Systematically, leader Assad has savagely directed the bombing, bludgeoning, gassing, electrocution, and torture of his people.
Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons in the 1980s against Iran appears tame in comparison to the calculated bombing of weaponized chlorine and sarin dropped into children's hospitals, medical facilities, and villages across Syria.
I am grateful that, after a little thumb twiddling from the prior administration, the Trump administration has galvanized our allies against this genocide and has taken action to stop the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people.
I call on the Senate to act with expedition and pass the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, and finally help obtain the kind of documentation that we need, Mr. Speaker, to end this step back into darkness and convict Assad and his co-conspirators and his enablers of war crimes. Vilonia Students Returning Lost Items After Tornado
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a group of students in Vilonia, Arkansas, who are collecting personal items lost after the devastating tornado that hit their town 4 years ago.
Erin Rappold, the teacher who created this project, was inspired after finding a baby picture in the debris.
Over the last 4 years, the students have collected 90,000 items, and only have about 2,000 left to be claimed. They launched their own website to help people reunite with their photos, their birth certificates, and their education diplomas.
A memorial dedication planned by those students will be held Friday, at 10 a.m., to remember the victims of the 2011 and 2014 tornadoes.
In the face of tragedy, these students have furnished us with an inspirational model for solidarity and hope.
I applaud Ms. Rappold and these courageous students for their efforts and dedication to the Vilonia community.
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