Calling for the Release of Austin Tice

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize my equal partner in this Special Order, my very good friend from Texas, Representative Al Green.

Representative Green represents the parents and, for that matter, the place where Austin Tice, the person about whom we are speaking today, was born.

He and I have partnered because Austin Tice, though born in Texas, moved to the District of Columbia. Like many in the House and Senate, we have grave concerns about Austin Tice and want to express those concerns and call upon those who are keeping him in Syria to let him go.

Mr. Speaker, I can't say enough about how strongly bipartisan this matter is--bipartisan, yes--and bicameral. There are dozens upon dozens of Members of the House and the Senate who have written the President to ask him to do all he can to bring Austin Tice home from what we believe is captivity in Syria.

Despite the difficulties our country is having, as I speak, with Syria, this, we believe, is not a lost cause. In fact, we are encouraged that there are Americans who Syria has let come home. Sam Goodwin is one. Canadian Kristian Baxter is another.

So we do more than hold out hope that we can bring Austin Tice home.

So, let me explain who Austin Tice is and why he has attracted such concern and interest in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.

First of all, I want to pay tribute to his mother and father, Marc and Debra Tice, who have never lost hope that they can bring their son home, have visited Members of the House and Senate, and have never stopped seeking his return to the United States.

Let me tell you why he is of special concern to me. Austin Tice not only lived in the District of Columbia and will continue to live here when he returns; Austin Tice was a U.S. marine. He served in the Armed Forces of the United States.

When he came home, he enrolled in Georgetown Law school and had only a year to go when he left the law school, because he so yearned to be a reporter, and went to Syria in the early days of the civil war.

Now, because he didn't speak to a lawyer first, he entered Syria without a visa. That is why he is being held. It is not the kind of reason you would expect someone to be held in a foreign country.

After all, Syria holds more American hostages, than any country in the world or any group that is holding people--we think about half a dozen.

You wouldn't think that not having a valid visa could be anything but easily corrected, but he has been there, we believe--now he will turn 38, or he may have turned 38 by now--for 7 years with no word from him.

And that is why we come to the floor of the House tonight, because we are very concerned because we cannot be in touch with him. Despite working through the appropriate intermediary, the Czechoslovakian embassy, we have not been able to receive word.

Austin Tice left for Lebanon, by car, from Damascus. Then he fell into rebel hands and was detained at the checkpoint. That is the last we have heard of him.

January 3, the very first day of the 116th Congress, my partner and I introduced a resolution for Syria to return Austin Tice, and that was as soon as the House commenced this session.

Frankly, I am concerned that, as I note in our House resolution, that there has been a video clip on YouTube. That clip shows Austin Tice blindfolded and being prodded up a hillside by masked militants.

You can imagine, since we haven't heard from him since, why we are on the floor this evening.

The Syrian Government has not acknowledged that they are even detaining Austin Tice or his whereabouts. Officials of the United States, however, believe that Austin Tice is alive, and they believe that he is being held either by the government of Bashar al-Assad or by some group affiliated with that government.

The FBI has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the return of Austin Tice, and we are pleased that so many journalism organizations are working for his return.

It is important to note that Austin Tice was anything but a combatant. He was a journalist. He only went to Syria because he wanted to talk with the people who were living through an awful civil war. He was freelance, so he wasn't working through any powerful media, and his concern and his interest in journalism is what drove him, not any undermining of Syria or even views on the Syrian Government. He was acting as a journalist to find out what was happening.

Now, we recognize that Syria does not have a policy of never releasing American citizens. We refer to Sam Goodwin, 30 years old, who also made a mistake. He crossed--just like Austin Tice, he just made a mistake. He crossed the border from Iraq into northeast Syria without a visa because he was trying to visit every country in the world, all the innocence of that. And it was that kind of innocence that I think we should assign to Austin Tice because he is much like Sam Goodwin in that regard.

We call upon the Syrian Government to understand Austin Tice in that context, the naivete of a young man without legal advice, simply seeking knowledge, not seeking to undermine a government or to in any way interfere with the government.

There are others who have been held and who are believed to be in custody whose families are beginning to speak out. It is important to note that many families whose relatives are held in Syria do not speak out because they are concerned that, in doing so, they will be acting against the best interests of the family member held.

So, you can see how concerned the parents of Austin Tice must be that they have felt they had to speak out after 7 years.

Bear in mind that the United States has leverage with Syria, because this country is the largest single humanitarian donor to Syria. We are providing or have provided more than $8 billion in humanitarian assistance for those displaced inside of Syria and the region since the start of that crisis in Syria.

The U.S. Government itself is supporting emergency food assistance, shelter, safe drinking water, urgent medical care, humanitarian protection activities, and other urgent relief. And I believe, if the Syrian Government understands or considers humanitarian aid from the United States, they will see that they have nothing to lose by freeing this American citizen.

Last month, the President told reporters that he himself was interested in working on securing the release of hostages in Syria. However, we do not know what action the President has taken and call upon him to become involved, as he said he would.

The only intervention we know of is his intervention into the captivity in North Korea of Otto Warmbier, but by the time he got home, it was too late, and he died shortly after being released.

However, we believe that this Austin Tice is alive and can, in fact, come home safe to us.

We believe that, in any negotiations with Syria, the fate of our hostages should be front and center. We are pleased that Senator Lindsey Graham has indicated exactly that as well, again showing the bipartisan and bicameral concern about those being held in Syria.

On August the 11th of this year, Austin Tice's parents wrote an op-ed that appeared in papers around the country on the birthday of Austin Tice. They said: ``We wish we could remind him of how glad we are he was born, how blessed we are to be his parents, and how truly we believe the world is a better place for having him in it.''

Those are the words of his parents.

We are on the floor of the House today to speed Austin Tice home.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my partner to come to the floor now, Representative Al Green, who, of course, is the Representative from the home State of Austin Tice's parents and where Austin Tice was born and raised.

I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I don't think there could have been a more eloquent statement than the statement we have just heard from my good friend, Al Green.

I am inclined to believe that if the Syrian authorities were listening, even they could not resist the eloquence, the depth of Representative Green's very intelligent but heartfelt statement.

I know that statement is much appreciated by Austin Tice's parents, who have had to go these 7 years alone, with only your help as their Member of Congress.

I am also grateful to the Members of Congress who, after all, don't necessarily represent anyone connected with Austin Tice, as Al Green and I do, for their generosity in coming to the floor. I would like to call upon Representative Lori Trahan from Massachusetts to ask her to say a few words at this time.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan).

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Massachusetts whose relationship with Austin Tice--she didn't know him, but there is a school tie there.

It shows you that people, when they hear about Austin Tice's captivity, are inclined to the eloquence of Mrs. Trahan, who just spoke about him, spoke about him without knowing him, spoke with such enviable and praiseworthy remarks.

I thank her so much. I know that I speak for his parents in thanking her as well.

Mr. Speaker, I now want to introduce one of my good friends from the region. We were so pleased to welcome her into our delegation, and I am anxious to hear what she has to say because she, too, is neither from Texas nor the District of Columbia, and yet, with selflessness, she has asked to express her views on the captivity of Austin Tice.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger), my good friend, at this time.

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank my good friend, Representative Spanberger, for those compelling remarks. Once again, we are hearing from a Member who, as she says, did not know Austin Tice.

I hope that Debra and Marc Tice, when they see Representative Spanberger give such eloquent and intelligent and deeply felt remarks, are comforted to know that they are not alone in seeking the release of their son.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of Members, not to mention all of the many Members of the House and Senate, who have signed on letters to the President for help with Austin Tice, but it is worth noting again that, on the very first day of Congress, Rep. Al Green introduced H. Res. 17.

That resolution, introduced with Representative Al Green, sought, from the very beginning of the 116th Congress, to draw attention to Austin Tice, and we will not cease drawing just that kind of attention until we have learned where Austin Tice is and when he is coming home.

The resolution that we introduced expressed concern over the detention of Austin Tice and laid out many of the factual matters that the Members have offered here today. In that resolution, we not only expressed our concern regarding the detention of Austin Tice, we asked the State Department and the intelligence community and the interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell to jointly continue investigations and to pursue all information. We have every reason to believe that that is being done by our agencies.

We encouraged, in our resolution, the State Department and the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs to engage directly with Syrian officials to facilitate Austin's safe release. In our resolution, we encourage the State Department to work with foreign governments known to have diplomatic influence with the Government of Syria, and we request the State Department and the intelligence community to continue to work with and to inform Congress and Austin Tice's family regarding his safe release and his condition at this time.

We, I think, in bringing this very young man to the attention of the American people, we have shown our concern and have shown that we remain hopeful.

In this case, no word is good word; it is word, that he is alive, we believe. The best word would be word to the parents, Debra and Marc Tice, that he is on his way home safe and sound.

Let me pledge on behalf of the many Members of the House and Senate who have written the President, let me assure these parents, Marc and Debra Tice: This Special Order devoted to your son, Austin Tice, is not the end of the work we will continue to do until we bring your son, Austin Tice, home. We appreciate the devotion you have shown as parents, and we mean to honor that devotion by continuing to do all we can in the Congress to make sure that Austin Tice is returned to you safe and sound.

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