Calling for the Release of Austin Tice

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SPANBERGER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Holmes Norton for organizing this Special Order. I am grateful for the comments that she has made.

To the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), his passionate plea to see Austin Tice freed was moving, and I am proud to associate myself with many of his comments.

I rise today because Austin Tice has been in captivity for 2,647 days. Those have been 2,647 days of fear and anguish for his parents, his friends, his classmates, and his community. They have also represented 2,647 days of Austin's remarkable life and his determination and his will to live despite his captivity.

Austin is a journalist with a deep sense of service. He is also a veteran. Seven years ago, he traveled to Syria to report on the plight of Syria's children. He wanted to shed light on the consequences of a complex and unrelenting war on the youth of Syria. And in Syria, he was abducted. It was that 2,647 days ago that he was abducted.

He remains held in Syria, and we have every reason to believe that Austin is still alive. He is being held in Syria. In September, I joined a letter sent by Republicans and Democrats directly to the President of the United States. In that letter, we called on the administration to use every diplomatic tool in our toolbox to secure Austin's safe return home.

Austin's parents have been among his strongest advocates. They have made countless trips to Washington, D.C., and across the Middle East working to secure his release. They have been pillars of strength as they have fought to bring their son home.

I had the opportunity and the honor to meet Marc when he was in Washington, D.C.; and to see the tenacity and strength and devotion to his child was awe inspiring. It also makes me understand how he could be a parent to a young man who would go out and seek adventure and seek truth and seek information as a journalist.

It is my hope that we can come together as a body to bring Austin Tice home. I never met Austin Tice, but I am in awe of his story as an adventurer, as a journalist, as a veteran, as someone who has traveled the world seeking information and stories.

I have been compelled to take part in this event tonight, and I thank my colleagues for their tireless efforts on behalf of Austin Tice, their work to bring him home, their work to bring a voice to his story and knowledge of his continued capture and detainment in Syria. I thank them for their work, and I look forward to continuing, in small part, to work with them where I am able, where I can be of aid to bring information and light to Austin's story and to continue to be an advocate to bring him home.

It is my hope that in some days we will be able, here on the House floor, to celebrate the homecoming of an American, of a veteran, of a journalist, of a man who sought to tell the story of children in Syria.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source