Averting Loss of Life and Injury By Expediting Sivs Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, many Members here, including myself, have traveled to Afghanistan for years to express our gratitude to our heroic men and women in uniform serving there. We remain in awe of their patriotism and courage.

And just as awe-inspiring are their partners on the ground: the local Afghan interpreters, drivers, embassy staff, contractors, security personnel and others who have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the American military and our diplomatic personnel.

These Afghan partners have been vital to the safety of American lives and to the success of our mission. They accepted an extraordinary risk to their lives and families, with the understanding that we would stand by them.

And now, they are under attack--facing the threat of deadly retribution from the Taliban.

Today, with the ALLIES Act, the U.S. Congress is honoring our promises to these brave heroes: to respect their service and to not leave them behind.

Thank you to Congressman Jason Crow--a former Army Ranger who served our Nation in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He, with Congressman Seth Moulton and the entire bipartisan ``Honoring our Promises'' Working Group, has been firm, principled and relentless in fighting for this legislation and other action to protect our ``Afghan allies.''

Earlier this summer, with their leadership, the House proudly passed the HOPE for Afghan SIVS Act, which took the first step in that mission.

This group has also been instrumental in coordinating Congress's response with the Biden-Harris Administration.

As President Biden has said, ``Those who helped us are not going to be left behind.'' And with his action this week, evacuating Afghan partners to Fort Lee as they await final processing, that promise is being honored.

The Averting Loss of Life and Injury by Expediting SIVs Act will fix the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process, created over a decade ago to provide safety for Afghan interpreters, contractors, security personnel and others who worked with the United States.

Sadly and unconscionably, the SIV process has long been plagued by severe delays and backlogs, leaving many applicants waiting years for their visas--and hundreds have been killed before receiving approval.

Currently, there are many thousands of applicants in the pipeline, not including their spouses and children. This delay is not only demoralizing--it is deadly, because of the imminent danger posed by Taliban.

The ALLIES Act builds on the HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act, as it increases the Afghan SIV cap, streamlines the application process and strengthens protections for surviving spouses and children, among other important steps.

And it does this without compromising the strict background check and national security vetting procedures or other processes to confirm eligibility.

The threat facing our ``Afghan allies,'' as the national security and defense community calls them, cannot be overstated.

According to the nonprofit organization No One Left Behind, more than 300 translators and their family members have been killed since 2014. Many died while waiting for their visas to be processed.

Over 90 percent of the hundreds of Afghan partners report having received at least one death threat because of their work with Americans.

One Afghan partner, who has been waiting six years for a visa decision, worries, ``If the Taliban take over, they'll easily find me and kill me. Then my wife will have no husband and my daughter will have no father.''

Another says, ``I get phone calls from the Taliban saying, `We will kill you.' They know who I am and that I worked for the Americans. If they find me, they'll torture me and then kill me. It's better if I just kill myself first.''

These courageous allies cannot wait a day longer.

As the United States prepares for and executes the strategic and important withdrawal from Afghanistan, we must do so in a way that protects those who protected us.

With that, I urge a strong and bipartisan vote for our ``Afghan allies.'' [Roll No. 218] YEAS--407 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Auchincloss Axne Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Barragan Bass Beatty Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice (OK) Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (NC) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brady Brown Brownley Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Bush Bustos Butterfield Calvert Cammack Carbajal Cardenas Carl Carson Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cline Cloud Clyburn Clyde Cohen Cole Comer Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crist Crow Cuellar Curtis Davids (KS) Davidson Davis, Danny K. Davis, Rodney Dean DeFazio DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donalds Dunn Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Estes Evans Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Fortenberry Foster Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Golden Gomez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez, Vicente Gooden (TX) Gottheimer Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Grijalva Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harder (CA) Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hayes Herrell Herrera Beutler Higgins (NY) Hill Himes Hinson Hollingsworth Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Issa Jackson Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jacobs (NY) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jones Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kahele Kaptur Katko Keating Keller Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (CA) Kim (NJ) Kind Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamb Lamborn Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta LaTurner Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Lesko Letlow Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Long Loudermilk Lowenthal Lucas Luetkemeyer Luria Mace Malinowski Malliotakis Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Mann Manning Mast Matsui McBath McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McNerney Meeks Meijer Meng Meuser Mfume Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Mullin Murphy (FL) Murphy (NC) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Nehls Newhouse Newman Norcross Norman Nunes O'Halleran Obernolte Ocasio-Cortez Omar Owens Palazzo Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pence Perlmutter Peters Pfluger Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Reed Reschenthaler Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Ross Rouzer Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Rutherford Ryan Salazar Sanchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Soto Spanberger Spartz Speier Stansbury Stanton Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stevens Stewart Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Taylor Tenney Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Welch Wenstrup Westerman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Williams (TX) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yarmuth Young Zeldin NAYS--16 Biggs Boebert Brooks DesJarlais Duncan Good (VA) Gosar Greene (GA) Hern Hice (GA) Massie Moore (AL) Perry Posey Rosendale Roy NOT VOTING--7 Babin Carter (GA) Cleaver DeGette Doyle, Michael F. Higgins (LA) Lynch

Mr. DesJARLAIS changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''

So the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

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