Calling on the Government of the Russian Federation to Immediately Release United States Citizen Paul Whelan
Floor Speech
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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their work in bringing these important resolutions to the floor, and I stand in strong support of them in calling for the release of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. I thank my great colleague, Haley Stevens, for our work together as co-chairs of the Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad here in this House, and I am grateful for her relentless advocacy for Paul and his family.
While we continue our work to get Americans out of these countries that are holding them only because they have a blue passport, I believe more has to be done, Mr. Speaker, to stop this trend that you can simply take and wrongfully hold an American with impunity.
Mr. Speaker, listen to these statistics from the Foley Foundation's 2022 report: 175 percent increase in the incidents of U.S. nationals being wrongfully detained compared to the previous decade; a 60 percent increase in the average duration of a U.S. national's captivity over the past 11 years.
Mr. Speaker, 75 percent of U.S. nationals currently wrongfully detained are held by who? Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, Russia.
From 2012 to 2022, an average of 34 Americans were wrongfully held by foreign governments each year.
Now, when you put that in contrast to the decade of 2001 to 2011, there were only five. This is the chairman's point: There was a 580 percent increase in the past 10 years of Americans being taken and held hostage--mostly by governments. It is shocking.
The number of releases of Americans is not keeping up with new detentions. While the Levinson Act and our current hostage response efforts are important pieces to ensuring better transparency for our detainee families who are at home suffering--I think that process has significantly improved in the recent years, and I thank the State Department for that--it is still clear that adversarial countries believe they can take and hold an American with impunity.
We must do more. While we work on doing more, I will continue to come to this House floor and support resolutions like the ones we are voting on today. They are critically important to show the families and the wrongful detainees that the U.S. House stands with them and demands their release.
Mr. Speaker, I call on all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support Paul and Evan and their families with their votes today.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me the time.
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