Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Eliot Engel, the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for his bill, the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, H.R. 1493.

I am privileged to be the lead co-sponsor of this bill, just as I was last year.

This bill could not be more timely, given the depredations of ISIS that we see played out on our TV screens when we turn on the nightly news--the horrific beheadings and killing of Christians and other religious minorities such as Yezidis by Islamist fanatics.

These murderers help finance their terror in part by looting cultural antiquities and coins from areas of Syria and Iraq that they control. Congress has already acted with respect to banning importation of ``blood antiquities'' from Iraq, which this bill would now extend to Syria. As such, this bill is part of the war on terror, helping to dry up sources of terror financing.

We also see that these fanatics will destroy what they cannot loot. This bill increases the inter-agency cooperation, including involvement of ``Monuments Men'' units of our armed forces, in striving to protect a cultural heritage which is part of our world's patrimony.

Finally, I want to highlight a provision of this bill that was not in the version we passed in the last Congress, but one which is an important addition, namely, a safe-harbor provision for those who seek to bring into the country important cultural artifacts that are being threatened with destruction, This safe harbor provision allows them to be placed in the temporary protective custody of the United States government or a museum.

I want to close by thanking Ranking Member Engel for introducing this important piece of legislation, and would like to thank him and all staff members who worked so hard on bringing this important legislation to the floor tonight.

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