Visa Waiver Program Expansion Act of 2010

I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important day for U.S. policy in Africa. Just about 1 year ago, on May 19, my friend and colleague from California and the champion of human rights, Congressman Ed Royce, and I introduced H.R. 2478, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Recovery Act. In the Senate, Senators Russ Feingold and Sam Brownback sponsored the same bill, S. 1067, which is the bill before us for consideration today. Today, H.R. 2478 has 200 bipartisan cosponsors.

When the House passes S. 1067 today, it will be sent directly to the President's desk for his signature, and for the first time the U.S. will be required to design and implement a comprehensive strategy with our multilateral and regional partners to address the violence of the LRA; protect the victims of LRA violence in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, southern

Sudan, and the Central African Republic; strengthen state presence and capacity in these regions to the benefit of the vulnerable civilian populations; and advance the recovery of northern Uganda from decades of violence.

Mr. Speaker, a great deal has happened across the country to ensure that this bill is before the House Chamber today in scarcely 1 year. I want to especially recognize and thank the national networks, organizations, and grassroots activists of Invisible Children, Resolve Uganda, the ENOUGH! Project, and many other religious and human rights groups who have rallied in support of the people and especially the children of this region of Africa.

These Americans, thousands of them high school and college students, understood that the children and people of northern Uganda, the DRC, the southern Sudan, and the CAR have no voice in Washington.

So they were determined to become their voice. They realized that these African children and families were invisible to Washington policymakers. So they decided to make them visible. They realized there is too much suffering, too much pain, too much destruction, too much killing in this region of Africa, so many thousands of miles away, and that there was just too much silence here in Washington. So they built a grassroots national movement of hope for peace, for justice, for reconciliation, for reconstruction, for the recovery of the human spirit. They believe that the people of northern Uganda, the children of Uganda, the DRC, Southern Sudan, and the CAR, have a right to protection and to have a voice in their own destiny.

So today is a good day, a very good day, Mr. Speaker, because today these hundreds of thousands of voices have brought this bill to the House floor today for final passage. The unresolved crisis with the Lord's Resistance Army is one of Africa's longest running and most gruesome militia-driven conflicts. It has morphed into a sadistic force, wreaking terror on the local populations, filling its ranks with abducted child soldiers and slaves.

Now, at this critical juncture in the conflict's history and when the terror once focused in northern Uganda is spreading throughout the region and surrounding countries, we must ensure that the United States commits to a proactive strategy to help see this conflict to its end, protect vulnerable populations, and support and strengthen recovery efforts in northern Uganda and the region.

I thank the many Americans, especially the young people, who have supported this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote in support of final passage of S. 1067. I thank the gentleman from New York, again, for his leadership.

Human Rights, Humanitarian, and Faith-Based Groups Back Landmark U.S. Legislation To Help Protect Civilians From the Lord's Resistance Army

Washington, DC, 21 May 2009.--The introduction of

legislation in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives

earlier this week to commit the United States to

comprehensive efforts to help civilians threatened by one of

the world's longest-running and brutal insurgencies is a

crucial step forward for U.S. policy in the region, a

coalition of twenty-two human rights, humanitarian, and

faith-based groups said today.

If passed, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and

Northern Uganda Recovery Act would require the Obama

Administration to develop a regional strategy to protect

civilians in central Africa from attacks by the rebel Lord's

Resistance Army (LRA) and enforce the rule of law and ensure

full humanitarian access in LRA-affected areas. The Act

additionally commits the United States to increase support to

economic recovery and transitional justice efforts in Uganda.

The coalition of supporting organizations includes groups in

Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Uganda, where

communities are currently threatened by the LRA.

``We continue to live in fear of LRA attacks and of our

children being abducted,'' said Father Benoit Kinalegu of the

Dungu/Doruma Justice and Peace Commission in DR Congo. ``We

are praying for help and protection and hope U.S. lawmakers

will hear our cries.''

Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) and

Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Brad Miller (D-NC), and

Ed Royce (R-CA) introduced the bill. It affirms the need for

U.S. leadership to help bring an end to atrocities by the

Lord's Resistance Army and to advance long-term recovery in

the region.

``The LRA has long posed a terrible threat to civilians,''

said Georgette Gagnon, Africa Director at Human Rights Watch.

`` This bill will help the U.S. government support for

comprehensive multilateral efforts to protect civilians in

LRA-affected areas and to apprehend or otherwise remove the

group's leader, Joseph Kony, and his top commanders from the

battlefield.''

For more than twenty years, northern Ugandans were caught

in a war between the Ugandan military and the rebel group.

The violence killed thousands of civilians and displaced

nearly two million people. Kony and his top commanders

sustain their ranks by abducting civilians, including

children, to use as soldiers and sexual slaves. Though the

rebel group ended attacks in northern Uganda in 2006, it

moved its bases to the northeastern Democratic Republic of

Congo and has committed acts of violence against civilians in

Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. In December

2008, Sudan, Uganda and Congo began a joint military

offensive, ``Operation Lightening Thunder,'' against the

rebel group, with backing from the United States. As a

result, the Lord's Resistance Army has dispersed into

multiple smaller groups and has brutally murdered more than

1,000 civilians and abducted over 400 people, mostly

children.

``Given the catalytic involvement of the U.S. military in

Operation Lightning Thunder--and the horrific aftermath of

this operation--the U.S. government now has a responsibility

to help end the threat posed by Joseph Kony once and for

all,'' said John Prendergast, Co-Founder of the Enough

Project. ``One man should not be allowed to terrorize

millions of people in four Central African countries. The

bill is a crucial first step in galvanizing immediate and

effective U.S. action.''

The legislation also aims to help secure a lasting peace in

Uganda by supporting measures to assist war-affected

communities in northern Uganda and to help resolve

longstanding divisions between communities in Uganda's north

and south. It authorizes increased funding for recovery

efforts in northern Uganda, with a particular focus on

supporting transitional justice and reconciliation. It also

calls on the Ugandan government to reinvigorate its

commitment to a transparent and accountable reconstruction

process in war-affected areas.

``Smart investment in long-term recovery is essential if

the people of northern Uganda are to live with peace and

dignity,'' said Annalise Romoser, Lutheran World Relief

Associate Director for Advocacy. ``Transitional justice

initiatives and the development of basic infrastructure such

as food and water systems are crucial elements to lasting

peace and reconciliation in Uganda. Such investment from the

United States will support the inspiring efforts of northern

Ugandans to return home and rebuild after decades of war and

displacement.''

With questions, please contact:

Michael Poffenberger, Resolve Uganda: 202.548.2517 /

michael@resolveuganda.org; Eileen White Read, Enough Project:

202.741.6376 / eread@enoughproject.org; and Maria Burnett,

Human Rights Watch: 917.379.1696 / burnetm@hrw.org.

Supporting organizations include:

Human Rights Watch, Enough Project, Resolve Uganda,

International Rescue Committee, Invisible Children, Refugees

International, AVSI, Global Action for Children, Lutheran

World Relief, United States Fund for UNICEF, Women's Refugee

Commission.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Genocide

Intervention Network, Refugee Law Project, Uganda, Gulu NGO

Forum, Uganda, Dungu/Doruma Justice and Peace Commission,

Democratic Republic of Congo Azande Community World-wide

Organisation, UK-South Sudan, Mbomu Charitable Organization,

Sudan; Ibba Charitable Organization, South Sudan, Azande

Women Organization, South Sudan, Hope Sudan Organization,

South Sudan, Eso Development Organization, South Sudan.

Added after 21 May 2009: Nabanga Development Agency, South

Sudan, Comboni Missionary Sisters, South Sudan.

Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce a resolution to pardon posthumously the world's first African-American heavyweight champion, John Arthur ``Jack'' Johnson. This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that the President should exercise his constitutional authority to pardon Jack Johnson posthumously.

For my colleagues who may not be familiar with the plight of Jack Johnson, he is considered by many to be the most dominant athlete in boxing history. Arthur John Johnson was born March 31, 1878, in Galveston, TX, to parents who were former slaves. At an early age he realized his talent for the sweet science. In order to make a living, Johnson traveled across the country fighting anyone willing to face him. But he was denied repeatedly on purely racial grounds a chance to fight for the world heavyweight title. For too long, African-American fighters were not seen as legitimate contenders for the championship. Fortunately, after years of perseverance, Johnson was finally granted an opportunity in 1908 to fight the then-reigning title holder, Tommy Burns. Johnson handily defeated Burns to become the first African- American heavyweight champion.

Mr. Johnson's success in the ring, and sometimes indulgent lifestyle outside of it, fostered resentment among many and raised concerns that his continued dominance in the ring would somehow disrupt what was then perceived by many as a ``racial order.'' So as history tells us, a search for a Caucasian boxer who could defeat Johnson began a recruitment effort that was dubbed the search for the ``Great White Hope.'' That hope arrived in the person of former champion, Jim Jeffries, who returned from retirement to fight Johnson in 1910. But when Johnson defeated Jeffries, race riots broke out as many sought to avenge the loss.

Following the defeat of the ``Great White Hope,'' the Federal Government launched an investigation into the legality of Johnson's relationships with Caucasian women. The Mann Act, which was enacted in 1910, outlawed the transport of Caucasian women across State lines for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for ``any other immoral purpose.'' Using the ``any other immoral purpose'' clause as a pretext, Federal law enforcement officials set out to ``get'' Johnson. On October 18, 1912, he was arrested for transporting his Caucasian girlfriend across State lines in violation of the act. However, the charges were dropped when the Caucasian, whose mother had originally tipped off Federal officials, refused to cooperate with authorities. She later married Johnson.

Yet Federal authorities persisted in their persecution of Johnson, persuading a former Caucasian girlfriend of Johnson's to testify that he had transported her across State lines. Her testimony resulted in Johnson's conviction in 1913, when he was sentenced to 1 year and a day in Federal prison. During Johnson's appeal, one prosecutor admitted that ``Mr. Johnson was perhaps persecuted as an individual, but that it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks.''

After the trial, Johnson fled the country to Canada, and then traveled to various European and South American countries, before losing his heavyweight championship title in Cuba in 1915. He returned to the United States in 1920, surrendered to federal authorities, and served nearly a year in Federal prison. Despite this obvious and clear injustice, Johnson refused to turn his back on the country that betrayed him. Mr. Johnson died in an automobile accident in 1946.

The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our Nation's history. Rectifying this injustice is long overdue. Again, this resolution calls on the President to pardon Mr. Johnson posthumously. It recognizes the unjustness of what transpired, and sheds light on the achievements of an athlete who was forced into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice. Johnson was a flawed individual who was certainly controversial. But he was also a historic American figure, whose life and accomplishments played an instrumental role in our Nation's progress toward true equality under the law. And he deserved much better than a racially motivated conviction, which denied him of his liberty, and served to diminish his athletic, cultural, and historic significance.

Yesterday was the 131st anniversary of Jack Johnson's birth and we should take this opportunity to allow future generations to grasp fully what Jack Johnson accomplished against great odds and appreciate his contributions to society unencumbered by the taint of his criminal conviction. We know that we cannot possibly right the wrong that was done to Jack Johnson, but we can take this small step toward acknowledging his mistreatment and removing the cloud that casts a shadow on his legacy. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1067) to support stabilization and lasting peace in northern Uganda and areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army through development of a regional strategy to support multilateral efforts to successfully protect civilians and eliminate the threat posed by the Lord's Resistance Army and to authorize funds for humanitarian relief and reconstruction, reconciliation, and transitional justice, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill and yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Senate bill under consideration today is a companion to H.R. 2478, legislation authored by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern). I want to thank my good friend and colleague, Mr. McGovern, for championing the cause of the people of northern Uganda who have been victimized for over two decades by the Lord's Resistance Army, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the Secretary of State.

Mr. Speaker, it is almost impossible to describe the horrors that the Lord's Resistance Army, also known as the LRA, has perpetrated on the people of northern Uganda and, more recently, in several neighboring countries.

Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, has led a militia group responsible for the slaughter of thousands of people and the displacement of over 2 million others since it was formed in 1986.

The LRA is most notorious for abducting young children, an estimated 30,000, over the past two decades, and forcing them into armed service and sexual servitude. While claiming to represent the legitimate grievances of the Ocholi people of northern Uganda, Kony has exploited those grievances to justify what only can be described as madness in his pursuit of power.

The Ugandan war is now the longest running war in Africa, longer than the conflict in Sudan. During the course of this war, the LRA has been responsible for widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, and forcing children to participate in killing of Ugandans, often family members and neighbors.

The LRA shows no mercy for the young. Boys are kidnapped and turned into soldiers. Girls are kidnapped and used as sex slaves. And to terrorize communities, the LRA often amputates limbs and disfigures bodies as so-called lessons learned for those willing to resist.

The Ugandan government and the LRA began peace negotiations in 2006, and signed an agreement in August of that year which provided for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people to return home in safety. A final peace agreement was reached in 2008, but Kony refused to sign, and the LRA subsequently launched new attacks on civilians in eastern Congo.

Despite the LRA leader's refusal to sign the agreement, the Ugandan government has made a commitment to carry out reconstruction plans for northern Uganda, and to implement those mechanisms of the final peace agreement not conditioned on the compliance of the LRA.

Mr. Speaker, the United States Government is a friend to the people of northern Uganda, and it is in our interest to help rid Uganda and central Africa of the LRA. This bill authorizes the President to provide additional assistance to respond to the humanitarian needs of populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan, and Central African Republic affected by LRA activity.

It further authorizes the President to support efforts by the people of northern Uganda and the government of Uganda to promote transitional justice and reconciliation on both local and national levels.

Mr. Speaker, it is important that we pass this legislation today to draw attention to the LRA's reign of terror and to demonstrate our support for the people of Uganda. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts, the vice chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern.

The gentleman from New Jersey is correct.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation to end the atrocities of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, and I am an original cosponsor of the House version of this legislation. From my view, with the passage of this bill, which now goes to the President's desk, we now are in a situation where I think Kony's removal won't guarantee peace, but it certainly will make it possible in the region. I would also just add that the fact that this legislation has made it this far is really a tribute to a group of young people, young professionals who have come up here on their own time and gone to the universities around this country to organize in order to make people aware of the plight of these children in Africa. I really thank them for that work.

Mr. Speaker, Joseph Kony is perhaps the most wanted man in Africa. He is an indicted war criminal. He is a designated terrorist. Many Americans don't know his name but the children of Uganda and Central East Africa certainly do. He is a very sadistic figure. He has a charismatic appeal to some. He heads a group called the Lord's Resistance Army, and under his two decades of tyrannical leadership that group has conscripted some 30,000 children into this killing squad. I can tell you as the former chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, if you talk to parents in Uganda or the Congo or South Sudan or the Central African Republic, the fear they have is the fear inspired by what he has been able to do.

Human rights groups report that this LRA remains powerful. It has still the ability to kill and to capture children. It may be even accelerating its program of fear and mind control over children. I'm reminded of the words of a recent researcher who interviewed a boy who escaped from the group. He reported that he was forced to kill eight other children who disobeyed Kony's rules in a 5-week time span. Those victims were surrounded in a circle. Children were forced to take turns bashing them with a bat in a ``collective kill.'' That's eight times in 5 weeks.

The LRA's objective remains the same as it's been for a couple generations now: kill, capture, and resupply for its next pillage. There is no other reason for its being. Most experts agree that the removal of Kony and his top leadership would decapitate this group. Kony has long fought the government of Uganda. He has had the support of the Islamist government in Sudan for that war, which wanted to hit back at Uganda's leader for his support of Christians and animists in southern Sudan. Former LRA commanders report that Khartoum, Sudan, has provided ``ammunition'' and provides ``intelligence training'' for Kony's group. More recently, there have been credible reports of the LRA gaining sanctuary in Darfur. A referendum on Southern Sudan is looming next year. Unless the LRA is permanently dealt with now, you can bet that Khartoum will put this killing squad back to use again next year in Southern Sudan.

Mr. Speaker, this civil war, originally contained within Uganda's borders, is now a regional crisis in four countries. This bipartisan legislation aims to spur the administration into devising a strategy to remove Joseph Kony and remove his top commanders from the battlefield. Some targeted assistance from the U.S. could make a world of difference.

I thank the gentlelady.

The world's problems can seem overwhelming at times. It is fashionable to blame conflict in Africa on poverty and other environmental factors. But sometimes just getting rid of one person does make a big difference. History is

full of captivating leaders with bad ideas who do great damage. It's a lesson I learned as chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, when Liberian president Charles Taylor ran a gangster regime in West Africa that brought havoc to neighboring Sierra Leone, where he pioneered this idea of using child soldiers and using amputations and using the techniques that Joseph Kony does now. After the hard-fought removal of Charles Taylor, and after his imprisonment, that region is peaceful.

Mr. Speaker, it isn't an exaggeration to say that the fate of hundreds of thousands of people--certainly of 30,000 children--rests in the hands of a few men. Kony's removal won't guarantee peace, but it will make it possible.

I urge the passage of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I strongly support the policy objectives of Senate Bill 1067, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.

For nearly 27 years, the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, has been terrorizing civilians, leaving a trail of death and despondency in its wake. The LRA's leader is a soulless mass murderer who has perpetrated some of the most deplorable human rights atrocities known to man.

The LRA is a predatory guerrilla force. They mutilate, torture, rape, and murder with impunity. They have abducted tens of thousands of civilians, mostly children, to serve as soldiers or sex slaves. Abducted children are forced to the front lines. And those who manage to escape find it difficult, if not impossible, to return home after being forced to commit atrocities in front of their very own families.

While the LRA has withdrawn from northern Uganda and security conditions there have improved, it continues to wreak havoc on neighboring southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic.

Recent reports indicate that, rather than being weakened, the LRA today is stronger and strategically more sophisticated than it was just last year. The bill before us seeks to change that.

It requires the President to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with the LRA. It offers political, economic, military, and intelligence support for viable multilateral efforts to protect civilians, to apprehend or eliminate top LRA commanders, and disarm and demobilize the remaining LRA fighters.

It then expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should support humanitarian efforts in LRA-affected areas, as well as programs to advance transitional justice in northern Uganda.

I appreciate the chairman's efforts to ensure that this language does not represent an earmark in funding which would conflict with Republican Members' commitment to the American taxpayer to exercise fiscal restraint and discipline.

I also appreciate that the bill conditions future assistance to the government of Uganda upon transparency and a substantial commitment of Uganda's own resources to support reconstruction efforts in the North.

Mr. Speaker, the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs has said that this conflict is ``characterized by a level of cruelty seldom seen, and few conflicts rival it for its sheer brutality.''

Even so, it remains one of the most overlooked humanitarian and human rights crises in the world today. The fact that we are even debating this topic today is largely due to the tireless efforts of young advocates throughout the United States, including in my own congressional district, who have passionately taken up the cause of those whose lives have been destroyed by the LRA. I urge my colleagues to join them in supporting the objectives of this important bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 4 minutes to the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

(Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).

Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman from California.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.