Emergency Afghan Allies Extension Act of 2014

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Goodlatte for helping to bring this to the floor very quickly, also to the Majority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy for his hard work and also to my good friend on the other side of the aisle, Representative Blumenauer, who has had a passion for this program since even before I got here.

Mr. Speaker, at a time when we just get debating a lot of tough things, it is great to see times when Republicans and Democrats can come together and do things for those that fight hard on behalf of our country and on behalf of theirs.

The Special Immigrant Visa program was designed to provide safe refuge to the countless brave Afghan men and women who willingly put their lives on the line and served shoulder to shoulder with our servicemembers in Operation Enduring Freedom.

This program is critical to our national security and to our servicemembers and veterans in any future engagement that will likely come at some point in the future.

The SIV programs provide lifesaving protections to those who served in U.S. missions and now are in danger as a result at the end of that service. The Taliban are hunting these people down as we speak here today.

Because it is in our national security interest to keep these promises and protect our allies and simply because it is the right thing to do, I want you to think about for a second: In a time of war, what can American soldiers and American marines, airmen, and sailors do in order to communicate with the local population and to get them on our side versus a very tough and determined enemy? Of course, the basic thing to that is to be able to speak to the local population.

So you think about, in many cases, these young men and women--these translators that, in some cases, wouldn't even put on anything to obscure their face and would stand side by side with American soldiers against Taliban in very tough areas, many of them, now as America withdraws its mission from Afghanistan and winds down its mission, now find themselves under threat every day.

Whether we agree or we disagree with the war in Afghanistan and anything like that, the reality of it is this: we all can agree that those that were willing to stand by us and to stand against this very, very bad enemy well deserve to come here.

We of course want to ensure that we are going through the proper process, and I want to commend the State Department for recently improving their ability to process these applicants and to do so correctly and safely. But I also would remind folks that when we talk about the United States of America and who do we want here, people who are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers and defend our cause and defend their cause are the ones we would like to see in the United States of America enjoying their freedom as well.

I mentioned earlier the threats that these people live under. It is estimated that multiple people are being killed every day who engaged in this kind of effort on behalf of the United States. So I want to commend everybody in this body for standing together to say that we need to stand with those who stood with us.

Recently there was a very interesting news special that talked about the reality of what was going on, and it interviewed a lot of these translators. Something that struck me the most was somebody who had been denied a visa, or at least it had taken a very long time to get, but he still had faith.

He stood up and said that he had faith that he was going to make it to the United States of America because the United States of America came to his country to help them, and he knows that the United States of America will do the right thing. It is inspiring to see that kind of belief in our country that we have, but to see it shared by people in war-torn areas.

So again to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, thank you. Representative Blumenauer, thank you for your friendship and your hard work.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding again.

I won't take much time, except to say it is very inspiring--as I think it is important to note when it happens--to see both sides of the aisle talking about such a very important issue.

I think it is important to note that when we exit the shores of the United States, Americans stand together with those that stood with us.

This is going to be a very important message to our current allies, and, again, something that is important to understand, as we all know, as history repeats itself, that at some point into the future, and we hope it is far out into the future, America will find itself engaged in something similar again where we need the indigenous population to help us to give them freedom and to defeat evil terrorism, or whatever it may be at the time. This is a message that we are sending to future conflicts that we will stand with you.

This is also going to, Mr. Speaker, save the lives of American soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors in the future, as they have somebody that can help them to communicate with the local population and win the trust.

Again, for everybody involved, I want to just once again say thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill

(H.R. 5195) to provide additional visas for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 5195, currently under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5195 makes available through the end of calendar year 2014 1,000 visas for the Special Immigrant Visa program created by the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009. The 1,000 visas are in addition to 3,000 that Congress already allocated for fiscal year 2014.

The main eligibility requirement, Mr. Speaker, to receive a Special Immigrant Visa under this program is that the Afghan principal applicant must have worked for or on behalf of the U.S. Government for at least 1 year in Afghanistan.

The State Department has indicated that it will issue all 3,000 of their originally allocated visas by the beginning of August, and the Department currently has around 300 approved applications simply waiting for additional visas to be allocated. That number will rise as State continues to process applications over the next few months.

We must remember that simply because a visa cap is reached does not mean that Congress must automatically allocate additional visas. In fact, Congress rarely does so in immigration programs.

I understand that proponents of this legislation claim that individuals waiting on a visa are in harm's way due to their work for the United States Government and the drawdown of U.S. forces in the region, but as with any immigration program, Mr. Speaker, we must also be cognizant of our duty to ensure the safety and security of the United States by making sure that anyone issued a visa is not a threat to our public safety or national security.

So when there are calls for this program to be extended once again before the balance of fiscal year 2015, the Judiciary Committee will be conducting oversight over the program. Such oversight will allow us to make educated decisions on how many, if any, special immigrant visas should be allocated for fiscal year 15.

I look forward to that oversight and urge my colleagues to support this bill that we have under consideration. I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC, July 29, 2014.

Hon. Bob Goodlatte,

Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: Thank you for your consultation with the

Foreign Affairs Committee on H.R. 5195, a bill to provide

additional visas for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa

Program, which involves the legislative jurisdiction of the

Committee on Foreign Affairs under House Rule X. As a result

of those consultations, I agree that the Foreign Affairs

Committee may be discharged from further consideration of

that bill, so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House

floor.

I am writing to confirm our mutual understanding that, by

forgoing consideration of H.R. 5195, the Foreign Affairs

Committee does not waive jurisdiction over the subject matter

contained in this, or any other, legislation. Our Committee

also reserves the right to seek an appropriate number of

conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this bill,

and would appreciate your support for any such request.

I ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter

be included in the Congressional Record during floor

consideration of H.R. 5195.

Sincerely,

Edward R. Royce,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, with pleasure I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger), a champion on this issue.

I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger), and then I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

In closing, this is an important piece of bipartisan legislation. The Afghans, who benefit by this legislation, put their lives on the line for the United States of America. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

I look forward in the coming Congress to doing oversight to look at the further backlog of Afghans who may be eligible for visas, and look through oversight how this program is being administered and ensure that we are able to fulfill the promises that we have made to Afghans who have helped us in the field.

I encourage my colleagues to vote for this important piece of legislation.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5195 accomplishes the important goal of allowing these additional 1,000 Afghan Special Immigrant Visas to be issued before the end of the calendar year.

As has been mentioned, this program was established in 2009 to protect Afghan nationals who were placed in grave danger because they were employed by or assisted the United States Government. Having benefited greatly from their faithful service, Members on both sides of the aisle recognized that we owed a debt of gratitude. We owed these people and their family members the opportunity to live safely and freely.

The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program has not been without its problems. Many of us have come together over the years to complain that the process for issuing the visas was too slow and cumbersome.

Mr. Speaker, from the start of the program through fiscal year 2012, only 1,051 of the 8,500 visas authorized by statute had actually been issued to deserving Afghan nationals. In October of 2012, The Washington Post reported that more than 5,000 Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applications were sitting in a backlog waiting to be adjudicated.

Secretary Kerry recently stated that because of ``unconscionably long processing times for applicants, some deserving people were simply falling through the cracks.''

Now, recently, the program has undergone major improvements. In this fiscal year alone, the State Department has issued more Afghan Special Immigrant Visas than in all previous years combined. The process is now moving swiftly enough that we are coming right up against the cap of 3,000 visas that we set earlier this year in the approps act.

That is where this bill comes in. By making these visas available to Afghan nationals who are facing danger precisely because they provided service to our country, to America, this bill will help ensure that we stand by our commitment to protect those who helped to protect us.

I think it is worth noting that keeping our commitment to these people--the large majority of whom acted as our translators in the field--is not merely a good in and of itself. It is important that the United States stands by its commitment here because we ultimately have to work collaboratively with people all over the globe.

We must ensure that the message we send through our actions is that we honor those who take great personal risks to assist our men and women serving overseas and we do not forget what they do.

Mr. Speaker, I support today's bill. I hope to work with my colleagues to support future extensions of this program, if necessary. I urge my colleagues to also support this important measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), the author of this bill, who has been a tremendous advocate to make sure that America does the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Gabbard), who has herself served our country in the armed services.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers.

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

I will just thank all of the people who worked so hard on this, certainly on both sides of the aisle, and, most especially, Mr. Blumenauer, who has just been ceaseless in his efforts to make sure that these translators were not left behind and not forgotten.

A note on the future: I am happy to support this bill for 1,000 visas today. However, it is reported that there are 5,000 translators backlogged. Now, we don't know, in that 5,000, some may have been murdered already, some may have given up, or some may have gone elsewhere. We don't know that we are going to need an additional number of visas, but we need to open our hearts in the same spirit of bipartisanship that if we fall short, we are going to have to come together as a country. Because we all know, not only is this the right thing to do morally, but for our troops in the field it is essential.

People have to know in other countries that if they step forward to assist the United States, the United States will honor its promises to them.

That is why this bill is so important, not only for what it does, but what it stands for, and why I urge its adoption.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy and her leadership in working with us on this challenging problem.

Mr. Speaker, in a way this represents an amazing, positive development. I have been working in this area for 10 years, dealing with the plight of the foreign nationals that too often America was at risk of leaving behind. But in the course of our work, what has been celebrated here is that actually the challenge today is the result of the administration listening to Congress and improving a system that was fatally flawed--there is no polite way around it--but they have worked hard to improve it. As a result, the visas we have granted have expired. They are gone now. There are no more to be issued. These additional 1,000 visas are critical to be able to get us through this gap.

It is, Mr. Speaker, I think, testimony to the fact that people here in Congress can cross party lines, can work together cooperatively on problems where we are focused. I appreciate the kind words of my friend, Congressman Kinzinger. We wouldn't be where we are right now without him, his focus and his commitment.

I should probably talk about his staff, Michael Essington and Zach Hunter.

There are a list of people who are heroes in this fight that I hope we can spend a moment or two acknowledging because we did get cooperation from Majority Leader McCarthy, his security adviser, Emily Murry.

Chairman Goodlatte, who has returned to this on numerous occasions, we wouldn't be here without him.

Leader Cantor and his staff, particularly Robert Story Karem, who helped us navigate a similar crisis for the Iraq program last fall.

Our whip, Steny Hoyer, and his policy members, Daniel Silverberg and Tom Mahr, were there. At times when there is a lot going on, there is a lot of controversy, there are competing interests, but they kept their eye on the ball to move this forward.

We have got some critical people in the outside world, the NGOs, particularly the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, and their gurus, Becca Heller and Katie Reisner, who helped provide the details, the push.

And I have to admit that there is a champion in my office, my legislative director, Michael Harold, who is as responsible as any one single person who just would not give up, late nights, early mornings, weekends, dealing with things that none of us want to know that happened behind the scenes. But the point is that we are here.

I am hopeful that this signals not just a new era in terms of our being able to get past this, but that we take a comprehensive look at the Afghans and the Iraqis that are left behind because we are facing additional deadlines, and we shouldn't have to go through this on a repeated basis. It takes time that could be better spent more appropriately.

I am confident, at the end, we will do the right thing, but we shouldn't go down to the deadline. We shouldn't create doubt in the minds of people who are waiting desperately, who are trying to evade the tender mercies of the Taliban and al Qaeda, who have long memories and who have hunted these people down. They have captured them and they have killed their siblings. They have tortured them, beheaded them. That is not a fate that they deserve.

I was at the National Airport when Janis Shinwari and Captain Matt Zeller were united, and it is a moment I will never forget. But our moving forward now with this legislation and committing ourselves to the big picture, doing it right on a cooperative basis, means that it will make the difference of life or death for thousands of others that are waiting in this pipeline, and it will make all of us feel better as we conclude this summer session that we are doing it on a note of the sort of thing that we should do, how we should do it, and why we should do it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from California for yielding me the time to add my voice to this bill which addresses an issue of national security and affirms our moral commitment to those who have risked their lives on our behalf.

I especially want to give a shout-out to Mr. Blumenauer and Mr. Kinzinger for their diligence in getting this measure to the floor.

During our war in Afghanistan, our forces have been assisted ably and loyally by some Afghan nationals who have been essential to the mission and the lives of our military, especially Afghan interpreters. Now that we are leaving Afghanistan, these brave partners and their families face a mortal threat from the Taliban. They are relying on us to uphold our commitment to return their loyalty--and now that time has come--by allowing them to relocate to the United States.

This Special Immigrant Visa category recognizes the extraordinary debt we owe these partners. As Ms. Lofgren mentioned, for a number of years, that category suffered from administrative neglect, and the visa process was hardly functional. In the past year, though, important improvements have been made to the processing system and many more of our Afghan allies are being admitted to the United States.

Among them is Janis Shinwari, who served a translator alongside U.S. troops and saved the life of U.S. Army Captain Matt Zeller, with whom he now has a lifelong bond. Janis is now a member of my staff in my district office in Alexandria, Virginia. He continues to hear the desperate stories of his fellow translators who are in great peril and desperately seek to leave Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there are no visas left for the many deserving Afghans who are still in this administrative limbo. In fact, State estimates that we will hit the statutory cap on visas this summer with thousands of applications still outstanding.

The 1,000 visas authorized under this emergency measure are necessary. This bill is critical, but it does not represent the end of our responsibility on this issue.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to ensure that an appropriate number of visas are authorized for 2015. We have to stand by our friends and ensure that those who

have the courage to work with us in future conflicts know that they will not be abandoned.