Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Paris that resulted in the deaths of seventeen innocent persons and offering condolences to those personally affected by this cowardly act.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 37) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Paris that resulted in the deaths of seventeen innocent persons and offering condolences to those personally affected by this cowardly act.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to add any extraneous material to the Record in this debate.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution. The resolution condemns the terrorist attack in France carried out by Islamist extremists earlier this month.

On January 7, two armed gunmen entered the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine in Paris, and, in a brutal, premeditated attack, killed 12 people and injured 11 others.

The following day, as we watched this play out on international media, their associate, Amedy Coulibaly, shot and killed a female police officer, and in the following days with the Kouachi brothers on the run, Coulibaly targeted a kosher supermarket where he shot and killed four Jewish shoppers and took multiple hostages. Later that day, courageous French police officers stormed the supermarket, killed the attacker, and freed the hostages.

There are no words that we can speak today, I think, that will comfort the families and the friends of the 17 people murdered in those terrorist attacks.

The victims included cartoonists and maintenance workers, police officers, grocery shoppers, Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

There are no words strong enough to condemn these terrorists and their radical jihadist ideology.

The Charlie Hebdo offices were attacked because their cartoons offended. The magazine's editor was specifically marked as a target for death by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's online newspaper magazine called Inspire under the not-so-subtle headline, ``A Bullet a Day Keeps the Infidel Away.''

Indeed, the Kouachi brothers called out the editor's name before they shot and killed him.

Mr. Speaker, the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an attack on free speech. The right to express ideas and opinions, even if they are unpopular or offensive, is a foundation for a free society--France's and ours. Frankly, the struggle of the Enlightenment has largely been a struggle against blasphemy laws going all of the way back to the foundation of this Republic and our First Amendment and Jefferson's concept of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

It was not the first time that this magazine was attacked by terrorists. And, unfortunately, it probably won't be the last time a media outlet like this is targeted. That is why this resolution resolves to uphold and defend the basic principle--free speech.

The grocery store victims were murdered because they were Jewish. In the days following, France stationed thousands of police officers to guard France's Jewish schools and synagogues in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Alarmingly, anti-Semitic forces are on the rise in France and in much of Europe.

This resolution puts the House on record as condemning in the strongest terms possible the Paris attacks and extends the sympathy of every American to those affected by the tragedy. It reiterates our support for France, America's sister republic, our oldest ally, and it calls upon all nations to join the global effort of fighting violent extremism.

This is a time to not just express sorrow for those killed but also a time to show resolve in the face of terror. Our intelligence-sharing with allies, already strong, will need to get much sharper; border checks improved; and coalition efforts to destroy ISIS will need to be stepped up. I urge all Members to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, and the author of this measure.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Poe from Texas, chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, for authoring this important resolution; but I also want to thank our ranking member, Eliot Engel of New York, for his support in bringing this resolution to the floor to ensure that we speak with one voice on issues of violent extremism and to ensure that we stand with our ally France at this difficult time.

Last week, many Members visited the Foreign Affairs Committee to sign a condolence book and greet the French Ambassador in person. Mr. Engel and I thanked them for their show of solidarity in this.

Mr. Speaker, the ultimate reality is that these attacks in Paris are indicative of a resurgent terrorist threat from radical Islamist extremists. The brothers were connected to al Qaeda in Yemen, a particularly active and deadly al Qaeda franchise. The kosher market gunman pledged his allegiance to ISIS, which now controls parts of Iraq and Syria and has specifically targeted Americans.

Up to 5,000 Europeans are believed now to have traveled to Syria to fight or get training. Whether from organized groups or returning foreign fighters or lone wolves, the terrorist threat is real, and it is growing.

These are not criminals united by happenstance but by a militant jihadi impulse united by ideology, by doctrine, and by practice, its adherents drawn all the way from Africa to Southeast Asia, from the Middle East to the Caucasus.

Unlike some of the rhetoric we have heard by some here in Washington, in every corner of the globe, terrorist groups are growing in number, and they are growing in strength. In Europe, France is at the front lines of a dangerous and growing ideology that has, again, demonstrated that it knows no bounds.

As we face an expanding and evolving threat, it is imperative that we unequivocally condemn attacks on freedom of speech, condemn attacks on religious pluralism, and reaffirm our resolve to fight extremism.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, the terrorist attacks by radical Islamists in Paris were a tragedy for all who love peace and freedom. What happened at the offices of Charlie Hebdo and the kosher market reminds us this violent extremism remains a critical threat. I am happy to stand with the chairman here in showing strong bipartisanship once again because we grieve with France, our oldest ally. Our hearts break for all those who have lost loved ones in these attacks and for all who watched this carnage spill into their peaceful city streets.

As a New Yorker, I remember the outpouring of support from France following September 11, 2011. But even as we mourn the dead, we draw inspiration from the displays of courage and solidarity on the streets of the City of Light, across Europe, and around the world.

With the attackers still at large, Parisians took to the streets in massive and peaceful vigils. They sent a clear message to the world: freedom and justice will not be cowed by violence and terror.

In these attacks, Mr. Speaker, the ancient evil of anti-Semitism once again showed its ugly face. Anti-Semitism is both a threat with which governments need to deal and a societal challenge requiring honest dialogue, critical self-examination, and constant vigilance. France's deployment of special troops and extra police to Jewish sites was the right thing to do. But much more will be needed in the days ahead to ensure that Europe's largest Jewish community is safe from attack and free from fear.

Just as America stands with the people of France against terrorism, Americans also stand shoulder to shoulder with European Jewry.

That is the message we are sending today with this resolution. Whether in Paris or New York, Moscow or Jerusalem, whether homegrown or imported, whether targeting Jews, Muslims, Christians, or anyone else, violent extremism has no place in a civilized world. We will continue to work with our friends and allies to put a stop to this threat. It is important that Congress go on record as strongly opposed to this violence. We will do whatever it takes to secure the future of freedom and democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I am Jewish--Je suis Juif. I am Charlie--Je suis Charlie.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

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

Je suis Juif, I am Jewish. Mr. Speaker, Je suis Charlie, I am Charlie Hebdo. This is what we are all saying collectively as a Congress as we debate this bill today. This is what the people of France were saying and have been saying ever since the tragedy happened. People with placards and banners were carrying them high above France to show solidarity in the fight against terrorism.

Mr. Speaker, we have had an important conversation here in the House. I am heartened by the expressions of unity and resolve, and I hope they provide a measure of comfort to those families that are suffering who had loved ones who were killed and those who were wounded by this recent attack.

Symbolism looms hard in foreign affairs, and with this resolution, we deliver a powerful message. We deliver it on the day the President is going to speak with us in the State of the Union, and I think nothing could be stronger than for this House unanimously to fight terrorism, to reject terrorism, and, again, to say, ``Je suis Juif, Je suis Charlie.''

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for bringing this resolution to the House floor so quickly.

Mr. Speaker, it was a cold winter morning in Paris just before lunchtime when two masked men with AK-47s approached a woman standing outside the door of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, forcing her to let them in.

Once inside the door, they gunned down the security guard in the lobby and ran up to the second floor shouting, ``Where is Charb? Where is Charb?'' Charb is the nickname of the newspaper's editor, Mr. Charbonnier. After reaching their target, they executed him and 10 others. They exited the building shouting, ``Allahu Akbar,'' or ``God is the greatest.'' Then they sped off. They would kill an injured Muslim police officer lying on the ground before they fled.

The two terrorists got away, but not for long. French law enforcement found and killed the men in a standoff near the Paris airport. That same day, another terrorist killed a female police officer and attacked a kosher supermarket and murdered four Jewish men. Once again, French law enforcement took care of the terrorists and rescued the hostages.

These terrorists killed because they didn't like what people had to say. Mr. Speaker, it is a fundamental human right to have freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. No amount of violence can take those rights away from us. It is basic.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution says we are not going to let Islamic radical terrorists steal those rights from anyone, whether it is the French, whether it is someone else in the world or even here in America. Mr. Speaker, after all, they killed at the kosher cafe because they not only didn't like what people were saying, they didn't like those people because they were Jews.

France did an excellent job bringing swift justice down on these terrorists, but the fight is certainly not over. There may be, and probably are, hundreds of others around the world plotting to kill neighbors and countrymen and people in other Nations because those terrorists don't agree with what those people say or what those people look like or what those people's personal religion may be. They think they have the right to kill in the name of a radical Islamic religion.

Mr. Speaker, the threat is serious and it is deadly. This resolution remembers those folks who were killed because they believed the way they did or because they looked the way they looked or because their religion was different than others. We mourn when the French mourn. As stated earlier, the French are our oldest and first ally.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, we have two portraits in this House Chamber, one of George Washington and one of Lafayette, the first great Frenchman who helped the United States. We have a close bond with the French. And it is important that we let them, the world, and especially the terrorists know that our bond with freedom-loving countries will remain strong, especially in time of need, when people are attacked because of their beliefs and the idea that they can express a difference of opinion.

I want to congratulate French law enforcement for their speedy and quick resolve in disposing of these terrorists, and we should let them know that we appreciate all law enforcement who fight back against terrorists who want to kill us because we don't agree with them.

Once again, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for bringing this resolution to the House floor.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Royce and Mr. Engel and

Mr. Poe for their leadership in bringing the House together on a very important issue.

Earlier today I stood and spoke about the tragic news that we heard early this morning of two Japanese citizens being held and ISIS asking for $200 million.

The work of these individuals in Paris, France, and beyond was in their mind a connectedness to al Qaeda and others, proudly so, as they slaughtered those individuals who chose to lift up liberte in the spirit of the French people and take to the pen and assess the atmosphere of the day and provide humor to it.

Mr. Speaker, I do not comment on one person's opinion, but I do know that liberte, democracy, liberty, and our own beliefs give every human being dignity and the freedom of expression, the free press, the right to free speech and religion, and I believe these are very valuable ideals. And so this resolution speaks to that by condemning the heinousness of the act.

How many families--children, mothers, and fathers--were impacted by the loss of their loved ones? What a tragedy to see a police officer gunned down in the street who asked, as I reflect on the words as I recall them, to be left alone, and yet was shot again, and other officers in the line of duty being subjected to the violence of these individuals.

This is an intolerable situation that should not be tolerated. But we are hearing from the voices of these terrorist groups that they are now asking individuals to stay in place, to stay at home and create jihad. At the same time, I have heard voices from the Islam extended community, people of the faith, Islamic faith, and I have heard them condemn these violent acts. I have heard them condemn these acts as not reflecting their faith.

Then again, as we watched an individual slaughter Jewish persons in a kosher market purposely because of their faith, we cannot tolerate that. In one single voice, we should rise up as this resolution, H. Res. 37, says to express the affection for all people and their right to exist. That is, if you will, a universal phenomenon, to allow individual persons and individuals to exist without threat of heinous violence. As I talked about Dr. Martin Luther King, I said the very words he has commended to us: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

As we begin this journey into a new year, I don't know how much we will be confronted with these horrible acts. I am on the Homeland Security Committee, and for a long time we were seeing the signs of what I call franchise terrorism. But I do know that it has to be a world, a global effort, but it also has to, as I began to talk about earlier, reach the hearts and minds of young men and possibly women who are being subjected to radicalism on the Internet or elsewhere.

We have to stop that bleeding, if you will, and begin to promote openly our values, which include respect for religious differences. As we do that, I believe it will be well worth the investment because we don't know where this is going to end, and we certainly need to say to the American people that we are committed, in essence that we are on top of it, and that we have many solutions to this tragic problem.

So I rise in support of H. Res. 37 for its condemnation and recognition of where we are today, and I ask for us to address this in a multitude of ways in order to have peace in this world and in our Nation.