Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I submit a letter I sent last week to Attorney General Eric Holder, my fourth this year on the topic (I also submit the previous four), pressing him and the Department of Justice to prioritize combatting sex trafficking on the Internet. I specifically highlighted the Web site Backpage.com, which time and again has been proven to be a conduit for the buying and selling of human beings, including minors.

My letter was prompted by a Washington Post article, which I also submit for the Record, which details the exploitation of a young local girl on Backpage.com.

Attorney General Holder has failed to shut down or even publicly shame Backpage.com, one of the major vehicles for trafficking in this country. Enough is enough. I am not going to drop this issue until every mother and father in this nation has the peace of mind that our government is doing everything it can to confront this criminal enterprise. Backpage.com is profiting from the sexual exploitation of minors. This must not be permitted to continue.

December 6, 2013.

Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,

Attorney General, Department of Justice,

Washington, DC.

Dear Attorney General Holder: The lead article in the Metro

section of today's Washington Post provided yet another sad

account of a young girl being sexually trafficked on the Web

site Backpage.com. What makes it even more tragic is that the

alleged pimp is a D.C. police officer. Enclosed is a copy of

the article. I marked the reference to Backpage.com.

For five years, I have been asking you and your department

to deal with this problem. You have given a lot of speeches,

but have you ever even publicly called out Backpage.com for

its critical role in facilitating sex trafficking?

When are you and your department going to get serious about

solving this problem? How many more young girls are going to

become victims before the department deals with this?

From now on, I'm going to hold you personally accountable

for each victim trafficked on that Web site--each someone's

daughter, sister, or mother. I'm asking you--not as attorney

general but as a father--to use your remaining time in office

to find a way to end Backpage.com's trafficking of young

girls and women.

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

Frank R. Wolf,

Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of The Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, a Virginia-based 501(c)(3), non-profit, non- partisan organization, established in 2004 to provide severely wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families, with emergency financial assistance and other support services to help them recover from their injuries and rebuild their lives. CSAH is headquartered in Leesburg, which in my Congressional district in Loudoun County, and serves military veterans and their families living in the Commonwealth as well as nationally. All funds needed to develop and manage programs that advance its mission come from contributions to CSAH by individual citizens, corporate donors and foundations.

The mission of the Coalition is to ensure that our war-weary nation should not lose sight of its obligations to those who are protecting our freedoms. These true American heroes often receive little or no support from the nation for which they sacrificed so much. Because of a shortage of funding and an interminable bureaucratic backlog at the Veterans Administration, they wait for roughly a year, on average, to receive disability pay and benefits. Thousands do not get proper care for PTSD because it is largely misunderstood.

Under the leadership of David Walker, who serves as President and CEO, the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes helps severely wounded veterans and families of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom living in the Commonwealth of Virginia and across the country recover from their injuries and illnesses by providing emergency financial aid and other support services, in hopes that the veterans are able to transition successfully into civilian life. Additionally, the Coalition's emergency aid services responds to trends associated with suicide among veterans (24 per day), a sky-rocking divorce rate (60 percent among actives), and growing domestic abuse.

Last year as one of his first acts, Walker restructured The Coalition's budget so that it could give more directly to veterans and organizations that support them, with programs that include: emergency financial aid to help through crisis situations (evictions, car repossessions, etc.); training seminars; a call center program to provide veterans and spouses the opportunity to work on a part-time basis (some of the program's participants have moved on to part-time or full-time employment in the private sector); equine-therapy programs and more.

In 2013 alone, the Coalition will have donated nearly $1 million in direct aid to veterans, in addition to managing the many other CSAH programs that are available to wounded veterans (conferences, holiday gift checks, education and training, etc.).

The Coalition has made eight grants totaling over $80,000 to organizations based in Virginia and Washington, D.C., including: Horses Helping Heroes Project, which provides no-cost, equine-assisted activities and therapies

for wounded veterans in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia; Institute for Veterans Education and Training (IVET), which offers week-long training programs for veterans and their spouses; over $50,000 to complete the construction of transitional housing for formerly homeless veterans living in Washington, D.C.; Final Salute, Inc., to provide safe and suitable transitional housing for homeless female veterans; Boulder Crest Retreat in Bluemont, VA, a new retreat for veterans seeking physical, mental and spiritual recovery from the wounds of war; Dog Tag Bakery, a not-for-profit venture dedicated to helping wounded veterans re-assimilate to civilian life by providing on-the-job bakery training and a tailor-made curriculum at the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University; etc.

In addition, this year, The Coalition was nominated for the Virginia First Lady's Opportunity Hall of Fame Awards, which recognizes leading Virginia nonprofits.

In April 2013, WTOP radio (CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.) commended The Coalition by calling it a key resource responding to the problem of the growing back-log of U.S. Veterans Administration disability claims (which can take on average up to one year before veterans receive their disability payments).

Virginia has a proud tradition of military service to our nation, and is the grateful home of millions of veterans and their families. I am especially proud of the work of the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes and the work it is doing to fill a terrible void in our society. I commend The Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, which honors and remembers our heroes by helping them transition into civilian life so they may prosper.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, a profound 3-hour debate took place in the House of Commons on the persecution of Christians globally. Multiple British parliamentarians argued with great passion and persuasion that this is the human rights issue of our day and one which demands great attention on the part of the British Government, and the West more broadly.

In some respect, it is a sad commentary that such a conversation was remarkable, and yet it was. When was the last time this body, this Congress, let alone this administration or the State Department, spent even a fraction of that time talking about the thousands of people of faith who daily face discrimination, persecution, violence, and even death simply because of their most deeply held beliefs?

It is worth noting that several weeks earlier the House of Commons had a debate on the persecution of Christians, specifically in the Middle East. There was an overwhelming number of speakers, too many more than the allotted time. This week's debate starts to satisfy that interest.

In comparison, we have before us relatively modest legislation that has languished in the Senate for two consecutive Congresses now which would create a special envoy within the U.S. Department of State charged with advocating for vulnerable religious minorities in the Middle East and east Central Asia. How do we explain the utter lack of urgency on the part of our own government to address an epic exodus, that of Christianity from its very birthplace?

The House of Commons debate is timely, not simply because of the magnitude and pervasiveness of the problem, but also because millions of professing Christians around the world have just embarked on the Advent season in anticipation of celebrating the birth of Jesus, a birth marked by its humble beginnings in a small Middle Eastern town called Bethlehem.

Yet, as British member of Parliament, Sir Tony Baldry, noted with a sad irony:

There is now practically no country--from Morocco to

Pakistan--in which Christians can freely practice their

religion.

He continued:

There is a severe danger, as we start to celebrate the

feast of Christmas in this country, that all Christianity

will be almost completely erased from the traditional Middle

East Holy Land of the Bible. Joseph would not now be advised

to take Mary to Egypt to avoid the dangers of Herod, because

Jesus would just not be safe there today.

To follow on Sir Baldry's line of thinking, the patriarch Abraham would also have a difficult time surviving in Iraq having come from Ur, which is now Nasiriyah. Jonah would be hard pressed to make it to Nineveh, and Paul could scarcely travel the road to Damascus in Syria.

The debate in the House of Commons began with a staggering statistic, namely, that one Christian is killed every 11 minutes somewhere on Earth for their faith.

While the focus of the House of Commons' debate was on persecuted Christians, several MPs noted that whether or not you are a person of faith, all should be concerned by this troubling trend. Ultimately, freedom of religion and belief is a bellwether for other cherished freedoms. Where this ``first freedom'' is compromised, the whole of human rights is under assault.

In country after country, freedom of religion is indeed compromised, and Christians, to borrow a phrase from history, are in the eye of the ``gathering storm.''

This is perhaps no more true than in the Middle East. Here we see governmental, societal, and communal violence and repression against religious communities which specifically targets religious minorities, including Christians.

These realities have been exasperated by the so-called Arab Spring, a spring which has devolved into winter for many of the most vulnerable in these societies, foremost among them, ancient Christian communities.

With the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Coptic Christians, numbering roughly 8 to 10 million, are leaving in droves in the face of increased repression, persecution, and violence. They were increasingly marginalized with the ascendency of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Of course, recent events in Egypt indicate a rejection, in part, of the Brotherhood's approach, but the situation is fluid, and news reports indicate that Islamists are taking advantage of the unrest to target Coptic Christians.

Similarly, Iraq's Christian population has plummeted. Churches have now been targeted, believers kidnapped for ransom, and families threatened with violence if they stay.

During the debate in the House of Commons, Canon Andrew White, famously dubbed the ``Vicar of Baghdad'' as he oversees the only Anglican Church in Iraq, was quoted as saying that Christians ``are frightened even to walk to church because they might come under attack. All the churches are targets.''

He went on to say, ``We used to have 1.5 million Christians. Now we have probably only 200,000 left. There are more Iraqi Christians,'' he said, ``in Chicago than there are here.''

That is amazing. And this body, this Congress, this administration, silent.

The issues I have just outlined must be viewed not simply as today's news but, rather, through the lens of history. A phrase not often heard outside of the majority Muslim world is ``First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.''

The ``Saturday people'' are, of course, the Jewish people. Except for Israel, the once vibrant communities and countries throughout the region are now decimated. In 1948, the Jewish population of Iraq was roughly 150,000. Today, no more than four individuals remain. In Egypt, the Jewish population was once as many as 80,000. Now roughly 20 remain. It appears a similar fate may await the ancient Christian community in these same lands.

If the Middle East is effectively emptied of the Christian faith, this will have great geopolitical and, I would argue, spiritual implications. But rather than being met with urgency, vision, or creativity, our government's response has been anemic and, at times, outright baffling, especially to the communities most impacted by the changing Middle East landscape.

Multiple other countries were mentioned during the House of Commons debate, including, but not limited to, China, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

And keep in mind, the Obama administration has not pushed Iran for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini. He sits in prison, his life is endangered, and this administration is silent.

It was rightly noted, with some degree of irony, that, despite the blood spilt in Afghanistan by British and American forces alike, not a single church--not a single church--remains in that nation.

One member of Parliament, Rehman Chishti, focused on the nation of Pakistan, where he was born. He said:

I come from a Muslim background. My father was an imam.

When I saw the topic was persecution of Christians in the

21st century, I knew that it was absolutely right and proper

to have a debate on that subject. It is important for the

world to realize that persecution goes on.

He continued, and I quote:

The Blasphemy law is at the root of much suffering and

persecution of Christians in Pakistan.

And then he specifically mentioned the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of six, who, for years, has languished in prison and faces the death penalty for her alleged crimes.

Do you ever hear her name mentioned on the floor of the House? Do you ever hear her name mentioned at the State Department briefings? Do you ever hear her name mentioned at the White House? Does anyone even know who she is? Does anyone even care?

She faces death, the death penalty, for her alleged crimes.

Too often, when confronted with these types of cases, the State Department offers unsatisfactory assurances that they ``raised the issue'' during private bilateral discussions, that is, if they raised it at all. Or perhaps the Department issues a bland statement

``condemning the violence,'' and then acts as if this is somehow a courageous or principled response to a bloody assault on innocent human life.

This State Department and this President ought to learn from President Reagan and his State Department. President Reagan always advocated for those who were persecuted. And Secretary Baker and the Bush administration always advocated.

This administration is silent. And, quite frankly, this Congress, House, and Senate are silent.

The suffering church takes little solace in this approach, nor should we. In fact, I profoundly reject this approach. The Congress should profoundly reject this approach. And I humbly submit, the church in the West should demand more, for, if not them, who?

With a few notable exceptions, among them the Catholic Church, specifically, Cardinal Dolan, who, in his farewell address as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, beckoned the bishops to extend their efforts to the ``dramatic front lines of this battle, where Christians are paying for their fidelity with their lives.''

Too few in the American church are burdened with this point of action for their suffering brethren.

Reverend Martin Luther King's ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail'' is addressed to his fellow--and everyone ought to read Martin Luther King's ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail.'' It was addressed to his fellow clergymen. Earlier in the letter, he speaks of his love for the church, a love that I share, but then he goes on to admonish his fellow clergymen. This is what Martin Luther King said:

I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed

with the church. When I was suddenly catapulted into the

leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few

years ago, I felt I would be supported by the White church. I

felt that the White ministers, priests, rabbis of the South

would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been

outright opponents. All too many others have been more

cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the

anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

Could we not substitute a few words and be left with a similar critique today? Might the imprisoned Pakistani Christian lament, ``I thought I would be supported by the church in the West''? Might the fearful Coptic Christians cry, ``I thought the ministers in America would be among our strongest allies''?

If the church slumbers, Washington will scarcely lead the way. Do not expect the Congress or the administration to lead the way if the church does not lead the way.

Advent is the season of expectant waiting rich and spiritual meaning for believers the world over. My prayer this Advent is that the suffering church would no longer suffer alone, and that we would stand with them and seek a day when, in the words of the beloved Christian carol, ``all oppression shall cease.''

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. William Lee Trolan on the occasion of his retirement from the Office of the Sergeant at Arms on December 6, and to thank him for 35 years of dedicated service supporting and leading sensitive and classified national security programs.

Beginning in December 1978, and for the following six years, Mr. Trolan served as a commissioned U.S. Army officer defending our nation on the ``frontiers of freedom,'' which included operational command of a nuclear missile site. For 19 years, he worked for several government agencies focusing on critical emergency management and national security programs, including response to nuclear weapons incidents. For the past nine years, he served as the Director of Continuity Planning for the U.S. House of Representatives where he developed plans and resources that dramatically improved Congressional planning and readiness as it relates to continuity of goverment operations.

On behalf of the entire House community, I extend congratulations to Mr. Trolan for his outstanding contributions to the United States House of Representatives and to our country.

Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record a compelling open letter that Eric Reeves, noted Sudan researcher and activist and a professor at Smith College, recently sent to President Obama expressing his dismay at the moral failure of the Obama administration in responding to ``the continuing mass atrocities perpetrated by the current regime in Khartoum (Sudan) . . .''

Reeves notes the contrast between Obama's outspoken rhetoric on Sudan as a senator and eventual presidential candidate versus the indefensible silence, appeasement and moral equivalency which has marked his administration's posture toward a genocidal regime.

In February 2012 I travelled to Yida refugee camp in South Sudan. I heard devastating firsthand accounts of the violence, terror and starvation being brought to bear against the Sudanese people by the regime in Khartoum. I recall speaking with one woman who described herself and her people as ``forsaken.'' I specifically asked her if there was anything she wanted me to tell President Obama. She said the only thing she wanted was for Omar Bashir, an internationally indicted war criminal, to be arrested.

But rather than working to facilitate Bashir being brought to justice, this administration seems bent, in the words of Professor Reeves, ``on throwing a political and economic lifeline to the regime.''

I can't help but wonder why the Obama Administration views the Sudanese people as any less deserving of a lifeline.

An Open Letter to President Obama on the Bombing of North Sharafa, East

Jebel Marra (Darfur)

[From Eric Reeves, Nov. 30, 2013]

President Barack Obama,

The White House, Washington, DC

Dear President Obama: The moral failure of your

administration to respond to the continuing mass atrocities

perpetrated by the current regime in Khartoum (Sudan) grows

daily, and has done so for the past five years. Your refusal

to condemn, in the strongest terms, the continuing war crimes

and crimes against humanity committed by the National Islamic

Front/National Congress Party tyranny stands in stark

contrast to your urgent words as a Senator, as a presidential

candidate, and as an elected President. As a senator in 2004,

you called the atrocities in Darfur ``genocide.'' You said so

again as a presidential candidate in 2007 and chided the Bush

administration for its accommodation of Khartoum. Invoking

Rwanda and Bosnia as justification for humanitarian

intervention in Darfur, you said, ``The United States has a

moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes.''

You declared further,

``When you see a genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia or in Darfur,

that is a stain on all of us, a stain on our souls. . . . We

can't say `never again' and then allow it to happen again,

and as a president of the United States I don't intend to

abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.'' (Video

recording available at: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QEd583-fA8M#t=15; all emphases have been added)

And as President you again characterized Darfur as the site

of ``genocide.''

But despite such strong language, your administration has

come to substitute words of appeasement, feigned ignorance of

atrocity crimes, and a grotesque moral equivalence between

Khartoum and its adversaries, one that would put in balance

the regime's genocidal destruction and the actions by the

various rebel groups that have emerged to resist Khartoum's

tyranny. Your first special envoy to Sudan arrived declaring

his strategy for confronting the regime's genocidaires in

words that have become synonymous with diplomatic absurdity:

``We've got to think about giving out cookies,'' said

[Scott] Gration, who was appointed in March. ``Kids,

countries--they react to gold stars, smiley faces,

handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.'' (Washington Post

[el-Fasher, Darfur], September 29, 2009)

In March 2009 the Khartoum regime expelled from Darfur

thirteen of the world's finest humanitarian organizations,

then providing roughly half the total international

humanitarian capacity for millions of people. Your surrogate

diplomatic representative--then-Senator and now Secretary of

State John Kerry--declared in the wake of Khartoum's ruthless

expulsions:

``We have agreement [with Khartoum] that in the next weeks

we will be back to 100 percent [humanitarian] capacity,''

said [Senator John] Kerry. (Reuters [el-Fasher], April 17,

2009)

This was a cruel lie, as Kerry and everyone within the

humanitarian community working in Darfur well knew. Indeed,

this was such transparent mendacity that even now it carries

the stench of supreme expediency.

Your second special envoy, Princeton Lyman, declared in

late June 2011 that there wasn't enough evidence to support

reports of

massive, ethnically-targeted killings of Nuba civilians in

South Kordofan. But in fact, overwhelming evidence was

pouring out of Kadugli (capital of the region) making all too

clear the nature of atrocity crimes, which amounted to

incipient genocide. Again, this skepticism bears the stench

of unforgiveable expediency, the more so since a UN human

rights report on the events of June 2011 in South Kordofan--

based on evidence gathered by UN human rights investigators

on the ground at the time--confirmed what all sources were

declaring with increasing urgency throughout this terrible

month. Lyman's disingenuous skepticism worked to convince

Khartoum that the U.S. was not particularly concerned about a

reprise of the genocidal campaign by this same Khartoum

regime against the people of the Nuba in the 1990s.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that in the

unseemly rush to secure continuing cooperation from the

Khartoum regime on counter-terrorism intelligence, you and

your administration have repeatedly and willfully ignored

reports of the most conspicuous and brutal crimes committed

by this regime, or at least decided not to speak publicly

about them in any meaningful or consistent way. And here your

almost total silence over the deliberate bombing of

civilians--even as every such military action is a war crime,

and in aggregate constitute crimes against humanity--is most

shameful, and most persistent.

Since 1999 the have been more than 2,000 confirmed reports

of deliberate aerial attacks on civilian and humanitarian

targets in greater Sudan; the actual number of attacks is

very likely many times this, and continues to grow rapidly.

This is unprecedented in the history of aerial warfare: never

before has a military power been able to bomb with impunity

its own civilians relentlessly, systematically, and

deliberately during a detailed and lengthy reporting period,

now extending over 15 years. While most of the attacks have

been by Antonovs, Khartoum has also deployed highly accurate

military jet aircraft, long-range missiles, and helicopter

gunships, which were used with particular destructiveness in

the early years of the Darfur genocide. On any number of

occasions, helicopter gunships have fired on civilians with

heavy machine-guns and rockets from extremely close range.

I write on this occasion moved not by the singularity of a

particular bombing attack that occurred yesterday, but rather

by its horrific familiarity. Radio Dabanga, an

extraordinarily important, indeed singular source of news

from Darfur, reports today that on Friday, November 28, 2013:

[I]n North Sharafa in East Jebel Marra [in the center of

Darfur], an Antonov [``bomber,'' i.e. retrofitted cargo plane

with no militarily useful accuracy] bombed three farmers, at

about 5.30 pm on Friday [November 29, 2013]. The two men and

a woman were riding a horse cart from their farm to their

homes in Sharafa village. The three farmers and their horses

were killed immediately. The names of the three farmers are

Hashim Abakar Mohamed, Mustafa Eisa, and Hanan Saleh Juma.

Such criminal bombings--directly violating a UN Security

Council resolution as well as international law--are a

virtually daily occurrence in East Jebel Marra, part of a

massif in central Darfur serving as stronghold for one of the

rebel groups in Darfur, now linked throughout Sudan in the

form of the Sudan Revolutionary Front. But Khartoum is not

attacking military forces: it is deliberately attacking

civilians in an effort to compel surrender or displacement or

starvation of the remaining rebel forces. There is no other

conclusion to be reached, given the inherent inaccuracy of

the Antonov ``bombers,'' which fly at very high altitudes and

simply roll crude, shrapnel-loaded barrel bombs out the cargo

bay without benefit of any sighting mechanism. Such attacks

continue occur throughout Darfur.

Antonovs are transparently instruments of civilian terror

and destruction--as they are in South Kordofan and Blue Nile,

areas where bombing attacks are also continuously reported,

and with particular authority from the Nuba Mountains of

South Kordofan. There a campaign of civilian annihilation

continues unabated as agricultural production has been

brought to a halt by the fear of continued bombardment. A

similarly grim narrative is playing out in Blue Nile and the

result is some 300,000 refugees fleeing to South Sudan and

Ethiopia, leaving behind more than one million civilians at

acute risk of disease and starvation according to UN

estimates.

Where are the voices of condemnation? Here I mean not the

occasional generic condemnations issued by your

administration, typically qualified (and thus weakened) by

inclusion of some other issue. What prevents your

administration from condemning every attack on civilians by

military aircraft, per se? The U.S. intelligence community

certainly has the resources to confirm via satellite

reconnaissance virtually every attack reported by Radio

Dabanga or Nuba Reports, both of which are well known for

their accuracy and ground-based reporting (many of their

findings have been confirmed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty

International, the Enough Project, journalists, and intrepid

humanitarians). Would it simply be too embarrassing to reveal

just what we and the rest of the international community are

tolerating? Would it be too shameful to make clear that, on

the basis of geostrategic considerations, Syria is important

while the people of the marginalized regions of Sudan are

not?

Perhaps you will say that the ``hybrid'' UN/African Union

Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has the responsibility for

reporting and condemning aerial attacks on civilians. But

this would only add to the disingenuousness of your

administration in speaking about Sudan. For as you are surely

aware, UNAMID is a complete failure as a mission,

particularly in fulfilling it primary mandate of civilian and

humanitarian protection: for some 2 million people have been

newly displaced since the mission took up its mandate in

January 2008--overwhelmingly as a consequence of continuing

violence, directed particularly against civilians. You touted

your support for a UNAMID-like mission in 2007, revealing

either ignorance or an expedient desire to appear to be

responding to the crisis by handing it off to an ill-prepared

African Union Peace and Security Council, which had no

dedicated military equipment or soldiers of its own.

Unsurprisingly, the poorly equipped and poorly led UNAMID

mission is routinely denied access to scenes of atrocity

crimes by the Khartoum regime's security forces, as are

humanitarian organizations, which struggle to work within an

increasingly limited range of operations. Because of

uncontrolled insecurity, the highly trained expatriate

component of what was once the world's largest humanitarian

operation is down to 3 percent. Your administration issues

only infrequent boiler-plate condemnations in response to

serious violations of a range of UN Security Council

Resolutions. Despite its elaborate website and nominal

reporting duties, UNAMID confirms virtually no bombing

attacks, no matter how egregiously in violation of

international law. Additionally and symptomatically,

UNAMID has for years said virtually nothing about the

epidemic of sexual violence directed against girls and

women in Darfur, despite the fact that there have been

tens of thousands have been victims during the conflict,

now about to enter its twelfth year. Your administration

has been useless in highlighting these terrible crimes,

which continue to be committed with total impunity.

UNAMID's only virtue would appear to be that it gives the

semblance of an international presence approved by the UN--at

immense cost--and provides an excuse for not responding in

the way you as candidate spoke about so passionately.

UNAMID's impotence, and its failure to deter aerial

bombardment of civilians, is illustrated by another report of

November 28, 2013 from Radio Dabanga:

Ten people were killed in aerial bombardments near Shengil

Tobaya and Sharafa in East Jebel Marra. One attack took place

a few kilometers from the UNAMID compound in Shengil Tobaya,

while a group of 15 people was on their way to Shengil Tobaya

after a visit to the market of Tabit.

A Sudanese Air Force aircraft appeared around 4pm on

Friday, hitting the Toyota Hi-Lux that was transporting the

15 people, at Tangara, 3km west of the UNAMID compound in

Shengil Tobaya. Seven of them died at the spot and eight were

critically wounded. Several of them could not be moved due to

their critical injuries. The relatives of the victims asked

UNAMID to act quickly and transfer the severely wounded

people to a hospital and recover the dead bodies. Yesterday

evening it was unclear whether UNAMID had helped out. The

victims are Abakir Yagoub Mohamed, Ali Ahmed Abdalla, Mohamed

Ali Ahmed, Osman Adam Mohamed and Zahra Ibrahim. (emphasis

added; the UNAMID compound at Shengil Tobaya is a significant

one)

Will you and your administration continue to hide behind

the diplomatic fig-leaf of UNAMID's putative ability to halt

what has become a grim ``genocide by attrition''? In fact,

the genocide proceeds apace in large measure because your

administration has decided, as part of its larger Sudan

policy, to ``de-couple'' Darfur from the largest bilateral

issue between Khartoum and Washington: cooperation on

counter-terrorism. That a senior official of your

administration would use the term ``de-couple'' in speaking

about Darfur and any aspect of U.S. Sudan policy amounts to

declaring that despite the genocidal realities you excoriated

as candidate and as president--when it was politically useful

to do so--you and your administration are willing to set

aside, bracket, and finally ignore this scene of unending

human suffering and destruction.

Indeed, it is difficult not to see a direct connection

between your silence about the ongoing and widespread aerial

bombardment of civilians in Darfur and your decision to ``de-

couple'' the region from what looms as the defining feature

of your Sudan policy: an obsessive desire to retain access to

the counter-terrorism intelligence provided by the regime

that gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden from 1992-1996, the

years in which al-Qaeda came to fruition. Let us recall also

that this same regime continued to assist al-Qaeda long after

bin Laden's departure for Afghanistan, providing funds,

diplomatic cover, and banking conduits.

Your administration's calculations about the value of

counter-terrorism intelligence provided by Khartoum have

occasioned a good deal of skepticism among Sudan experts

outside of government; in any event, these calculations are

certainly made with full knowledge of what the regime

continues to inflict on the people of Sudan. You and your

administration also know that demonstrations beginning in

late September of

this year were met by the most brutal repression imaginable,

with security forces given ``shoot to kill'' orders that

resulted in some 300 deaths (many killed by bullet wounds to

the chest, back and head) and some 2,000 arrests (many remain

under arrest without charge). Ordinary Sudanese are outraged

at the economic shambles the regime has created, and are

demanding that these hopelessly corrupt and cruelly self-

enriching men be removed from power. And yet your

administration seems to be bent on throwing a political and

economic lifeline to the regime. Your former special envoy

declared in December 2011, after Khartoum's military seizure

of the contested Abyei region (in violation of the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement) and subsequent military

assaults on South Kordofan and Blue Nile:

``Frankly, we do not want to see the ouster of the

[Sudanese] regime, nor regime change. We want to see the

regime carrying out reform via constitutional democratic

measures.'' (Princeton Lyman's response to a question by the

respected Arabic news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat concerning Sudan

and the ``Arab Spring,'' December 3, 2011)

It is the height of disingenuousness and expediency for

your envoy to have suggested that the National Islamic Front/

National Congress Party is in any way prepared to ``carry out

reform via constitutional democratic measure.'' The regime's

response to the September/October demonstrations and

political protests from all quarters provides evidence that

could hardly be more compelling.

And yet at the very moment in which gross mismanagement of

the Sudanese economy over the past 24 years, obscenely

profligate military spending, gratuitous war-making on the

marginalized peoples of the periphery, and massive

sequestration of national wealth by the political elite has

brought about economic conditions that make democratic change

a real possibility, your administration seems intent on

diminishing those economic pressures that the U.S.--to its

virtually singular credit--has brought to bear since 1997,

both through Congressional and Presidential action. Instead

of tightening the very sanctions that increasingly threaten

the survival of a regime that has exhausted its oil wealth in

less than a decade and has no access to international credit

or Forex reserves, we read that business between the U.S. and

the regime is beginning to boom.

The Sudan Tribune reports (October 10, 2013) that Foreign

Minister Ali Karti, after his meetings with U.S. Secretary of

State John Kerry, ``pointed out that several U.S. companies

which applied for licenses to operate in Sudan were granted,

which he said is an indicator that investments and commercial

relations could overcome political difficulties.'' And this

would seem to be borne out by a series of reports from the

Sudan Tribune and others:

White Nile Sugar Company announced on Sunday (November 3,

2013) that it has signed an agreement with the US-based

General Electric (GE) by which it will receive parts and

services for its billion-dollar sugar plant. (Sudan Tribune,

November 4, 2013)

In a revealingly frank statement, Sudan's foreign ministry

undersecretary, Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman, declared in August

2013 that ``U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan contain some

loopholes which could be exploited to boost the economy.''

Why haven't those ``loopholes,'' if they exist, been

resolutely closed?

Typically of dubious reliability, Khartoum's state-

controlled media recently made a specific claim that should

be unambiguously confirmed or disconfirmed:

The managing director of [Sudan's] Kenana Sugar Company

(KSC) has disclosed KSC is currently dealing with 18 US

companies licensed by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

in the area of production, irrigation, and harvesters despite

the US economic sanctions imposed on Sudan for 16 years. . .

Lately, an American company has submitted a request to OFAC

to import ethanol from Sudan. Moreover, [the] U.S. has

excluded gum Arabic from sanctions for its bad need of this

commodity in nutritional and drug industry. US imports $40

million worth of Gum Arabic annually either directly or

indirectly from Sudan. U.S. may want lift the sanctions

gradually for face saving. (November 9, 2013)

Certainly the account is accurate in pointing out the

exemption in U.S. sanctions made for gum arabic, an exemption

secured over a decade ago through duplicitous legislative

means by Robert Menendez, formerly Congressional

representative from the district in New Jersey where

virtually all U.S. gum arabic processing occurs. Menendez is

now, of course, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations

Committee.

The economic sanctions put in place by previous

administrations and the Congress seem to have become

irrelevant by means of ``technical adjustments'' to the

restrictions supposedly enforced by the U.S. Office of

Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The question, President Obama,

is why your administration has allowed this to occur? Is

Khartoum right in suggesting that ``the U.S. may want [to]

lift the sanctions gradually for face-saving''? Or is the

stealth lifting of sanctions part of a larger quid pro quo

with the Khartoum regime? Is it of a piece with the

preposterous claim by special envoy Lyman that this regime

might preside over the democratic transformation of Sudan?

But however enmeshed in the complexities of U.S. diplomatic

and political machinations vis-a-vis Khartoum, the countless

bombing attacks against civilians such as occurred yesterday

near North Sharafa in East Jebel Marra provide a certain

stark moral clarity. Again, one of the regime's Antonovs. . .

. . . bombed three farmers, at about 5.30 pm on Friday

[November 29, 2013). The two men and a woman were riding a

horse cart from their farm to their homes in Sharafa village.

The three farmers and their horses were killed immediately.

The names of the three farmers are Hashim Abakar Mohamed,

Mustafa Eisa, and Hanan Saleh Juma.

Your own refusal to condemn--regularly, forcefully, and

consequentially--such deliberate attacks on defenseless

civilians brings shame on our nation and makes it ever more

difficult to believe that our foreign policy is guided by

anything other than a ruthless Realpolitik.

Sincerely,

Eric Reeves,

Smith College,

Northampton, MA.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 40th anniversary of the release of U.S. Navy Captain, Raymond A. Vohden (RET) as a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War, who was one of almost 600 Americans held captive during the Vietnam War.

In April 3, 1965, Lt. Cdr. Ray Vohden was carrying out a combat mission when his A4C bomber was shot down over North Vietnam. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and held in various POW camps around Hanoi. After enduring almost eight years as a POW, he was released in February 1973.

During his time in prison, he was subjected to torture, isolation and rudimentary medical care. Telling of his strength and courage during this ordeal, he was on crutches the entire time of his captivity. He suffered a compound fracture in his right leg as a result of being shot down. Upon his return home, he underwent several surgeries to save and repair his leg and avoid amputation.

Capt. Vohden joined the US Navy in 1953 after receiving his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers University the year before. During college, he played football and wrestled and finished his collegiate career as an all-American wrestler. His thirty-two year military career began when he earned his wings in 1954. He went on to fly fighter jets for four years and then serve as a flight instructor for three years. At the time of his capture, he was a Lieutenant Commander and Operations Officer of a jet attack squadron on the USS Hancock. After his eight years as a POW, he served three years as the head of the Pentagon's POW/MIA taskforce and three years as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory before retiring in 1986.

Since then, Capt. Vohden has lived a quiet life in Virginia's 10th District, where he raised his family and has enjoyed retirement. He has stayed active with other Washington, D.C. area POWs and has helped raise awareness about the struggle endured during their captivity. In 1999, he testified before the House International Relations Committee during its investigation on the ``The Cuba Program: Torturing of American POW's by Cuban Agents'' and served as the senior participant in a small program which was referred to as the ``Fidel Program.'' In addition, after years of writing, he self-published his account as a POW in 2009, entitled ``A Story of the Fifth longest Held POW in US History--First POW released at Homecoming.''

Capt. Vohden has lived a life of integrity and courage. He is a model of perseverance and sacrifice to whom our country is deeply indebted.

Mr. Speaker, today we should honor the 40th anniversary of his release. Please join me in thanking this American hero for his remarkable service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company, which celebrated its 210th anniversary on November 15.

The fire company is an important part of the history of the Town of Leesburg. It began in 1803 when Leesburg residents formed a ``bucket brigade.'' Each male member of the household kept buckets made of leather on the floor of their homes. Later in the 1800s, the bucket brigade reorganized into the Leesburg Fire Company, and by the 1820s the company had acquired a new hand-pumped fire engine. In the 20th century, the company advanced from the use of hand-pulled engines and hose carts to more modern fire engines. Further expansion happened in the 1920s with the construction of a new fire station and the purchase of several new fire trucks.

Over the past 210 years, the fire company has grown and changed significantly while safeguarding the Leesburg community. In 1928, the company responded to 21 calls, and by the 1970s, demand for the company's services had grown to an average of 300 calls a year. The company then hired its first fire marshal to keep up with demand. Today, the volunteers and career firefighters who make up what is now called the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company use advance training and the highest-quality equipment to provide fire prevention, emergency rescue services and fire safety education. In 2012, the fire company responded to more than 1,723 calls, underscoring the organization's invaluable contributions to the community.

A banquet in honor of the 210th anniversary was held on November 16, which focused on the book, The Early History of the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company 1803-1925. The book was researched and written by 11-year member James R. Fazekas and is filled with newspaper articles as well as maps, photos, drawings and reproductions of archived documents commemorating the fire company's history and accomplishments. Mayor Kristen Umstattd also presented the Town of Leesburg's annual donation of $400,000 to the fire company--a substantial increase from the town's allocation of $53.69 in 1891.

The success of the fire company is due in part to the leadership of President Richard Wolfe, who has been with the company for nine years. I would also like to recognize Rick Etter, a 29-year member who served as chair of the anniversary committee, and J.B. Anderson, a 43-year member. Their and exceptional service is appreciated.

I commend all the members of Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company for their bravery, dedication and willingness to put their lives on the line to protect our community. I wish them all the best as they celebrate this wonderful milestone.

Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record remarks I delivered yesterday at America's Table Thanksgiving Luncheon hosted by the American Jewish Committee:

I would like to begin by thanking AJC for the invitation to

join you at the annual ``America's Table Thanksgiving

Luncheon'' the theme of which is religious freedom.

In 1620 a hearty band of Pilgrims set sail for the New

World in the face of tremendous peril and uncertainty such

that they might be able to live, act and worship according to

the dictates of their conscience.

The traditional first Thanksgiving feast celebrated at

Plymouth was a time for the Pilgrims who had survived the

journey by sea and the harsh winter that followed to give

thanks for the bountiful harvest and recognize the hand of

Divine Providence that had guided them to this point.

I read with great interest recently that this year, for the

first time since 1888, Thanksgiving and the first full day of

Hanukkah fall on the same day.

There are of course deep thematic commonalities between the

two holidays--both grounded in triumph over religious

oppression.

But even as we celebrate the American experience in this

regard, I am reminded anew that religious freedom remains an

elusive hope for too many. As I reflect on the privilege of

living in America I am cognizant of the responsibility that

comes with that to help those around the world who are

oppressed or persecuted.

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, ``In the end, we will

remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our

friends.'' Dr. King's statement is so poignant. In times of

trouble, the silence of an enemy is expected, but the silence

of a friend is devastating.

I am concerned that this nation, which has always been a

friend to the oppressed, the marginalized and the forgotten

is at risk of sidelining this ``first freedom'' and failing

to speak out when it comes under attack.

Arguably religious freedom has never been more under

assault than it is today.

Looking to the Middle East there is often societal and

communal violence and repression against religious

communities which specifically targets religious minorities.

Too often the governments of these lands foster an atmosphere

of intolerance or in some cases such as Iran, outright

criminality as it relates to different faith traditions like

the Baha'is. Tragically, since 1979, the Iranian government

has killed more than 200 Baha'i leaders and dismissed over

10,000 from government and university jobs.

The dangerous realities facing religious minorities have

been exasperated by the so-called Arab Spring--a Spring which

has devolved into Winter for many of the most vulnerable in

these societies.

In February I travelled to the Middle East--specifically to

Lebanon and Egypt. One of the main purposes of the trip was

to spend time with the Syrian Christian community--a

community with ancient roots dating back to the 1st century.

I wanted to hear firsthand from Syrian Christians about their

concerns and to put this issue in the larger context of an

imperiled Christian community in the broader Middle East,

specifically in Egypt and Iraq.

In my meetings with Coptic Christians and other minorities

in Egypt they spoke of being increasingly marginalized with

the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood. While Morsi has

since been removed from power, the situation in Egypt today

remains fluid. However, this much is clear: Attacks against

Coptic Christians have escalated and they are feeling

threatened in the land they have inhabited for centuries.

The issues I've just outlined must be viewed not simply as

today's news but rather through the lens of history. A phrase

not often heard outside the majority Muslim world is ``First

the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.'' The ``Saturday

people'' are, of course, the Jewish people.

Except for Israel, their once vibrant communities in

countries throughout the region are now decimated. In 1948

the Jewish population of Iraq was roughly 150,000; today no

more than 4 remain . . . some reports indicate there may

actually be just one Jewish person left in Iraq. In Egypt,

the Jewish population was once as many as 80,000; now roughly

20 remain.

Consider this observation by author and adjunct fellow at

the Center for Religious Freedom, Lela Gilbert, who recently

wrote in the Huffington Post: ``Between 1948 and 1970,

between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews were expelled from Egypt--

their properties and funds confiscated, their passports

seized and destroyed. They left, stateless, with little more

than the shirts on their backs to show for centuries of

Egyptian citizenship. . . .''

One of my last meetings in Egypt last February was with 86-

year-old Carmen Weinstein, the president of the Jewish

Community of Cairo (JCC). She was born and raised in Egypt

and had lived her entire life there. She led a small

community of mostly elderly Jewish women in Cairo, who with

their sister community in Alexandria, represent Egypt's

remaining Jews.

There are 12 synagogues left in Cairo. Some, along with a

landmark synagogue in Alexandria, have been refurbished by

the government of Egypt and/or U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) and have received protection as cultural

and religious landmarks--many have not.

Further, the 900 year old Bassatine Jewish Cemetery is half

overrun with squatters and sewage. Ms. Weinstein sought to

preserve these historic landmarks as well as the patrimony

records of the Egyptian Jewish community.

I am aware of the good work of AJC in establishing a fund

for the maintenance and preservation of Jewish cultural,

religious and historical landmarks, including cemeteries, in

Egypt.

Not long after my return to the U.S., Ms. Weinstein passed

away and is now buried in the very cemetery she sought to

protect. Meanwhile, with the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Coptic

Christians, numbering roughly 8-10 million, are leaving in

droves in the face of increased repression, persecution and

violence.

Similarly, Iraq's Christian population has fallen from as

many as 1.4 million in 2003 to roughly 500,000 today. There

are roughly 60 Christian churches in the entire country, down

from more than 300 as recently as 2003.

Of course other, much smaller but no less vulnerable,

religious minorities have also suffered greatly in Iraq.

Over the span of a few decades, the Middle East, with the

exception of Israel, has virtually been emptied of its Jewish

community. In my conversations with Syrian Christian

refugees, Lebanese Christians and Coptic Christians in Egypt,

a resounding theme emerged: a similar fate may await the

``Sunday People.''

While it remains to be seen whether the historic exodus of

Christians from the region will prove to be as dramatic as

what has already happened to the Jewish community, it is

without question devastating, as it threatens to erase

Christianity, and in fact Judaism in many respects, from its

very roots.

Consider Iraq. With the exception of Israel, the Bible

contains more references to the cities, regions and nations

of ancient Iraq than any other country. The patriarch Abraham

came from a city in Iraq called Ur. Isaac's bride, Rebekah,

came from northwest Iraq.

Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq, and his sons (the 12 tribes

of Israel) were born in northwest Iraq. A remarkable

spiritual revival as told in the book of Jonah occurred in

Nineveh. The events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq

as did the account of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Furthermore,

many of Iraq's Christians still speak Aramaic the language of

Jesus.

In Egypt, some 2,000 years ago, Mary, Joseph and Jesus

sought refuge in this land from the murderous aims of King

Herod. Egypt's Coptic community traces its origins to the

apostle Mark. If the Middle East is effectively emptied of

the Christian faith, this will have grave geopolitical

implications.

But rather than being met with urgency, vision or

creativity, our government's response has been anemic and at

times outright baffling especially to the communities most

impacted by the changing Middle East landscape.

In conversation after conversation Coptic Christians,

reformers, secularist, women and others have told me that the

U.S. was perceived as the largest supporter of the Muslim

Brotherhood-led government. Further, there was a widely held

perception that the U.S. was either disengaged or simply

uninterested in advocating for religious freedom and other

basic human rights.

While the situation is grim in the Middle East--it is

hardly an anomaly. People of faith are under assault

elsewhere in the world.

The Chinese government maintains a brutal system of labor

camps. Common criminals languish behind bars with people of

faith and Nobel laureates who dare to question the regime's

authority. A February 2013 Christianity Today piece reported

that ``China's Christians felt a noticeable rise in

persecution in 2012 as the Communist government began the

first of a three-phase plan to eradicate unregistered house

churches, a new report says.'' Currently every one of the

approximately 25 underground bishops of the Catholic Church

is either in jail, under house arrest, under strict

surveillance, or in hiding.

The government is an equal opportunity persecutor of people

of faith. Over the last two years, over 100 peace-loving

Tibetans have set themselves aflame in desperation at the

abuses suffered by their people.

The government of Vietnam continues to suppress political

dissent and severely limit freedom of expression,

association, and public assembly.

In Pakistan, Ahmadi Muslims are prohibited from voting and

their graves are desecrated.

In Europe, Anti-Semitism is on the ascent.

A November 8 New York Times article reported, ``Fear of

rising anti-Semitism in Europe has prompted nearly a third of

European Jews to consider emigration because they do not feel

safe in their home country, according to a detailed survey of

Jewish perceptions released Friday by a European Union agency

that monitors discrimination and other violations of basic

rights.'' The survey referenced was released on the 75th

anniversary of Kristallnacht violence against Jews in Nazi

Germany.

In a piece which ran in the Miami Herald last fall, AJC's

Miami director poignantly wrote, ``World War II and the

destruction of European Jewry taught us that anti-Semitism

not only kills Jews, but also poisons and ultimately destroys

the society that harbors it. People of good will said, `Never

again,' instituted courses on the Holocaust, and countered

the image of the defenseless Jew by supporting the sovereign

and democratic state of Israel. Yet today, seven decades

after the Nazi death camps became operational, that lesson

seems to be already forgotten in much of Europe, where small

and defenseless Jewish communities face a renewed surge of

anti-Semitism. This Jew-hatred expresses itself in

xenophobic politics; physical attacks and intimidation;

and interference with basic elements of Jewish religious

practice.''

This is troubling on a host of levels. For as history has

shown us, if the Jews of a country were free to practice

their faith, one could be reasonably confident that tolerance

and freedom were possible for others.

The Jewish people have characteristically been the canaries

in the coal mine--litmus indicators of the state of freedom

for all.

In light of these realities, it is clear that religious

freedom is under assault globally. Last September the Pew

Research Center released a startling study which found that

``three-quarters of the world's approximately 7 billion

people live in countries with high government restrictions on

religion or high social hostilities involving religion, up

from 70% a year earlier.''

It is clear that the United States must do more to speak

for those whose voices have been silenced. Frankly, the Obama

administration in country after country has consistently

sidelined human rights and religious freedom.

In China we were told early on by Secretary of State,

Hillary Clinton that human rights issues in China ``can't

interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate

change crisis, and the security crisis.''

In Sudan the administration actively working to undermine

congressional attempts to isolate indicted war criminal and

architect of genocide, Omar Bashir. Meanwhile, this Spring,

the administration rewarded a notorious Sudanese government

official, accused of torturing enemies and seeking to block

U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, with an invitation to Washington

for high-level meetings.

In Vietnam, the Obama administration, like the

administration before it, has ignored bipartisan

Congressional calls to place the government on the State

Department's list of the most egregious religious freedom

violators, despite crackdowns on people of faith, preferring

instead a policy defined simply by trade.

In fact the administration has failed to designate any

countries of particular concern, as it is required to do by

law, since 2011.

The list goes on.

Turning back again to the Middle East: I have authored

bipartisan legislation with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo which

would create a special envoy position at the State Department

charged with advocating for religious minorities in the

Middle East and South Central Asia--specifically focusing on

many of the countries I've mentioned here today.

The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House earlier

this Fall and is languishing in the Senate in part due to

State Department opposition to virtually identical

legislation last year.

I am under no illusions that a special envoy holds the key

to the survival or even thriving of these ancient faith

communities. But to do nothing is not an option. And that

seems to be precisely what this administration aims to do.

Not only has it stood in the way of the envoy legislation,

key positions within the foreign policy apparatus charged

with prioritizing these issues have suffered extended

vacancies and individual political prisoner cases are rarely

raised in public thereby sending a clear message to tyrants

and oppressors the world over that there is little price to

pay for violating the first freedom.

While I will continue to press for swift Senate action on

the special envoy legislation, I leave you with a charge.

I am increasingly convinced that the discussion (or lack

thereof) among government leaders and opinion makers on this

issue of religious persecution, is simply a downstream

manifestation of what is happening in the broader culture,

and specifically in the faith community domestically.

When people of faith in this country are concerned about

and advocate for people of faith who are besieged around the

world, the government tends to act.

Consider the shining example of Cold War advocacy by the

American Jewish community which championed the plight of

Soviet Jewry with remarkable effect.

Could such passion be galvanized once again?

I'll close with the inspiring words of one of America's

greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln.

Speaking to a nation torn apart by bloody civil war, he

still saw the importance of giving thanks, and in 1863 set

apart the last Thursday of November for such a celebration

declaring:

``We are prone to forget the Source from which [the

blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies] come. . . .

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked

out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the

Most High God. . . .''

While each of us may hail from varied backgrounds and

beliefs, we know as Americans that religious freedom is our

birthright--a gracious gift of the Most High God not to be

denied by any man or government.

As we gather today and later next week with family and

friends let us pause for a moment and give thanks for our

first freedom while not forgetting those for whom this

gracious gift is denied.

Mr. Chairman, this afternoon, I voted no on H.R. 1965, the Federal Lands, Jobs, and Energy Security Act. I appreciate that my colleagues brought this legislation to the floor, and, in fact, have supported many of the titles contained in the measure--and continue to do so. I have a long record of supporting efforts to increase development of our domestic energy resources. However, I could not support the bill today given that two troubling amendments, specifically the Marino and Hanabusa amendments, which were adopted to the bill with little debate and Members were not given the opportunity to vote on these additional provisions.

I was particularly concerned with the Marino amendment. It calls for plans to allow the construction of new power lines ``across federal lands to ensure that that energy produced can be distrusted to areas of need.'' Some may consider this to be non-controversial, but I have fought the impact of similar language for a number of years. I am privileged to represent Virginia's hallowed grounds, and I simply cannot support efforts to construct new power lines through our area-- particularly power lines that would ship energy to other parts of the country. That's why I opposed PATH, and why I opposed TrAIL. Cedar Creek and Bell Grove National Historic Park and Manassas National Battlefield Park are just a few areas in our region that could be impacted by this amendment.

I also could not support the inclusion of the Hanabusa amendment, which I am concerned is a continued effort to classify native Hawaiians as a Native American tribe, and, as such, have lands taken into trust. That would allow for the expansion of Indian gambling in Hawaii. I will continue to fight efforts to expand gambling in America, whether it is on-reservation, off-reservation or over the Internet.

This evening, I voted for H.R. 2728, the Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act. I support the development of our nation's natural gas resources, which will help our economy and strengthen our national security. Advances in technology have unlocked significant domestic reserves that were historically inaccessible, which has resulted in lower heating costs and lower prices at the pump. At the same time, I understand and recognize the real concerns expressed by those concerned that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Virginia, particularly within the George Washington National Forest, could negatively impact our region's water quality, water supply and recreational resources. To be clear--environmental protections should be increased in Virginia before any potential activity of this kind is allowed within the George Washington National Forest. I fully support efforts to enact strong laws to protect Virginia's national resources and respect the wishes of local jurisdictions in making any decisions about energy exploration on state or federal lands in the Commonwealth.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the following law enforcement personnel who have recently been honored by the Horseshoe Curve Benevolent Association for their tireless service and continued willingness to put their lives on the line to protect our communities. These honorees include: Trooper Ronnie Riggs, Deputy Greg E. Lambert, Deputy Stephen A. Moore, Officer George Bell, Sergeant Travis Short, Officer John Dixon, Investigator Greg Frenzel and Sheriff Lenny Millholland.

Senior Trooper Ronnie Riggs has served the Virginia Department of State Police for over 10 years. Working out of the state police barracks in Kernstown, Trooper Riggs has become a tremendous asset to the area through his efforts to improve public safety. Trooper Riggs' service to the community and professionalism are seriously appreciated.

Chief Deputy Travis Sumption began his career as a communications officer with the Clarke County Sheriff's Office in February 1993. In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Sheriff and after an assignment as a traffic enforcement deputy in 2004, he became the first person to hold the title of First Sergeant in Clarke County. In 2006, he worked with the Clarke County Sheriff's Office regional drug task force and supervised the general investigations and gang units. After graduating from the Virginia Forensic Science Academy in 2008, he successfully managed a complex, multi-jurisdictional murder case. I wish him all the best in his new role of Chief Deputy.

Deputy Greg E. Lambert has served the Winchester Sheriff's Office since 2011. He came to the sheriff's office with previous experience with the Winchester Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police. He excelled in his work with the ``Don't Bust the Bus'' operation designed to ticket offenders for passing school buses and is also involved with Project Lifesaver, a program to save the lives and reduce injury of the elderly, as well as those who suffer from cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's and autism. He is a member of the North and South End Citizens Groups, which focus on eliminating crime in the City of Winchester. Deputy Lambert's hard work and commitment to keeping citizens safe is greatly appreciated.

Deputy Stephen A. Moore serves the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. This summer he demonstrated courage when he rescued a mother of five from her burning home. He got the mother out of the house safely, and then ran back into the home when it was engulfed in flames and full of smoke to ensure that all of the children were safe. I commend him for his outstanding ability to remain calm and focused in a crisis.

Officer George Bell serves the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center and was recently honored for his remarkable efforts to prevent the escape of a high-risk inmate. Officer Bell showed resolve when he took action to address the situation and protect the civilians who would have otherwise been in grave

danger. I appreciate his hard work and service to the community.

Sergeant Travis Short serves Mount Weather Police Department. Recently, he was recognized by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and also received a Life Saving Award. In August, he was the first responder to a critical scene where an individual was in cardiac arrest and severely bleeding. He took decisive and immediate action to save the person's life. Sergeant Short's focus on training and his preparedness in crisis greatly benefit the community he serves so well.

Officer John Dixon serves the Winchester Police Department and was recently recognized for resuscitating a young woman who was suffering from an overdose. This was the second time he saved someone in critical condition. Officer Dixon is an excellent police officer and a leader among his peers--his colleagues frequently applaud the high quality of his investigations. His good police work makes him a committed role model to all those who serve.

Investigator Greg Frenzel has served the Berryville Police Department since 1997. He began his career as a patrol officer and now serves as an investigator where he conducts investigations involving major property loss and crime. Additionally, he has worked as a firearms instructor and serves with the regional Criminal Justice Academy. Berryville Chief of Police Neal White has submitted Investigator Frenzel as the 2013 nominee of the year, citing his valuable contributions to the department throughout his career. I congratulate Investigator Frenzel on this nomination and commend him for his diligent investigative work.

Sheriff Lenny Millholland has served the City of Winchester since 1979. I have known and worked with Lenny for many years. He began his career as a Cadet Deputy for the Allegany County Sheriff's Office in Maryland, where he worked for two years before accepting a position with the Winchester Police Department. During his tenure with the Winchester Police, he rose through the ranks from patrol officer, K9 Handler, Investigator, and Lieutenant for the Criminal Investigative Division, which handles murders, rapes and robberies. He is also a graduate of the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Training Academy, the Maryland State Police K9 Academy and the FBI National Academy Session 188. In 2001, he was elected Sheriff of the city of Winchester and shortly after completed the National Sheriff's Institute in Longmont, Colorado. Over the course of his term as Sheriff, he has been appointed to a number of committees and boards that service law enforcement and local non-profit organizations. He is also a past president of the Virginia Sheriffs Institute, which trains Sheriffs in Virginia. I commend Lenny on his outstanding career and thank him for his committed service to the Shenandoah Valley over the years. I wish him all the best in his retirement.

I am proud to join with the Horseshoe Benevolent Association, which has been honoring local law enforcement since 2004, to recognize these officers for their bravery, dedication and strength. We owe them a sincere debt of gratitude for their service to the 10th District.

I submit the following Winchester Star article on the Horseshoe Benevolent Association's annual police appreciation dinner.

[From The Winchester Star, Nov. 5, 2013]

Citizen Group Honors Local Law Enforcement

(By Val Van Meter)

Pine Grove--The Horseshoe Curve Benevolent Association

honored eight area law enforcement personnel recently for

their service to the community in 2013.

Those attending the event at the Blue Ridge Volunteer Fire

and Rescue Company in Pine Grove also gave retiring

Winchester Sheriff Lenny Millholland a special tribute for

his 12 years in office.

Association spokesman Jim Wink said the gathering was to

recognize local police and security officers who put their

lives ``on the line'' to protect the community.

Each of the officers honored received a plaque from the

association and a certificate of appreciation from the

Virginia House of Delegates, sponsored by Dels. Joe May, R-

Leesburg, and Beverly Sherwood, R-Frederick County.

Honorees were:

Frederick County Sheriffs Office Deputy Stephen A. Moore,

who was on his way to a court hearing on June 18 when he saw

smoke coming from a residence at 300 N. Kent St. in

Winchester and learned that a child might be in the house.

Despite it not being his jurisdiction, he went to the

scene--and when the mother of the child re-entered the

building he followed her and brought her back out. He then

re-entered the house with two city police officers, though he

was unable to save the child.

Moore's boss, Sheriff Robert Williamson, said his actions

are ``a mirror image of what we all should be.''

Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center officer George

Bell, who was nominated for his actions Aug. 12 in subduing

an inmate who tried to escape while being treated at the

Winchester Medical Center. Bell fought off an attempt by the

inmate to snatch his gun and then pursued him through the

hospital and captured him in the lobby.

Mount Weather Police Department Sgt. Travis Short, who was

honored for responding to a 911 call Aug. 16 for a Federal

Emergency Management Agency employee in cardiac arrest. As

first responder on the scene, he began measures that were

credited with saving the employee's life.

Winchester Police Officer John Dixon, who was nominated for

resuscitating a young woman who was suffering from a drug

overdose. His action on Sept. 26 was the second time that

Dixon had been able to restore someone's breathing.

State Police Trooper Ronnie Riggs, who has served on the

force for more than 10 years.

Riggs, who works from the Kernstown Barracks, was praised

for his ``professionalism'' in enforcing criminal statutes

and driving safety efforts.

Clarke County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Travis Sumption,

who joined the department as a communications officer and

moved to a deputy position in 1998. Sumption was later

appointed first sergeant and became one of the few members of

the county's investigative unit, working with the Northwest

Virginia Regional Drug Task Force and on gang activities.

Winchester Sheriffs Office Deputy Greg E. Lambert, who was

cited for a number of community policing efforts including

work on an enforcement program to stop drivers from passing

school buses that are picking up or dropping off students.

Berryville Police Department Investigator Greg Frenzel, who

was nominated for his professionalism in handling

investigations, especially those involving major property

loss and crimes against persons.

Clarke County Sheriff Anthony ``Tony'' Roper praised

retiring Winchester Sheriff Lenny Millholland, who he said

exemplifies the concern a sheriff should have for his

community.

Roper said Millholland originally planned to study

veterinary medicine at Allegany College in Cumberland, Md.,

but switched to criminal justice.

Millholland joined the Winchester Police Department in 1979

and moved from patrol officer to canine handler, investigator

and then lieutenant for the Investigative Division.

He was elected city sheriff in 2001.

Roper said Millholland has served on numerous boards and

committees in both law enforcement and for nonprofit

organizations serving the community.

He is a past president of the Virginia Sheriffs' Institute,

a nonprofit organization that handles training and education

for sheriffs in the state.

Millholland received a standing ovation from the audience

as he accepted a plaque from Del. May.

The Horseshoe Curve Benevolent Association is a citizens

group, based in Pine Grove, which raises funds for groups and

organizations that serve the community, mostly in Clarke

County. Among other efforts, it supports the Blue Ridge

Volunteer Fire Company and senior and handicapped residents

of the Johnson-Williams Apartments, and presents a

scholarship annually to a Clarke County High School senior.

Mr. Speaker, I submit Cardinal Timothy Dolan's remarks at the annual U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathering in which he gave an impassioned plea for the church in the West to focus on the increasingly dire plight of the persecuted church around the globe.

I venture that the Catholic bishop under house arrest in China, the imperiled believer in Iraq still reeling from the devastating attack on Our Lady of Salvation Church and the unjustly imprisoned Christian in Pakistan will undoubtedly be heartened by his words and buoyed by his call to action.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, President of the

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

Address to the USCCB General Assembly on November 11, 2013

Just last August, I had the honor of concelebrating the

Mass of Dedication for the Cathedral of the Resurrection in

Kiev. A particularly moving moment came when Metropolitan

Shevchuk asked the Lord's protective hand upon believers

suffering persecution for their faith anywhere in the world.

That such a heartfelt plea came from a people who had

themselves been oppressed for so long made it all the more

poignant.

This morning I want to invite us to broaden our horizons,

to ``think Catholic'' about our brothers and sisters in the

faith now suffering simply because they sign themselves with

the cross, bow their heads at the Holy Name of Jesus, and

happily profess the Apostles' Creed.

Brother bishops, our legitimate and ongoing struggles to

protect our ``first and most cherished freedom'' in the

United States pale in comparison to the Via Crucis currently

being walked by so many of our Christian brothers and sisters

in other parts of the world, who are experiencing lethal

persecution on a scale that defies belief. If our common

membership in the mystical body of Christ is to mean

anything, then their suffering must be ours as well. The new

Archbishop of Canterbury has rightly referred to victims of

Christian persecution as ``martyrs.'' We are living in what

must be recognized as, in the words of Blessed John Paul II,

``a new age of martyrs.'' One expert calculates that half of

all Christian martyrs were killed in the twentieth century

alone. The twenty-first century has already seen in its first

13 years one million people killed

around the world because of their belief in Jesus Christ--one

million already in this still young century.

That threat to religious believers is growing. The Pew

Research Center reports that 75 percent of the world's

population ``lives in countries where governments, social

groups, or individuals restrict people's ability to freely

practice their faith.'' Pew lays out the details of this

``rising tide of restrictions on religion,'' but we don't

need a report to tell us something we sadly see on the news

every day.

While Muslims and Christians have long lived peacefully

side-by-side in Zanzibar, for instance, this past year has

seen increasing violence. Catholic churches have been burned

and priests have been shot. In September one priest was the

victim of a horrific acid attack. Nigeria has also been the

site of frequent anti-Christian violence, including church

bombings on our holiest days.

The situation in India has also been grave, particularly

after the Orissa massacre of 2008, where hundreds of

Christians were murdered and thousands displaced, and

thousands of homes and some 400 churches were torched. Just

recently, a Christian couple was recently attacked by an

angry mob just because of their faith, their Bibles torn from

their hands.

We remember our brothers and sisters in China, where

Catholic bishops and other religious leaders are subject to

state supervision and imprisonment. Conditions are only

getting worse, as the government closes churches and subjects

members of several faiths to forced renunciations, so-called

re-education, and torture.

Of course, it's not just Christians who suffer from

religious persecution, but believers in other faiths as well.

Much religious persecution is committed by Muslims against

other Muslims. Buddhists in Tibet suffer under government

torture and repression. In Myanmar Muslims suffer at the

hands of Buddhist mobs. All of us share apprehension over

reports of rising anti-Semitism.

But there is no escaping the fact that Christians are

singled out in far more places and far more often.

I don't have to tell anyone in this room that our brothers

and sisters in the Middle East face particular trials. As

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has observed, for

Christians in the Middle East, ``even the simple admission of

Christian identity places the very existence of [the]

faithful in daily threat . . . Exceptionally extreme and

expansive occurrences of violence and persecution against

Christians cannot leave the rest of us--who are blessed to

live peacefully and in some sense of security--indifferent

and inactive.''

The humanitarian catastrophe that continues to unfold in

Syria has been particularly close to our hearts these past

few months. We've prayed for and stood in solidarity with the

Church and the people of Syria, and with Pope Francis and the

bishops of the Middle East in their call for peace.

It's no surprise that this violent and chaotic situation

has bred even more religious persecution. Of course we're all

familiar with Syria's venerable history as the place from

which our faith spread to the rest of the world, and Syria

has long been home to a sizable Christian minority. Yet those

Christians who have remained in Syria face ever-present,

rising threats of violence.

Last April two of our Orthodox brother bishops were

kidnapped in Aleppo by gunmen as they returned from a

humanitarian mission. Their driver was shot and killed. And a

little less than a year ago an Orthodox priest from Hama was

killed by a sniper while helping the wounded. Similarly

tragic violence against believers is now commonplace.

Just as Syrian Christians have suffered from the war raging

in their land, the war in Iraq has devastated that ancient

Christian community in that country as well. As Bishop

Shlemon Warduni of Iraq tearfully told us during our spring

assembly in 2012, remember, the situation of Christians there

``became a tragedy of immense proportions after 2003,'' with

many religious and lay faithful tortured and killed.

Violent attacks continue to terrorize the Iraqi people.

Just a little over a year ago the war's worst massacre of

Iraqi Christians occurred in a brutal attack on Our Lady of

Salvation Church in Baghdad, where some 58 believers were

massacred. Those martyred for their faith included their

parish priest who died holding a crucifix, forgiving the

gunmen and asking him to spare his people.

The situations in Syria and Iraq wrench our hearts, but the

plight of Christians in Egypt is no better. This past summer

saw the serious escalation of violence against our brothers

and sisters there, as the ancient Coptic Christian community

has been targeted. Dozens of Coptic churches have been

burned; Christian-owned businesses and hotels have been

attacked; and individual believers have been murdered.

To take one example, John Allen reports that in August,

``hundreds of Muslim extremists stormed a school run by

Franciscan sisters in . . . Upper Egypt, where they

reportedly raped two teachers. Three nuns were paraded before

the crowd as prisoners of war.'' It was only through the

intervention of a Muslim lay teacher that other sisters'

lives were spared.

We as bishops, as shepherds of one of the most richly

blessed communities of faith on the planet, as pastors who

have spoken with enthusiastic unity in defense of our own

religious freedom, must become advocates and champions for

these Christians whose lives literally hang in the balance.

Pope Francis recently invited us all to an examination of

conscience in this regard during his General Audience on

September 25:

``When I hear that so many Christians in the world are

suffering, am I indifferent, or is it as if a member of my

own family is suffering? When I think or hear it said that

many Christians are persecuted and give their lives for their

faith, does this touch my heart or does it not reach me? Am I

open to that brother or that sister in my family who's giving

his or her life for Jesus Christ? Do we pray for one

another'? How many of you pray for Christians who are

persecuted? How many? Everyone respond in his own heart. It's

important to look beyond one's own fence, to feel oneself

part of the Church, of one family of God!''

I am convinced that we have to answer those questions of

Pope Francis, not merely as individual believers, but

collectively as a body of bishops.

So you ask me, what can we do? Without any pretense of

being exhaustive, here are some ideas I'd like to lay before

you, with a nod to John Allen and his recent compelling work

on this topic.

First, we can encourage intercession for the persecuted.

Remember how the ``prayers for the conversion of Russia'' at

the end of Masses over a half-century ago shaped our sense of

what was going on behind the Iron Curtain? A similar culture

of prayer for persecuted Christians today, both in private

and in our liturgical celebrations, could have a similar

remedial effect.

We can also make people aware of the great suffering of our

brothers and sisters with all the means at our disposal. Our

columns, our blogs, our speeches, and our pastoral letters

can reference the subject. We can ask our pastors to preach

on it, and to stimulate study sessions or activist groups in

their parishes. We can encourage our Catholic media to tell

the stories of today's new martyrs, unfortunately abundant.

Our good experience defending religious freedom here at home

shows that, when we turn our minds to an issue, we can put it

on the map. Well, it's time to harness that energy for our

fellow members of the household of faith hounded for their

beliefs around the world.

We know the importance of supporting organizations such as

Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic Near East Welfare

Association, Catholic Relief Services, and the Society for

the Propagation of the Faith, who have done heroic work,

while among our Protestant brothers and sisters groups such

as Open Doors make a similar contribution. Writers such as

Nina Shea, Paul Marshall, John Allen, and Phillip Jenkins

here in the United States help keep the issue alive, as does

our own Committee on International Justice and Peace.

Finally, we can insist that our country's leaders make the

protection of at-risk Christians abroad a foreign-policy

priority for the United States. We can also cajole political

leaders to be more attentive to the voices of Christians on

the ground, since those Christians will certainly feel the

consequences of whatever the West does or doesn't do. As Dr.

Thomas Farr reminded us at our spring meeting a couple

summers ago, the protection of religious freedom abroad, and

advocacy of oppressed believers, has hardly been a high

foreign policy priority for administrations of either party.

In general, my brothers, we can make supporting the

suffering Church a priority--not one good cause among others,

but a defining element of our pastoral priorities. As

historians of this conference know, speaking up for suffering

faithful abroad has been a hallmark of our soon-to-be-century

of public advocacy of the gospel by the conference of bishops

in this beloved country we are honored to call our earthly

home.

Protecting religious freedom will be a central social and

political concern of our time, and we American bishops

already have made very important contributions to carrying it

forward. Now we are being beckoned--by history, by Pope

Francis, by the force of our own logic and the ecclesiology

of communion--to extend those efforts to the dramatic front

lines of this battle, where Christians are paying for their

fidelity with their lives. As the Council reminded us, we are

bishops not only for our dioceses, not only for our nation,

but for the Church universal.

May all the blessed martyrs, ancient and new, pray for us,

as we try to be confessors of the faith.

Praise be Jesus Christ!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Project HOPE, an international nonprofit organization in Millwood, Virginia dedicated to providing quality and sustainable healthcare to people around the world. I want to highlight their recent medical outreach to Syrian children, who make up half of Syria's refugee population from the current crisis.

I travelled to the region in February and spent time with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, hearing firsthand their accounts of the horrific civil war that was ripping apart their nation. Over two million refugees have fled and are living in refugee camps or trying to survive on their own in neighboring countries.

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Project HOPE in Millwood. I was pleased to learn that they recently delivered 186,000 doses of a vaccine to infants and young children at the Al Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan to combat the potentially deadly rotavirus. The virus is highly contagious and spreads rapidly in crowded encampments with inadequate sanitation.

Project HOPE is also trying to help other vulnerable refugees, including individuals with

disabilities and the elderly. Often, in global disasters, children, the disabled and the elderly are most at risk. These are the people for whom Project HOPE can make a difference.

In addition to Project HOPE's vital work among the Syrian refugee population, they are also serving the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Project HOPE has a proven track record in the region and is urgently working to provide much needed emergency medicine and medical supplies to the survivors of this devastating natural disaster.

I applaud Project HOPE's 55-year legacy of tireless service to the poor and vulnerable, both here and abroad.

I submit the following article from the Winchester Star, which details Project HOPE's outstanding work to bring medical relief to Syrian refugees.

[From the Winchester Star, Sept. 21, 2013]

Hope Arrives for Refugees from Civil War-Torn Syria

(By Val Van Meter)

Millwood.--The disadvantaged children affect Frederick

Gerber the most.

He is at the Al Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan this week,

delivering 186,000 doses of vaccine from Project HOPE in

Millwood to children there.

Gerber is a director of operations in Iraq for Project HOPE

(Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) and helped to

build a hospital for children in Basrah, the first new

hospital in Iraq--a country with a population of about 33

million--since the 1980s.

His organization is trying to help Jordan and other

countries in the area to cope with the influx of refugees

from the two-year-old civil war in Syria.

The conflict has generated a flood of refugees into

countries neighboring Syria, Gerber said.

Al Za'atari opened two years ago, with 60,000 men, women

and children.

Now, Gerber said, Jordan is sheltering more than 600,000,

with more than 200,000 in United Nations refugee camps. Al

Za'atari is the second-largest refugee camp in the world, and

would qualify as Jordan's fourth-largest city.

``It's the size of 600 football fields,'' Gerber said.

Those in the camps could be said to be the lucky ones. He

noted that they receive deliveries of clean water, food and

blankets.

Other refugees try to find shelter with family members or

friends, or simply squat in empty or abandoned buildings.

``They live in dire circumstances,'' Gerber said.

Project HOPE, with its focus on health projects, has been

working in the Middle East for a dozen years, he said.

This situation, with the refugee totals of those who have

left Syria expected to top 3.5 million by year's end--and

another 4.5 million believed to be displaced in the war-torn

country--is swamping the resources of its neighbors.

``Jordan needs a lot of help to help them,'' Gerber said.

Project HOPE's donation of vaccines to fight rotavirus is a

preventative operation, he said.

Rotaviruses are known to cause diarrhea and dehydration,

especially in children, and break out where people are

crowded together and clean water and good sanitation are

lacking.

Project HOPE is also readying some $30 million in medical

supplies in its Winchester warehouse for shipment to Jordan.

Much of that shipment will be used in the camps--but,

Gerber said, he hopes some can be moved over the border into

Syria, where about 2,500 medical professionals are working

under battlefield conditions to help casualties from the

fighting.

``These are the real heroes,'' he said.

Estimates indicate that 70 percent of Syria's doctors have

fled the country, Gerber said. Most of the nation's hospitals

have been damaged or destroyed.

The physicians remaining are working in field hospitals and

aid stations, dealing with battlefield casualties with sparse

modern supplies or equipment.

Without proper retractors, Gerber said, he has heard of

doctors holding a chest open for surgery ``with a pair of

pancake flippers.''

In addition to immediate medical emergencies, he sees a

future threat in post-traumatic stress disorder for all

refugees and a dim future for the children who may live in

refugee camps for years without any hope of getting an

education.

Gerber would like to find ways to have Jordanian

professionals trained to handle the ``stress, depression and

anxiety that are so palpable'' in and outside the camps.

``Very few have any training in psychosocial illnesses,''

he added.

But his first focus now is keeping the children healthy.

``I love what I'm doing,'' said Gerber, a Washington, D.C.,

resident who spent 32 years in the Army health services.

``And it's wonderful to do it with an organization like

Project HOPE.''

But seeing children starved or injured ``never fails to

bring a tear to my eye.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Michael F. Murphy, who will be retiring as superintendent of Clarke County Public Schools on June 30th, 2014. Dr. Murphy has served in this role since 2008.

I submit the following article from the Winchester Star, which is the text of Dr. Murphy's retirement announcement, delivered at a Clarke County School Board meeting on Monday, October 28th. [As reported by the Winchester Star on October 29, 2013]

Open Forum: `Incredible Journey'

I will always remember the evening of June 12, 2008 . . .

Marie and I, along with School Board Chairman Robina Rich

Bouffault and Interim Superintendent John Taylor, had just

finished dinner and dessert at V2 in Winchester. Robina

reached into her purse, presented me with an envelope, and

asked that I consider becoming the next superintendent of the

Clarke County Public Schools. She was more than ecstatic, and

I was honored, humbled, and, to be honest, just a little bit

surprised.

Looking back, it has been an incredible journey. For last

five-plus years, I have been blessed to have worked with some

of the most outstanding individuals in the field of public

education. They are passionate, caring, and want the best for

each and every student. They are administrators, teachers,

technologists, instructional assistants, bus drivers,

custodians, secretaries and office managers.

There are countless others who, while unnamed this evening,

provide the leadership and support to help Clarke County

Public Schools be one of the best-kept secrets in the

Commonwealth. Together, with the help of great parents and

guardians, they have nurtured and supported the children of

this community, built technology networks and schools, and

ensured that each and every student has had the best possible

education they could provide. Their list of accomplishments

is beyond reproach; I commend each and every one of them for

their service.

Their voices may be quiet, but their hearts are big and

full of hope, energy, and enthusiasm. They are my champions.

They are the 99 percent. And they are the true leaders of

Clarke County.

I would also like to take a moment to thank Janet Creager

Alger and Barbara P. Lee for their steadfast support and

encouragement. Janet is the only sitting School Board member

from the board that hired me, and Barbara joined soon after.

Thank you both for your unwavering leadership, service, and

support.

As we go forward into November and start the Fiscal Year

2015 budget process, I would like to again share with our

community that we are one of only 36 school divisions in the

Commonwealth fully accredited; that we are proud of our 97.3

percent on time graduation rate, and that 75 percent of our

high-school graduates received an advanced diploma. We offer

International Baccalaureate and academic, athletic, music and

arts programs that are second to none. We support a host of

expanded opportunities for students of all ages, and our

applied behavior analysis program serves as a model for the

Commonwealth. Yes, we certainly have a lot to be proud of,

and this is just the short list . . .

I would also like to share with our community that despite

Clarke County's substantial ability to pay for public

education, we are woefully underfunded and have been for

years. The fiscal and philosophical challenges we face today

are the same ones that Eleanor Smalley, Dennis Kellison, and

Wade Johnson also faced. I have talked to each of them, and

each has shared that, in one way or another, not much has

changed in the last 45 years. It is time to view the

education of our children as an investment, not as a burden.

I believe that a community conversation about what is

really important to the citizens of Clarke is long overdue.

How we pay for and provide services to the young, the

disabled, the elderly and everyone in between is essential

for the future. And whether we like it or not, it should be a

conversation about family wage jobs, affordable housing,

economic development, and the creation of a sustainable

future, both on and off the farm. It is time to educate,

engage, and evolve like never before. This conversation is

long overdue, and won't happen unless we talk about it.

I would also like to remind the residents of Berryville

that the Nov. 5 School Board election is not about Mike

Murphy. It is about electing a leader who will model the

values of honesty, integrity, and respect and who will put

the needs of children, all children, before the needs of the

plutocracy.

As you can imagine, after serving for five-plus years in

``the hot seat,'' the stories are many, and most of them are

not only unbelievable, but true. Serving in a community where

some consider the education of our children a burden has

indeed been a challenge.

But despite the challenges, the anonymous bloggers, and

those who hide behind their keyboards twisting the truth with

every stroke, we have been more than successful. In fact, I

would say we have been victorious. Our legacy is all around

us, and they are 2,000 strong. They are the children of this

community, and they deserve the best we have to offer.

In closing, let me remind our staff, and share with our

children and community, the three most important tools in

your tool box: your head, your heart, and your voice. Use

your heads to make decisions that embrace the future of an

exuberant Clarke County full of love, laughter, and life; use

your hearts to remember what our legacy is really all about,

and that is the children we love and nurture and send on to a

better tomorrow; and use your voices, loud and vibrant, to

stand up for what you believe. Above all else, believe in

compassion, social justice, and the hope for a better

tomorrow for our children. Not somewhere else, but here, in

beautiful Clarke County.

Having rambled long enough, I would like to announce that

after 36 years of doing what I love, I'm ready for a change.

It is time to spend more time with my son, get to know my

three stepdaughters a little bit better, plant that long-

awaited garden, start a few more bee hives, build the boat I

have always dreamed of, and finish reading the stack of books

on my night stand. The future belongs to those who create it,

and I have plans you can't even begin to imagine.

Retirement beckons, and Marie and I are ready to begin the

next chapter in this wonderful life we share. We will do it

together, as husband and wife, best friends, and partners.

As such, June 30, 2014, will be my last day as

Superintendent of Clarke County Public Schools.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor the first Federal Coordinator for Meteorology and the first Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Dr. Robert M. White.

Fifty years ago, the Bureau of the Budget issued a Circular to propose policy and procedures for the coordination of Federal meteorological services. In October of 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. White to be chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Shortly thereafter in January of 1964, he became the first Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. Dr. White was the first and only Administrator of the Environmental Sciences Services Administration (ESSA) from 1965 to 1970, and served as the founding Administrator of NOAA from 1970 to 1977.

Dr. White made groundbreaking contributions to the federal coordination of meteorology in the United States. He advocated for the expansion of numerical weather prediction techniques and advanced the practical use of global weather observing technology through the launch of the first two operational meteorological satellites. He advanced weather radar research and development on Doppler technology, providing the foundation for our current NEXRAD radar system. Furthermore, he led U.S. participation in the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) and directed research essential to the modernization and association restructuring of the National Weather Service.

In 1978, at the request of the World Meteorological Organization, he chaired the first World Climate Conference in Geneva. After leaving Federal service, he was elected President of the National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1992 for his contributions to global environmental science.

I commend Dr. White for the profound vision he brought to his government service, which furthered our understanding of meteorology and the natural environment, including the oceans and marine resources.

Will the gentleman yield?

I want to just thank the gentleman for speaking. Ike lived in northern Virginia when he was here, and I would see him many times on the weekend. The second when it crossed the screen that he had died, I felt very, very badly.

To second what the gentleman said, many nights as I was driving home, I would see a car, Ike Skelton and Bill Emerson. They carpooled together. Bill Emerson, a Republican Member from our side, Ike from your side. They carpooled together. They were the best of friends. Ike was one of the finest people that I have served with since I have been in this House.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.