Madam Speaker, in February of this year, more than two years after the cold-blooded murder of Washington Post journalist, and my constituent, Jamal Khashoggi, the Director of National Intelligence released a previously classified U.S.…
Madam Speaker, in February of this year, more than two years after the cold-blooded murder of Washington Post journalist, and my constituent, Jamal Khashoggi, the Director of National Intelligence released a previously classified U.S. intelligence report.
The report clearly stated: ``We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.''
It concluded that ``since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization.''
We've always known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman directed the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
We also know that this operation is part of a broad and ongoing effort to use violence to intimidate and silence dissidents abroad.
Furthermore, we know that some of the killers of Jamal Khashoggi were trained in the United States, demonstrating an overwhelming need for reforms to our current arms sales processes and increased accountability.
And yet, despite all this, Crown Prince MBS and Saudi Arabia have generally been shielded from accountability, especially by the previous administration, signaling this kind of abhorrent behavior was somehow ok, inviting further atrocities.
That impunity ends with my amendment, based on the text of my bill, H.R. 1392, the Protection of Saudi Dissidents Act of 2021, which passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support earlier this year.
This legislation is targeted and does four things, specifically:
It limits arms exports to Saudi intelligence, internal security, or law enforcement entities if the President finds that Saudi Arabia has engaged in the following activities:
Forced repatriation, intimidation, or killing of dissidents in other countries;
The unjust imprisonment in Saudi Arabia of United States citizens or residents or the placing of travel restrictions on them or their family members;
And the torture of detainees in the custody of the Government of Saudi Arabia.
It requires the closure of one or more Saudi diplomatic facilities if the President finds that Saudi Arabia is using diplomatic or consular personnel to harass or harm Saudi nationals in the United States.
It requires a report on whether Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a consistent pattern of acts of intimidation or harassment directed against individuals in the United States.
And finally, it requires a report on whether the U.S. intelligence community fulfilled its duty to warn Jamal Khashoggi of threats to his life.
In the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I worked closely with the Chairman and Ranking Member to improve this legislation as introduced, ensuring that this effort is bipartisan.
This legislation has the support of dozens of human rights organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, PEN America, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Freedom Now, and many others.
When we turn a blind eye to human rights abuses, we embolden friend and foe alike to continue to engage in these horrific violations.
We must end this ``two-year pageant of impunity'' and finally hold Saudi Arabia accountable for their treatment of dissidents and those who stand up for human rights and against autocratic repression.
Jamal Khashoggi was not the only one to face the brutality of the Saudi regime and is not the only one who would benefit from this legislation.
I thank Chairman Meeks for his support on this amendment, and I ask my colleagues to join me in sending a message to human rights defenders, dissidents, and journalists worldwide and reaffirm the unshakeable American commitment to basic rights and freedoms.
I ask you to join me in supporting adoption of this amendment.
Madam Speaker, more than 4.7 million people around the globe have died because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, more people in the United States have died from COVID-19 than they did from the 1918 flu pandemic--the previous worst pandemic to date.
For a year and a half, our lives, and the lives of people around the world, were completely upended, supply chains disrupted, governments thrown into disarray. This emergency impacted every part of our lives and we were caught completely unprepared.
We can't afford to let that happen again.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a dearth of leadership and strategy around U.S. planning for a global health security emergency.
As we continue to try to emerge from the worst of COVID-19, we now understand just how important planning like this truly is.
COVID-19 has underscored not only the need for a robust federal response to such a crisis, but also the importance of investing in global health security and pandemic preparedness around the world.
Given the disruption this pandemic has caused, it's clear that we need to consider global health security when we consider our national defense and security.
This amendment will:
Establish a Global Health Security Agenda Interagency Review Council overseen by the National Security Advisor and whose membership includes the heads of agencies relevant to carrying out the Global Health Security Agenda;
Establish a United States Coordinator for Global Health Security responsible for coordinating the interagency response to a global health security emergency;
Require the President to develop a global health security strategy with specific and measurable goals, benchmarks, and performance metrics that will improve U.S. leadership on global pandemic preparedness;
And establish an international Fund for Global Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness.
The text of this amendment is based on my bill H.R. 391, the Global Health Security Act, which passed the House earlier this year with broad bipartisan support--the fifth time that it has passed the House of Representatives.
The original legislation was improved with amendments during committee markup. They:
Updated the findings sections to reflect actions taken by the Biden Administration on global health security;
Tasks the National Security Advisor with overseeing interagency review council established in the bill;
Added the Department of the Treasury and ODNI to the council membership;
And elevated participation on the council to heads of agencies.
These edits were helpful suggestions from the Ranking Member and we were glad to incorporate them.
We wrote this legislation long before the current pandemic and have adapted the text to incorporate lessons learned.
I thank Representatives Chabot, Bera, Fitzpatrick, and Larsen for leading on the original bill with me, and for their support on this amendment.
The Biden Administration has already committed to funding the Fund for Global Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness, and included it in their FY22 Presidential Budget Request.
There is a similar, bipartisan effort in the Senate led by Senators Menendez and Risch, demonstrating the widespread support for bolstering global health security.
This is not a red or blue issue--this is an issue that impacts every single person on the planet.
This legislation is endorsed by Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), the ONE Campaign, Pandemic Action Network, RESULTS VA, Right to Health Action and others. It is also supported by Centers for Disease Control and USAID.
Global health crises are ongoing and increasing--it's only a matter of time before the next one hits.
Saving lives from the next global pandemic starts with investing in preparedness before it strikes.
Diseases do not respect borders, and global health crises have immense security, economic, and humanitarian consequences.
With this legislation, the United States can be a leader on preventing and responding to the next pandemic.
It is past time this legislation become law.
Madam Speaker, this amendment would provide welcome accountability and transparency for our security cooperation training programs.
It would require the Department of Defense and Department of State to review the participants in security cooperation training programs from the last ten years to determine if any of the participants were later designated by the United States Government as human rights abusers, terrorists, or military coup participants.
The amendment would require such reporting be updated on an annual basis.
And, finally, it would create a reporting requirement to Congress for any names submitted to the Departments by the Chair and Ranking Member of the armed services and foreign affairs committees.
Earlier this year, it was reported that some of the members of the kill squad that murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi were trained right here in the United States.
This is not something we found out through congressional reporting requirements from the Department of Defense, Department of State or public admissions from private sector contractors.
We found out because of reporting based on leaked documents.
It has also been reported that at least seven of the individuals who helped assassinate the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, were trained by the United States military.
The review and ongoing transparency required by this amendment would provide welcome oversight of U.S. security cooperation programs and ensure that our capacity building efforts are not working against American interests or values.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer an amendment to the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act which would provide a statutory framework for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, which was established administratively in 2011.
FedRAMP is a standardized approach to certifying and assessing in an ongoing manner the security of cloud computing technologies used across the federal government.
FedRAMP seeks to reduce the redundancies of federal cloud migration by creating a ``certify once, reuse many times'' model for cloud products and services that provide a cost-effective, risk-based approach to cloud adoption.
This amendment would codify the FedRAMP program and address many of the concerns raised by government and industry stakeholders.
For more than four years, I have worked with administrations under both Democratic and Republican leadership, industry stakeholders, and my friends on the other side of the aisle to ensure that the legislative text behind this amendment makes needed improvements to the FedRAMP program, but also gives the program flexibility to grow and adopt to myriad future changes in cloud technologies.
This amendment supports a critical need to keep our nation's information secure in cloud environments. It is an improvement for agencies, for our private sector partners, and for taxpayers.
Enabling the efficient and secure procurement of cloud computing technology is an important part of federal IT modernization efforts and essential to the federal government's transition to a more virtual, but secure posture.
The text behind this amendment has passed the House with bipartisan support three times in the span of a year. Once under suspension by voice vote in the 116th Congress, again as an amendment to the House National Defense Authorization Act for FY2021, and again as a standalone at the very beginning of the 117th Congress.
I want to thank the Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee, Mr. Comer, for co-sponsoring this amendment with me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2043's inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act.
I want to thank the distinguished Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform for working with Mr. Sarbanes and me to improve the bicameral Periodically Listing Updates to Management (PLUM) Act.
And I want to thank Mr. Smith for including this provision in the