IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2017

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IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2017

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and

concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (\[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390)) to provide

emergency relief for victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and

war crimes in Iraq and Syria, for accountability for perpetrators of

these crimes, and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the Senate amendments is as follows:

Senate amendments:

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the

following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the \\\`\\\`Iraq and Syria Genocide

Relief and Accountability Act of 2018''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) The Secretary of State of State declared on March 17,

2016, and on August 15, 2017, that Daesh (also known as the

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS) is responsible for

genocide, crimes against humanity, and other atrocity crimes

against religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and

Syria, including Christians, Yezidis, and Shia, among other

religious and ethnic groups.

(2) According to the Department of State's annual reports

on international religious freedom--

(A) the number of Christians living in Iraq has dropped

from an estimated 800,000 to 1,400,000 in 2002 to fewer than

250,000 in 2017; and

(B) the number of Yezidis living in Iraq has fluctuated

from 500,000 in 2013, to between 350,000 and 400,000 in 2016,

and between 600,000 and 750,000 in 2017.

(3) The annual reports on international religious freedom

further suggest that--

(A) Christian communities living in Syria, which had

accounted for between 8 and 10 percent of Syria's total

population in 2010, are now \\\`\\\`considerably'' smaller as a

result of the civil war, and

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(B) there was a population of approximately 80,000 Yezidis

before the commencement of the conflict in Syria.

(4) Local communities and entities have sought to mitigate

the impact of violence directed against religious and ethnic

minorities in Iraq and Syria, including the Chaldean Catholic

Archdiocese of Erbil (Kurdistan Region of Iraq), which has

used predominantly private funds to provide assistance to

internally displaced Christians, Yezidis, and Muslims

throughout the greater Erbil region, while significant needs

and diminishing resources have made it increasingly difficult

to continue these efforts.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term

\\\`\\\`appropriate congressional committees'' means--

(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;

(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;

(C) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental

Affairs of the Senate;

(D) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;

(E) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate;

(F) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of

Representatives;

(G) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of

Representatives;

(H) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of

Representatives;

(I) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of

Representatives; and

(J) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the

House of Representatives.

(2) Foreign terrorist organization.--The term \\\`\\\`foreign

terrorist organization'' mean an organization designated by

the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization

pursuant to section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality

Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)).

(3) Humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs.--The

term \\\`\\\`humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs'',

with respect to an individual, includes water, sanitation,

hygiene, food security and nutrition, shelter and housing,

reconstruction, medical, education, psychosocial needs, and

other assistance to address basic human needs, including

stabilization assistance (as defined by the Stabilization

Assistance Review in \\\`\\\`A Framework for Maximizing the

Effectiveness of U.S. Government Efforts to Stabilize

Conflict-Affected Areas, 2018).

(4) Hybrid court.--The term \\\`\\\`hybrid court'' means a court

with a combination of domestic and international lawyers,

judges, and personnel.

(5) Internationalized domestic court.--The term

\\\`\\\`internationalized domestic court'' means a domestic court

with the support of international advisers.

SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

It is the policy of the United States to ensure that

assistance for humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery

needs of individuals who are or were nationals and residents

of Iraq or Syria, and of communities in and from those

countries, is directed toward those individuals and

communities with the greatest need, including those

individuals from communities of religious and ethnic

minorities, and communities of religious and ethnic

minorities, that the Secretary of State declared were

targeted for genocide, crimes against humanity, or war

crimes, and have been identified as being at risk of

persecution, forced migration, genocide, crimes against

humanity, or war crimes.

SEC. 5. ACTIONS TO PROMOTE ACCOUNTABILITY IN IRAQ FOR

GENOCIDE, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, AND WAR

CRIMES.

(a) Assistance.--The Secretary of State and the

Administrator of the United States Agency for International

Development are authorized to provide assistance, including

financial and technical assistance, as necessary and

appropriate, to support the efforts of entities, including

nongovernmental organizations with expertise in international

criminal investigations and law, to address genocide, crimes

against humanity, or war crimes, and their constituent crimes

by ISIS in Iraq by--

(1) conducting criminal investigations;

(2) developing indigenous investigative and judicial

skills, including by partnering, directly mentoring, and

providing necessary equipment and infrastructure to

effectively adjudicating cases consistent with due process

and respect for the rule of law; and

(3) collecting and preserving evidence and the chain of

evidence, including for use in prosecutions in domestic

courts, hybrid courts, and internationalized domestic courts,

consistent with the activities described in subsection (b).

(b) Actions by Foreign Governments.--The Secretary of

State, in consultation with the Attorney General, the

Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National

Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, shall encourage governments of foreign

countries--

(1) to include information in appropriate security

databases and security screening procedures of such countries

to identify suspected ISIS members for whom credible evidence

exists of having committed genocide, crimes against humanity,

or war crimes, and their constituent crimes, in Iraq; and

(2) to apprehend and prosecute such ISIS members for

genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes, as

appropriate.

(c) Consultation.--In carrying out subsection (a), the

Secretary of State shall consult with and consider credible

information from entities described in such subsection.

SEC. 6. IDENTIFICATION OF AND ASSISTANCE TO ADDRESS

HUMANITARIAN, STABILIZATION, AND RECOVERY NEEDS

OF CERTAIN PERSONS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA.

(a) Identification.--The Secretary of State, in

consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator

of the United States Agency for International Development,

and Director of National Intelligence, shall seek to

identify--

(1) threats of persecution and other early-warning

indicators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war

crimes against individuals who are or were nationals and

residents of Iraq or Syria, are members of religious or

ethnic minority groups in such countries, and against whom

the Secretary of State has determined ISIS has committed

genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes;

(2) the religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq or

Syria identified pursuant to paragraph (1) that are at risk

of forced migration, within or across the borders of Iraq,

Syria, or a country of first asylum, and the primary reasons

for such risk;

(3)(A) the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery needs

of individuals described in paragraphs (1) and (2), including

the assistance provided by the United States and by the

United Nations, respectively--

(i) to address the humanitarian, stabilization, and

recovery needs of such individuals; and

(ii) to mitigate the risks of forced migration of such

individuals; and

(B) assistance provided through the Funding Facility for

Immediate Stabilization and Funding Facility for Expanded

Stabilization; and

(4) to the extent practicable and appropriate--

(A) the entities, including faith-based entities, that are

providing assistance to address the humanitarian,

stabilization, and recovery needs of individuals described in

paragraphs (1) and (2); and

(B) the extent to which the United States is providing

assistance to or through the entities referred to in

subparagraph (A).

(b) Additional Consultation.--In carrying out subsection

(a), the Secretary of State shall consult with, and consider

credible information from--

(1) individuals described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of such

subsection; and

(2) the entities described in paragraph (4)(A) of such

subsection.

(c) Assistance.--The Secretary of State and the

Administrator of the United States Agency for International

Development are authorized to provide assistance, including

financial and technical assistance as necessary and

appropriate, to support the entities described in subsection

(a)(4)(A).

SEC. 7. REPORT.

(a) Implementation Report.--Not later than 90 days after

the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State

shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional

committees that includes--

(1) a detailed description of the efforts taken, and

efforts proposed to be taken, to implement the provisions of

this Act;

(2) an assessment of--

(A) the feasibility and advisability of prosecuting ISIS

members for whom credible evidence exists of having committed

genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes in Iraq,

including in domestic courts in Iraq, hybrid courts, and

internationalized domestic courts; and

(B) the measures needed--

(i) to ensure effective criminal investigations of such

individuals; and

(ii) to effectively collect and preserve evidence, and

preserve the chain of evidence, for prosecution; and

(3) recommendations for legislative remedies and

administrative actions to facilitate the implementation of

this Act.

(b) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) shall

be submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a

classified annex, if necessary.

Amend the title so as to read: \\\`\\\`An Act to provide relief for victims

of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes who are members of

religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and Syria, for

accountability for perpetrators of these crimes, and for other

purposes.''.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New

Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) each

will control 20 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.

General Leave

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that

all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their

remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the

gentleman from New Jersey?

There was no objection.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I

may consume.

I rise today to urge strong support for \[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390), the bipartisan Iraq

and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act.

I want to begin by offering my special thanks to Majority Leader

Kevin McCarthy for his strong and sustained support for the victims of

genocide, for

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this bill, and for the work of his amazing staff, especially Luke

Murry, who has done yeoman's work on making sure that this moves

forward; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his chief of staff,

Sharon Soderstrom, for their work; as well as our friends on the Senate

side.

I especially want to thank Ed Royce, our chairman, and Ranking Member

Eliot Engel for their wonderful support for this bill, and for all the

Members.

I want to thank Anna Eshoo, who has been tenacious in her support for

genocide-targeted communities in Iraq and Syria, and Matt McMurray, her

chief of staff, who has also been a great friend to work with on this

legislation.

My thanks to Mary Noonan, my chief of staff; Piero Tozzi, my staff

director for the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee; Nathaniel Hurd at the

U.S. Helsinki Commission, who has been lead staffer on the bill; David

Trimble, senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute; and so many

others who have been a part of this effort to get this across the

finish line.

Mr. Speaker, in September of 2013, I chaired my first of 10

congressional hearings focused in whole or in part on Christians,

Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities targeted by ISIS for

genocide and other atrocity crimes, frustrated and deeply disappointed

that the previous administration was failing to direct aid to these

survivors and to support criminal investigations into the perpetrators.

Three years later, on September 8, 2016, I introduced \[H.R. 5961\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5961).

It was clear then, as it is now, that local overstretched,

underfunded groups on the ground were being forced to fill a huge gap,

like the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in the Kurdistan region

of Iraq, supported by the Knights of Columbus under the extraordinary

leadership of Carl Anderson and by Aid to the Church in Need. To date,

the Knights of Columbus has contributed $20 million and Aid to the

Church in Need has contributed more than $60 million to the response

for these people who are the survivors of genocide. Without this

support from private charities, Mr. Speaker, many people, especially

children, would have died or have been afflicted with serious disease

or disability.

Where was the United States? Nowhere to be found.

Just before Christmas of 2016, I led a delegation to Erbil at the

invitation of the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, who was

heroically leading the effort to sustain more than 70,000 Christians

who had fled ISIS, as well as some Yazidis and Muslims.

There I met with genocide survivors, almost all of whom told me that

they had family members who were murdered, tortured, beaten, and raped

by ISIS. Their stories were tragic beyond words and heartbreaking

beyond words, but members of my delegation and I were in awe of their

deep and abiding faith in God, their resiliency, and their courage.

They simply would not quit. They would move on and try to live a life

and try to thrive.

We visited a camp of 6,000 internally displaced persons, managed by

the archdiocese, that the U.S. Government had not even visited until

just before our trip in 2016, even though it was only 10 minutes away

from the consulate. I was told I shouldn't go because it was too

dangerous. I asked, \\\`\\\`Was there a specific threat?'' and there wasn't.

When we got there, we were met by about 250 to 300 children, all

about fourth or fifth graders or thereabouts, singing Christmas carols,

and I felt, \\\`\\\`Boy, that is a real threatening situation.'' It was

foolish in the extreme.

They needed our help. They were not getting enough food. They were

not getting enough medicine, and their shelter was very meager, to say

the least.

On January 10, 2017, I introduced \[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390), a stronger version of the

previous bill. The House unanimously passed it--again, totally

bipartisan--on June 6. On October 11, the Senate passed it with a

slightly amended version, which is why it is here before the House

today for reconsideration.

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\[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390) authorizes the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for

International Development and the Secretary of State to direct

humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery assistance to these

communities to enable them to survive and someday thrive in Iraq and

Syria.

It also authorizes the Secretary and the Administrator to fund

entities conducting criminal investigations into ISIS perpetrators who

committed atrocity crimes in Iraq. The evidence these entities collect

and preserve will be used to apprehend, prosecute, and convict

perpetrators in a range of court settings.

We have learned from the courts in Rwanda, in Sierra Leone, as well

as the court in Yugoslavia, you have to capture this information. You

have to get the testimonies from survivors and eyewitnesses to

effectuate effective prosecutions.

The surviving religious and ethnic communities have begun to receive

some targeted aid from the United States under the leadership of Vice

President Pence, USAID Administrator Green, and Secretary Pompeo. The

governments of Hungary and Poland, as well, have stepped up to provide

assistance to those in need.

However, we have to move quickly on this bill and on implementation

on this. As Archbishop Warda, the head of Chaldean Catholic Church

there, told me today: \\\`\\\`Christians in Iraq are still at the brink of

extinction. \[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390) is vital to our survival. If it becomes law,

implementation must be full and fast. Otherwise, the help it provides

will be too late for us.''

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this measure. A huge amount of work

has gone into this bill. I especially thank Representative Smith of New

Jersey, who has been a tireless advocate on behalf of victims of

genocide. He always has been, and he always will be.

His efforts have helped to ensure that religious minorities still

have a place in Iraq and Syria, that their presence remains part of the

fabric of the Middle East.

ISIS sought to eliminate religious minorities. That is why Congress

fought to designate the crimes against them genocide.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has heard hours upon hours of

testimony from genocide victims: a Yazidi man recounting the beheading

of thousands of Yazidi fighters, women who detailed gang rape and sex

slavery. We heard from a number of survivors that international

assistance was not moving quickly enough to get people resettled in

their homes and communities of origin.

This bill would help to ease those people's suffering and bring to

justice those who are responsible. It would authorize assistance for

groups investigating and prosecuting crimes against humanity and war

crimes. And it would require our government to identify those who are

vulnerable to genocide and war crimes, to help with their recovery and

stability in the future.

This bill will be an important tool in reaching our goal in Iraq and

Syria, preventing the resurgence of ISIS. We cannot allow this barbaric

group to take over territory or control people ever again.

In Iraq, this means addressing the root causes of conflict that

motivated people to join an extremist organization like ISIS in the

first place.

It also means pushing back on Iranian influence because Iran

envisions an Iraq overcome by sectarian strife and intolerance.

In Syria, that means finding a political solution that does not

include Assad.

Bashar al-Assad is a magnet for extremism, and he continues to employ

the worst violence against his own people. Since Assad's thugs took the

life of the first protester in Syria, more than half a million more

Syrians have been killed, and more than 11 million people have lost

their homes.

I remain convinced and concerned about what our military is doing in

Syria. In the waning days of ISIS in Syria, how do we intend to justify

the presence of our military? This is a slippery slope to perpetual

American boots on the ground, and we have to be careful.

In addition, if my legislation, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection

Act, becomes law, we can provide the administration the leverage it

needs to

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push for a political solution to provide justice to Assad's many

victims and to prevent the United States from getting further mired

into another war in the Middle East.

The only solution to the crisis in Syria is a political solution, and

the Caesar Act would help pave a path toward that sustainable,

political solution.

I urge the other body to pass the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection

Act so we can get it to the President's desk. I believe the other body

would pass my bill, but for a single member of that body who is holding

it up for reasons which members of both parties don't understand. I

urge him to lift that hold so that this bill can become law.

Mr. Speaker, I also urge my colleagues to pass the bill before us

today, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the

gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the chairwoman emeritus of

the Foreign Affairs Committee who currently chairs the Subcommittee on

the Middle East and North Africa.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to rise in support of

Chris Smith's bill, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and

Accountability Act of 2018.

I again thank Chairman Royce and our esteemed ranking member, Eliot

Engel, for their efforts in bringing this important and bipartisan bill

to the floor.

This commonsense bill authorizes Federal agencies to provide

assistance to entities that are working to hold accountable those

responsible for genocide, for crimes against humanity, and for war

crimes in Iraq and Syria.

Over the last 7 years, sadly, ISIS has explicitly targeted and

murdered tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of religious and ethnic

minorities, mostly Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria.

We need to ensure that the proper people are being held accountable

by giving the administration all of the tools that it needs to

coordinate with and support the organizations that can identify and can

prosecute those responsible.

In addition, Mr. Smith's bill prioritizes emergency assistance to

these religious and ethnic minority groups that are targeted by ISIS

and continue to face persecution.

Syrians remain in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, of

stabilization assistance. We must ensure that these religious and

ethnic minorities are getting the help they desperately need.

I thank my colleague, Chris Smith, such a strong human rights

defender, for authoring this important bill and giving this authority

to the administration. I urge all of my colleagues to give it their

strong bipartisan support.

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

In closing, Mr. Speaker, let me again thank Mr. Smith and Chairman

Royce for their hard work and leadership. The violence and suffering

that has overtaken Syria and Iraq in recent years is heartbreaking, and

it is infuriating, but we cannot allow the magnitude of the problem to

discourage us from trying to work toward a solution step by step.

This bill puts a focus on some of the most vulnerable groups caught

up in this crisis. It will help to ease their plight, and it will help

to provide them a measure of justice.

Before I close, Mr. Speaker, I again thank you, Mr. Poe, for your

friendship and for your hard work, and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for her

friendship and her hard work.

Chairman Royce just stepped out, but I want to say that we always

talk about the bipartisan work that we have done on the Foreign Affairs

Committee. We always say that the Foreign Affairs Committee is the most

bipartisan committee in Congress, and it should be. It has to be

because partisanship really should stop at the water's edge. When we

are talking about global interests, we have the same interests.

That is one of the wonderful things about the Foreign Affairs

Committee. I don't know if I will have a chance to say this again in

this Congress, so that is why I want to say it now: Ed Royce has been a

magnificent chairman and a magnificent friend. He has led this

committee into bipartisanship on virtually all matters involving the

global stage, and we have become a more effective committee because of

his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Royce for a job well done. It has been

a pleasure serving with him and all the members on the committee.

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

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I

may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief. I thank, again, Eliot Engel,

Chairman Royce, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is the former chairwoman

of the committee. I thank her for her very kind remarks. She has been a

leader on human rights herself all over the world, especially with

regard to Iran and some of the legislation she has gotten enacted into

law. I thank her for that extraordinary leadership.

Again, this is an example of us pulling together and helping a group

of people, survivors of ISIS genocide, who are in desperate need of

assistance. We are now past the emergency level in most cases.

When we originally introduced the bill, I named it \\\`\\\`the emergency.''

We didn't get it passed fast enough, but there is so much more that

remains to be done when it comes to recovery and sustainability of

these precious lives that have been so wounded by ISIS through mass

murder and genocide, which has been recognized by both the Obama

administration and the Trump administration.

So this is an idea whose time has come, and my hope is that it will

be implemented faithfully and aggressively from the moment it is

signed.

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

Mr. ROYCE of California. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by recognizing

the efforts of Mr. Smith, Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global

Health and Global Human Rights, and Ranking Member Engel for their

strong leadership on this critical issue.

Mr. Speaker, for seven years, the world has watched the brutal

dictator Assad inflict untold suffering on the Syrian people. Since the

beginning of the conflict, half a million people have been killed and

13 million--largely women and children--remain in dire need of basic

humanitarian assistance in Syria.

Over the course of this deadly conflict, we have seen Assad and his

backers--Russia in the air, and Iran on the ground--commit atrocious

war crimes, including using chemical weapons on civilians. I am sure I

am not the only one who will never forget the footage shown before our

Committee of a Syrian doctor trying to revive two young children,

foaming at the mouth, after chlorine bombs rained down on their

village; or the testimony of Caesar, a former regime police

photographer, who bravely smuggled thousands of images cataloguing the

gruesome and methodical torture in Assad's prisons out of Syria.

But the brutal Assad regime is not the only terror the Syrian people

have had to endure--his brutality paved the way for ISIS to expand in

the country as well. Exploiting the chaos created by the conflict in

Syria, ISIS burst onto the scene in 2014 by declaring themselves and

their supposed \\\`\\\`caliphate''--and committing obscene, horrific acts in

an effort to spread their nihilistic, death-filled ideology.

Today, thanks to the service of our brave men and women in uniform,

ISIS is receding. But we cannot forget the incredible evil they

unleashed--while in power, they committed unfathomable violence against

Christians and Yezidis in Syria and Iraq, and terrorized the Muslim

communities unlucky enough to fall under their \\\`\\\`caliphate.''

Congress played a critical role in calling these atrocities by their

correct name--genocide. This was a very important first step--allowing

for assistance to get to minority communities desperately in need. Even

now, there is still an urgent need for assistance to these vulnerable

communities, which have been devastated by ISIS' efforts to wipe them

out. These ancient communities, whose roots go back centuries, include

Christians, Yezidis, Assyrians, Syriacs, Turkomens, and many others.

Their presence in Iraq and Syria is crucial to the social fabric of

these nations.

\[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390) offers additional, immediate relief for these vulnerable

communities and also directs the State Department to do more to support

efforts to collect and preserve evidence of \\\`\\\`genocide, crimes against

humanity, and war crimes'' so that someday, justice might be served.

I urge Members to support this bill and send it straight to the

President so that the possibility of justice and accountability for

these atrocities can give hope to those suffering today.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the

gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.

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Smith) that the House suspend the rules and concur in the Senate

amendments to the bill, \[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390).

The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the

rules were suspended and the Senate amendments were concurred in.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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