Foreign Relations Authorizing Act, Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007
FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2006 AND 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 19, 2005)
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Mr. CARDIN. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for yielding me this time.
I want to congratulate the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for his many years of service to this institution, again bringing forward a well-balanced bill. I want to thank him and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
Madam Chairman, I want to bring up two provisions that are in this authorization bill that relate to the work of our Helsinki Commission. I note that the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) is on the floor, our chairman. I work with him as the ranking Democrat, and over the last several years we have raised priorities for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe through our Helsinki Commission, and I am very pleased that this authorization bill carries out those priorities.
First let me point out that the bill authorizes $225,000 annually for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and $125,000 annually for general religious freedom programs that are administered by the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
This carries out a commitment that our commission brought forward in fighting anti-Semitism and developing international meetings to deal with strategies to combat anti-Semitism. This authorization will help us accomplish those goals. These are important initiatives.
I must point out that, although we have made progress, there is a lot more that needs to be done, and I am confident that by this authorization we will have the tools, at least in our country, to see to the implementation of these commitments. H.R. 2601 regrets the lack of implementation by many of the OSCE participating states and their commitments to track and report on anti-Semitic crimes and hate crimes. In the last Congress I was pleased to join with the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), Helsinki Commission chairman, in working to enact the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. So I want to commend the chairman and the ranking member for authorizing resources in this bill to deal with that.
The second point I would just mention very briefly is the fact of expressing concern about restitution of property taken during the Nazi era in Poland. I appreciate that also being included in this legislation.
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