more work to do, but these reports show that senator kennedy's vision for america's health care system is divided in the usual form. mr. brown: thank you mr. president. today at this moment, we begin the debate on one of the most important bills to come in front of the senate this year to guarantee that americans can find a more level playing field as we -- as we compete in the world economy to show that american -- that americans should not be patsies for other countries' cheating, for altering records and information that they submit to trade authorities that it's an opportunity to close an 85-year-old loophole that has allowed us to import products produced by slave labor and child labor and that we fix our currency system so countries and their companies especially in east asia, in south asia -- east

asia mostly -- cannot continue to -- to cheat and sell into our country with a bonus and penalize us when we try to sell into theirs. this body delivered one strong message this week, unprecedented. i can't think of the last time the senate spoke with such an emphatic voice on a trade issue. the simple message -- we cannot have trade promotion without trade enforcement. we shouldn't be passing new agreements while doing nothing which the senate tried to do on tuesday but was -- the senate stood up and said no. we shouldn't be passing new agreements while doing nothing to enforce existing laws and support american companies dealing with unfair competition. we need to stand up, particularly for our small businesses who are always -- who are always hurt to a much greater degree than large businesses because when a large company -- when a large company in cleveland or toledo or lima

shuts down production and moves to china getting a tax break from our government, amazingly enough that this body won't close that tax -- that tax loophole but a company in cleveland, toledo or lima shuts down in this country moves overseas to chian or beijing or wuhan, china and sells products back to our country when that happens, that company's bottom line may be a bit better, but the supply chain for those large companies, the companies in our communities in lima, toledo and mansfield and worcester that sell into those companies, they have lost their biggest customers in far too many cases and those businesses go out of business those workers get laid off, those plants close and we know what happens. that's why we need to stand up, especially for those small businesses who play by the rules and who are drowning under a set of imports from countries that, one, manipulate their currency, and second, practice illegal

dumping. dumping is when companies subsidize through subsidy of water or capital or land or labor costs when those countries subsidize -- or other inputs energy. those companies subsidize those and sell under the real cost of production into the united states, that kind of illegal dumping. it's one thing to talk about statistics mr. president but i want to stop and think about the cost of imports to our companies, our communities and our families. in the state of pennsylvania, as the presiding officer knows especially between pittsburgh and philly or western p.a., the area i am more familiar with because i represent the adjoining state we see time after time companies in small towns, when a company stuts down in a place like jackson ohio, or chilicothe, ohio, so often because of the size of the town, both the house and a wife, ee each lose their jobs, they both work at that company their

entire family income's wiped out. they are likely to lose their home to foreclosure. we know all of those problems that happen because we don't enforce our trade rules. that's why i want us to stop and think about the real costs to families, to communities and to companies. in ohio, we've seen how dumping by korean companies has hurt our steel industry. just three years ago first president bush, then president obama, neither has stepped up on trade the way that they each promised in their campaigns and neither has stepped up the way that they should to preserve our -- our workers and businesses' livelihoods. we both promised on korea thousands of new -- tens of thousands of new jobs, billions in increased exports for our companies, yet the reality of the korean trade agreement was absolutely the opposite of that. decline, major job loss, major loss in the import-export ratio

with our relationship with korea, in spite of -- excuse me, because of that south korean trade agreement that they pushed on the united states congress and people here too willingly passed it. natural gas production has increased demand. let me explain korea for a moment. natural gas production has increased demand for the world class tubular steel made at plants like u.s. steel in lorain made in youngs county. that's the steel piping, particularly durable strong steel which is subjected to great pressure and great heat as they drill for natural gas in so-called fracking or they drill for oil. 8,000 workers in 22 states make this oil country tubular goods. each one of those jobs supports another seven positions in the supply chain. we know when we talk about manufacturing that it's never just the manufacturing jobs, as important as those are. it's the jobs in the entire supply chain that go into the

assembly of the airplane or go into the assembly of the automobile or go into the steel production of oil country tubular goods. these producers increasingly lose business to foreign competitors that simply are not playing by the rules. octg, oil country tubular goods imports have doubled since 2008. by some measures, imports account for somewhat more than 50% of the pipes being used by companies drilling for oil and gas in the united states. korea has one of the world's largest steel industries, but get this. not -- not one of these pipes that korea now dumps in the united states illegally subsidized, not one of these pipes is ever used in korea for drilling because korea has no domestic oil or gas production. so, in other words korea has -- has created this industry only for export and has been successful because they're not playing fair. so their producers are exporting

large volumes to the u.s. the most open and attractive market in the world at below market prices. that's clear evidence that our workers, our manufacturers are being cheated and it should be -- mr. president it should be to members of this body unacceptable. it hurts our workers it hurts our communities it hurts our country. it's time to stop it. i toured lorain's u.s. steel plant in 2013 and saw the number six finishing line, part of a $100 million expansion project. mr. president, people say we can't compete because -- people that -- sort of the naysayers about our country and about our workers and about our businesses that say we can't compete because we're not up to date, our workers aren't productive, all the kind of whining that the naysayers that support these trade policies say insulting to our workers insulting to our communities, insulting to our small businesses. they -- you know, they say we're not modern enough. well you can look at the investment. i've seen $100 million investment in lorain, for instance what that means.

first time in the steel production of this world arselo metal workers about five years ago they passed this threshold one person hour created one ton of steel. the most productive steelworkers in the world the most productive steel companies in the world. the expansion project with lorain's u.s. steel plant was made possible in part because we're able to crack down on chinese steel pipe imports that flooded the market with illegal and cheap products. so they made this investment because we won that trade case, but, mr. president then along came korea to again try to inflict the same damage on our producers and our workers. it's clear that once again we need to ensure that other nations don't unfairly dump steel on the u.s. market. last year, i visited the same plant, joined workers managers and union leaders. we sent one message -- it's time for america to stand up to these lawbreakers. they are mr. president pure and simple, strip it all away, they are lawbreakers. in january -- these countries that play the game this way.

in january u.s. steel -- here's the bad news, because of korea dumping in part. u.s. steel announced 614 temporary layoffs at that plant in lorain. on lake erie. those layoffs began in march. i have spoken on the floor before about one of the u.s. steelworkers i met ryan, who has been out of work for weeks. four kids at home, doesn't know when or if he'll be back at work. will he -- will his home be foreclosed on down the road if he can't go back to work? he's played by the rules. he's been living a responsible life taking care of his kids, paying his mortgage, engaged in the union and the community, is a good, strong, productive worker. hundreds more like ryan in lorain and around ohio. in march republic steel in lorain announced 200 temporary layoffs. i say temporary because the company is hopeful that our government will enforce trade rules and that the dumping of steel will abate a bit. t.m.k. is one of the largest producers of oil country tubular goods in the world with a

facility in brookeville ohio, north of youngstown. since 2008, the company has invested $2 billion, $2 billion in u.s. operations. they are keeping up on technology and modernizing their plant with very productive workers, but how do you compete when korea or china or other nations are cheating? other companies make similar investments to stay on the cutting edge. these companies operate under tighter and tighter margins and lay off workers. last year t.m.k. announced plans to reduce operating hours at three of its facilities. they completely idled another one. i visited buyer steel in cincinnati. i talked to mr. buyer just yesterday when he was -- when i met with some steel company executives. many of them small businesses like his where i first announced the level-the-playing field act at his company in cincinnati. american companies t.m.k.,

republic steel, so many others know that they're not in a fair fight. these manufacturers across ohio, all over our country suffer enough from unfair trade practices, distorting the market. it is their workers who suffer even more. think about what even a temporary layoff could do to your family. you're facing mounting bills facing mounting uncertainty you may have to start to turn to credit cards and payday lenders to get by. the downward spiral begins. i don't think many people in this body that dress like this that have great titles and good-paying jobs and far too often, an adoring staff who end up -- we don't think much about this but think about the laid-off worker who has for seven years -- for seven years she has lived she and her husband have lived in a neighborhood say in lorain where i used to live. they pay their mortgage, they're

involved in their kids' activities soccer, and school. they're living lives the way we hoped they would. then she loses her job her good-paying $18-an-hour job. she's got a mortgage she meets every month. she's got bills she pays every month. then she loses her job. she faces un-senioritys uncertainty of what happens next. at some point her kids, her 12-year-old kids understand their mom lost their job. then they face the question. this is when we don't think about much in this body, people who dress like us and have good incomes and have good benefits and have a staff that helps us and all kinds of things. then she has to sit down with her kids and say you know, honey, we may lose other home because we can't keep up with -- not because they are they speculated.

my state for 14 years in a row 14 years in a row had more foreclosures than the year before. that's not because ohioans are irresponsible. it's because ohioans have lost so many of these manufacturing jobs. they were paying their bill, meeting their obligations raising their kids, then all of a sudden they couldn't. so they have to face their their-year-old daughter and say honey, we're going to have to move. we can't afford to keep this house anymore. i don't know what school you're going to be in. i'm sorry. i don't think people around this place think very much about the human face of these kinds of decisions. that's mr. president why this is so important. we can do something about this. when jobs are lost due to cheap flooded, illegal imports and at the same time we aren't increasing our exports we need to do all we can to stop this practice understand a protect our workers. okay the other side will say we

are increasing our exports. but the imports are much, much higher in almost every one of these cases. that's why we need to pass this custom bill that incorporates the level-the-playing field act to crack down on foreign companies that are cheating. we welcome competition. we have succeeded competing among ourselves and around the world. but it's got to be -- it's got to be fair. it's got to be a level playing field. that's why level-the-playing field act title 5 of this legislation of the customs bill, is so very, the senator from utah. mr. hatch: madam president soon the senate will vote once again on whether to begin debate on legislation that will help shape the future of america's trade policy. and, in addition, our rule in role in the global economy. i was disappointed that many of my democratic colleagues voted to block debate on this important debate earlier in year and i'm hoping for a much different result this afternoon.

this vote will set the stage for an important debate, quite likely the most significant debate that we'll have in this chamber all year. this debate will the determine whether our nation is willing and able to accept the challenges of the world economy or whether we continue in retreat and yield to the siren song of isolationism and protectionism. it will determine whether we as a nation are able and willing to take the lead in settings rules for the world economy or whether we will sit on the sidelines and let other countries create the rules that will govern the trade of all -- of these countries for the foreseeable future. it should be pretty clear where i stand in this debate. i support free trade and open markets for u.s. exporters and job creators. i support new opportunities for american farmers ranchers, manufacturers, service providers, and the workers that they all employ. and i support expanding american

influence in the most vibrant and strategic regions in the world. the best way for congress to help our country achieve these goals is to renew trade promotion authority authority as soon as possible. that's what we'll be debating madam president if this vote goes the way i hope it will. t.p.a. is the most effective tool in the congress' trade arsenal. t.p.a. ensures that congress sets the objectives for our trade negotiators and that those negotiators will be able to reach the best deals possible. without t.p.a. or trade promotion authority, we have no way holding the administration accountable in trade negotiations and no way of making sure our country can get a good deal. getting t.p.a. renewed is president obama's top legislative priority, and he's right on this issue. and we should support our president on this issue. and as chairman of the senate committee with jurisdiction over trade, it's a very high priority

for me as well. the t.p.a. bill that will be brought before the senate represents a bipartisan, bicameral effort to advance our nation's trade interests. the legislation we'll be debating will also include provisions to reauthorize a justment assistance, or t.a.a., which i know is a high priority for many of my colleagues. it has taken a long time, a lot of works and no small amount of compromise to get us to this point. madam president people from both parties have put in enormous efforts just to give us a chance to have this debate here on the senate floor. i want to thank my colleagues for their work thus far in this effort but also remind them that we're not there yet. i'm well-aware that not all of my colleagues share my views on trade, and i expect that they'll make those views abundantly clear in the coming days, as they should. but to do that we need to begin that debate. i'm looking forward to it, mr. president. the american people deserve a

spirited debate on these issues. but of course they deserve an opportunity to see this chamber function like the great deliberative body it once was and under the current leadership is becoming again p put sumly mr. president the obstruction has gone on long enough. it is time to get down to the serious business of legislating and i hope we can begin that process -- or continue that process today by voting in favor of the motion to proceed. i encourage all of my colleagues to do that. so we get on this bill, we debate it, we have a full-fledged debate and let the chips fall where they may. and if we will, i think we'll all feel a lot better about what goes on around this place. so with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you mr. president. let me respectfully disagree with my friend from utah. let me urge all members to vote against what i believe to be a

disastrous trade agreement a trade agreement based on other trade agreements which, in fact, have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and have led to a race to the bottom. mr. president, let me just briefly give you four reasons -- and there are many more, but meet just focus on four objective reasons why we should defeat this fast-track legislation and why we need to develop a whole new approach to trade that benefits american workers rather than just the c.e.o.'s of large multinational corporations. reason number one: this unfettered trade agreement with vietnam malaysia and ten other countries follows in the footsteps of disastrous trade agreements like nafta cafta permanent normal trade relations with china and the south korean

free trade agreements. any objective look at these trade agreements will tell us that they have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and have led us to a race to the bottom where american workers are forced to compete against workers in low-wage countries who are making pennies an hour. mr. president, over and over again, supporters of these types of trade agreements have told us about how many jobs they would create how beneficial they would be for the middle class and working class of this country. but over and over again virtually everything they told us turned out to be wrong and they are wrong again in terms of the t.p.p. in 1993, president bill clinton promised that nafta would create one million american jobs in

five years. instead, nafta has led to the loss of almost 700,000 jobs. in 1999, we were promised that permanent normal trade relations with china would open up the chinese economy to american made goods and services. instead, as everybody who goes shopping knows when you buy product after product made in china, that trade agreement has cost us some 2.7 million american jobs. and i remember hearing all of the accolades about free trade with china they all turned out to be wrong. in 2011, the u.s. chamber of commerce told us that the south korean free trade agreement would create some 280,000 jobs. well wrong again. instead, that agreement has led to the loss of some 75,000 jobs. and the reason for all of this is pretty simple. why would an american

corporation invest in this country, pay american workers workers $15, $18, $20 an hour, provide health care, deal with environmental regulations trade unions when they can go abroad, pay people pennies an hour, not have to worry about the environment. that is of course what has happened. these trade agreements have failed. t.p.p. is based on the same principles. it will be another failure. we should reject it for that reason. second point mr. president. in politics, it is always interesting and important to know whose side different groups are on. you can learn a lot by who is supporting an agreement and by who is opposing an agreement. well let's talk about who is supporting the t.p.p. turns out that virtually every major multinational corporation including many of whom who have shut down plants in the united states and move abroad, all of

these multinationals, they think the t.p.p. is a great idea. and i'm sure i can understand why it will be a great program for them, it will only accelerate their ability to shut down plants in america and move to low-wage countries abroad. here is another group who is actively pushing for us to vote for the t.p.p. and that is the pharmaceutical industry. as i think every american knows the drug companies in this country charge our people here the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs but they love this legislation. they just love it because they think as a result of this legislation they will be able to charge people all over the world, including in very poor countries higher prices for their products. wall street, surprise of all surprise, wall street loves this agreement, loves this agreement.

as we all remember, not so many years ago the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior of wall street caused the most significant economic recession since the great depression but wall street loves this legislation because it will make it easier for them to sell esoteric complicateed financial products all over the world. so those are some of the groups who think that this legislation is wonderful that we should vote for it. who are the groups and the organizations that oppose this legislation? well it turns out that every trade union in this country unions representing over 20 million american workers unions who are fighting every single day to get workers higher wages, better pay better health care, they are in strong opposition to this legislation

and this is what the trade union movement toss to say about -- has to say about t.p.p., and i quote -- "fast track trade deals mean fewer jobs, lower wages and a declining middle class. fast-track has been used since the nixon administration to advance deals like nafta that are sold to the american people as job-creation measures but these deals written largely by and for the world's largest corporations don't create jobs, their main purpose isn't even related to trade, it is to enshrine rules that make it easier for firms to invest offshore and increase corporate influence over the global economy." end of quote. that is what the trade union movement in this country believes about this agreement. but it is not only the trade union movement that is opposed to t.p.p. virtually every major environmental and scientific group in this country groups

such as the league of conservation voters, the sierra club the natural resources defense council the union of concerned scientists, friends of the earth greenpeace and 350.org, they oppose this legislation. this is what the environmental organizations have written about this bill, and i quote -- "as leading u.s. environmental and science organizations we write to express our strong opposition to fast-track trade promotion authority and to urge you to oppose any legislation that would limit the ability of congress to ensure that trade pac's deliver benefits to workers public health and the environment." end of quote. so you've got organizations trade union organizations representing some 20 million american workers. they say we should not go forward with this agreement. you have organizations representing millions of people in the environmental community

who say we should not go forward with this legislation. and then we have religious groups like the presbyterian church u.s.a., the united methodist church and sisters of mercy also opposing this legislation. and here is what they have written about it, and i quote -- "as people of faith we call on all nations and governments to uphold the dignity of all people yet modern trade agreements have harmed people, especially the most vulnerable in the united states and globally. trade like the rest of the economy must be a means of lifting people out of poverty and ensure a country's ability to protect the health, safety and well-being of their citizens and the planet. in recognition of your sacred task of stewardship over people and policies, we ask you to oppose fast-track trade promotional authority for any trade -- or any trade agreement currently being negotiated." so on one hand, you have all of the big money organizations, you

have every major multinational corporation in america, you have wall street, you have the pharmaceutical industry. they say vote for this legislation. on the other side, you have unions representing millions of americans, you have environmental organizations representing millions more americans, and you have religious organizations that say wait a second, this fast-track trade agreement may not be a good idea, vote no. vote no. so on one hand, you have groups whose motivation is greed and profit and on the other hand you have organizations trying to protect working people, trying to protect the environment trying to uphold basic religious values about human dignity saying no. well, which side should we be on? i say we stand with those who are concerned about workers' rights the environment and

moral values. mr. president, let me give you another reason why we should oppose this trade agreement and this is a provision which has gotten far too little attention and that is the investor state dispute settlement. that sounds like a highly technical term. what in god's name does that mean? let me try to explain what it does mean. what it does mean in english is that it will allow large multinational corporations to sue national, state and local governments, not just in the united states but all over the world if those governments pass legislation that hurts their expected future profits. this to me is exactly about what this whole agreement stands for. it's not for raising wages or

creating jobs. it is to protect corporate profits. and unbelievably what this legislation is prepared to do is to undermine basic democracy in terms of what local communities around the world states in the united states, national governments, whether it's the united states or any other government does if it undermines future profits of large multinational corporations. that's really extraordinary. i thought that our job as members of the united states senate i thought the job of people in australia who represent their government, people democratically elected all over the world i had the idea that maybe their function was to represent as best they could the needs of the people who voted for them. i guess that's a radical and

crazy idea because what this bill says that if legislation is passed by people who are democratically elected those decisions, that legislation can be brought to an independent tribunal and those countries could have to pay huge fines if the legislation which might protect health care or might protect the environment undermines future profits of multinational corporations. what an attack not only on health and the environment, it is an attack on the fundamental tenets of democracy. our job is not to worry about future corporate profits. our job is to worry about the needs of the american people, and that is what elected governments all over the world are supposed to do. let me give you some examples, because we have not talked about

this. let me give you some examples of what is already going on around the world based on similar language to what will be in the t.p.p. if we vote for it. similar language. mr. president, -- and this is maybe the most outrageous example that i can give you but there are many others. philip morris, one of the large tobacco companies in the world is suing both australia and uruguay over labeling requirements for cigarettes. uruguay is this little country and what they have done is been very aggressive in trying to protect their children and their people from the very harmful impacts of smoking. now, you know what? i happen to think that that is a good thing. i think in america all over the world we should do everything we can to make sure our kids are

not hooked on nicotine, do not have to suffer heart disease cancer emphysema and all of the other diseases related to smoking. i think our government should be very vigorous. we have done some things in our country, i think we should do more. uruguay, a little tiny country whose president turned out to be an oncologist, a guy who is worried about cancer, was very active in trying to do everything he could to keep the kids of uruguay from getting hooked on cigarettes. and what happened to uruguay? they were taken to this independent try biewnl, composing, as i understand it, of three corporate lawyers because philip morris said hey uruguay, you're impacting our future profits. we want to get kids hooked onto nicotine. we want to sell our products to kids and to the people of uruguay and by fighting us, passing legislation and doing things that will make it harder for kids to smoke, you are ruining our profits and this

court is now -- this case is now resting in an independent tribunal. how insane is that? that a country trying to protect its kids from getting cancer is being sued by philip morris because it might cost them profits. so this is not only just a health issue in this case of cancer prevention, this is an issue of basic democracy. do the people of uruguay do the people of australia do the people of any country have a right to be very vigorous in protecting the health of their kids and their citizens without worrying about being sued by a cigarette manufacturer who is trying to poison these kids with deadly products? so this is not only a health issues, it is a basic democratic issue, and if philip morris wins this case, it will be sending a message to every government in

the world you can't be aggressive in trying to protect your kids from cigarettes. that's one example. let me give you another example equally outrageous. mr. president, on this investor state provision a french waste management firm is suing for $110 million under the france-egypt bilateral investment treaty over changes to egypt's labor laws, including an increase in the minimum wage. now, let me be honest with you mr. president. i know nothing about egypt's minimum wage but i do think that egypt and every other country on earth has a right to raise its minimum wage if they think it makes sense without worrying about being sued by some company who will have to pay higher

wages. how crazy is that? so again not being terribly knowledgeable about domestic policies in egypt the idea that they are being sued for the crime of raising their minimum wage is to me beyond comprehension. and again, this is just an example of what is happening now and what will only happen in an accelerated manner if we pass this agreement. let me give you one last example. a swedish energy company called vanenfal launched a $5 billion lawsuit over germany's decision to phase out nuclear power. this edition was implemented in response to the fukushima disaster. germany made a decision to phase out nuclear energy. some people think it is a good

idea. some people think it is a bad idea. but the last i heard that should be a decision of the german government and the people who elected that government. the elected officials of germany are not dummies. i presume they do what their people want them to do or they pay the political consequence. but that is a decision of the elected officials of germany. and they said, let's phase out nuclear power. and yet now they are being sued by a swedish energy company vatenfal for some $5 billion because they made that decision. now, that's just what's going on right now. think about what that means into the future. it means that any government around the world or in this trade agreement it means that any state in the united states -- if my state of verntle which -- if my state of vermont, which is sensitive to the environment decides to

go forward on some piece of legislation, some country can sue because we wanted to do business there and your environmental regulations are impacting your ability to make profit and undermine what the state of vermont or the state of georgia or any other state chooses to do. that to me, is just beyond comprehension that anybody would vote for that legislation. we could disagree with what they do in egypt, you can disagree with what they do in uruguay you can disagree with what we do here. but to say that an independent tribunal could provideless about of dollars in damage to a corporation because of a democratically made decision in the united states or any other country around the world is, to me just incomprehensible. the last point that i would want to make, mr. president deals with a health issue.

clearly, one of the health crises that we face not only in america but around the world is the high cost of prescription drugs. and our country if my memory is correct, some 25% of americans who receive prescriptions from doctors are unable to afford to fill those prescriptions. you go to the doctor that diagnoses you writes out a script and the person says, thank you very much, doesn't have the money to fill that script. it's bad in this country but it is obviously much worse in very, very poor countries around the world. and what this agreement will do, if it were passed, senior is, among other thirntion allow pharmaceutical -- among other things allow pharmaceutical companies to fight back against their brand-name products being converted into generics at much lower prices.

so poor countries all over the world would have to struggle to come up with very, very high prices for medicine for people who don't have a whole lot of money. and, in fact, that is why doctors without borders have said -- doctors without borders as you may know, is an heroic group of drrs doctors who whenever there is a problem around the world, these guys are there putting their lives on the line -- i think some of them have died -- to provide medical treatment in the most difficult circumstances to the most -- to the poorest people around the world. they are really an heroic group of people. and doctors without borders has said -- and i quote -- "the t.p.p. agreement is on track to become the most harmful trade pact ever for access to medicines in developing countries." end of quote. so mr. president to my mind, the vote that we're going to

have in a short time is really a no-brainer. are we dumb enough to continue down the road of failed trade policies? i would hope not. do we think it is a good idea to be siding with corporate america, who have already used previous trade agreements to outsource millions of our jobs and to think this agreement is just wonderful? are we going to stand with wall street whose greed is without -- just has no limits? are we going to stand with the pharmaceutical industry that wants to sell drugs to people all over the world at a higher price? or do we stand with unions, environmental groups, religious groups? do we get vouched in involved in a trade agreement which allows corporations to undermine the democratic rights of countries who stand up for their

environment, stand up for the health and well-being of their kids? do we make it harder for poor people around the world to get the medicines they need? this really is, mr. president a no-brainer and i would hope that the members of the united states senate send a resounding "no" to the corporate world that you can't have it all that we are going to pass trade agreements which protect working families which protect the middle class which protects struggling people all over the world. we're going to vote "no" on fast-track and "no"

>> house foreign affairs committee hearing, religious and ethnic minorities attacked by isis talk about their experiences, as well as the militant groups targeting of cultural and religious sites. tempers are considering legislation to provide a system to displace minorities. ed royce chairs this hearing. >> this committee hearing will come to order. today, we focus on the minority communities, the many minority communities that are under brutal attack.

some of them on the brink of extermination by isis. by isis principally in iraq and syria, but elsewhere as well. and we're joined by individuals who have personally faced this threat and are familiar with the extreme hardship, with the grief that displaced minorities face in that troubled region. isis has unleashed a campaign of brutal violence, depraved violence, not only against shia muslims and fellow sunnis who do not share their radical beliefs, but against vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities. and as ms. isaac put it simply in her prepared testimony, we cherish ethnic and religious diversity. isis hates it. many americans may not realize that iraq and syria are home to dozens of ethnic and religious minorities with ancient

cultures, with deep roots. these communities, syrian and caldian christians, yazidis and others are under mortal threat in their ancestral homelands. and the mass execution of men, the enslavement of women and children, the destruction of religious sites is part of the isis effort to destroy these communities, to destroy all evidence of the preexistence of these communities. in fact, isis maintains a special battalion, and they call it the demolition battalion. and that battalion is charged with going after art and going after artifacts, religious and historic sites that it considers heretical and its job is to simply destroy history.

the situation for some of these groups was precarious even br isis. according to some estimates, more than half of the ethnic and religious minorities have fled the country over the last dozen years, but what they face today is ie nilelation by isis. and the influx of isis extremists has become a plague. uprooted two million souls, two million human beings. members will recall last august to break the siege at mount sinjar, where thousands of yazidi refugee families have been trapped by isis. the physical security and welfare of displaced minorities is an immediate priority. options for u.s. assistance range from additional material support to friendly forces.

all the way to creating safe zones, or no fly zones. and while it's important to weigh the cost of each option, we cannot lose sight of the fact that people are being kidnapped, people are being tortured, women are being raped, and children, and they're being killed every day. beyond that, we need to focus more on their psychological well-being. many of those people, especially women and girls, have been subjected to unspeakable traumas. the young men are mostly just slaughtered. and as with any displaced population, as their vulnerability increases, so does the threat of human trafficking. what can be done to better protect women and girls at risk of slavery? finally, what can and should be done to keep these evacuations from becoming permanent?

it would be a tragedy if well intended resettlement fulfilled the goal of isis itself. in other words, to drive these believers out. are there ways to support the reconstruction of local institutions in civil society so that post-isis, and there must be a post-isis, these communities can return and thrive in their ancestral homelands. i'll now turn to the ranking member, mr. eliot engel of new york, who has been a true leader on syria and on the humanitarian and human rights disaster in the region, for his opening comments. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and thank you, as always, for calling this important hearing. and let me also thank our witnesses for joining us today. we're very appreciative that you're here. this committee has taken a hard look at the brutal campaign isis

is raging in iraq and syria. we've learned about the broader threat isis poses across the middle east and around the world. we know how dangerous this group is. we heard how many people have lost their homes and their livelihoods and their lives in the wake of this violence. and today, we will focus on the heartbreaking struggles of christians, yazidis and muslims who defy the barbaric perversion of islam espoused by isis. we will hear about the dangers that these communities face every day, how isis has killed raped, and enslaved those who don't fall in line with their fanaticism. and i hope their stories will remind us and our partners and allies around the world that we must do everything possible to help these people. we will also hear about the attempt by isis to erase the history of these communities. we've all seen videos and reports of isis destroying ancient sites and historical artifacts in the territories they control. these are not random acts of

vandalism. isis is deliberately targeting cultural property for two reasons. firstly, the to loot and steal cultural artifacts to fund their violent campaigns. and secondly, to destroy what is left in a calculated effort to eradicate minority cultures. this form of psychological warfare against yazidis, christians, muslim minorities, and anyone else that refuses to bow to their oppression, from the tomb of jonah in mosul, to yazidi shrines in the sinjar region, isis is trying to rewrite history. we have seen this tactic before. the buddhas destroyed by the taliban in afghanistan. the nazi destruction of jewish religious property during world war ii. we cannot allow another vicious group to reshape our record of the past. we need to cut off the profits isis gets from trafficking looted artifacts and to ramp up our efforts to save cultural property from destruction.

a few weeks ago, this committee unanimously passed to protect and preserve into national property act, which i introduced with representative smith, chairman reus, and representative keating. this would help save cultural property from isis's campaign and we need to get this bill to the president's desk. we also need to stay focused on bringing belief to those living under the yolk of isis. i hope our witnesses can shed some light on what religious minorities living under isis control need the most. the administration's response to degrade and destroy isis is a good start. but it's a start. united states has worked to cut off financial support to isis, to stem the flow of foreign fighters, to deliver robust rue humanitarian assistance, to provide support to our partners including through air strikes and to push back against the violent ideology promoted by isis.

but as we will hear today, people are still suffering in isis-held territory, and i hope today's testimony will underscore from my colleagues the need to pass a new authorization for the use of military force or aumf. i have said this before and i will say it again and again and again until congress acts on its responsibility and passes a new authorization. finally, i want to say that some of us are wearing red today. i'm wearing a red tie. my good friend is wearing a red blouse. and we're doing this because we want to focus on the girls who have disappeared under boko haram. while boko haram is not isis certainly affiliated. their tactics are just as brutal and its terrorism all around the world and we need to stand up in this congress and show that we will thwart it in any way possible. once again, i thank our witnesses and i look forward to hearing your testimony. and thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership as always. >> thank you, mr. engel. our panel that we're joined by

here today include sister diana momeka, located in mosul, iraq. sister diana, one of many thousands forced from their homes by an isis offensive last year has been involved in providing assistance to other internally displaced iraqis currently residing in erbil and raising awareness of the plight of minorities displaced from nineveh. ms. jacqueline isaac is the vice president of roads of success, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women and minorities in the middle east. ms. isaac's work has included refugee to aid missions and helping victims in iraq, jordan, and egypt. ms. hind kabawat is the director of interfaith peace building at

the center for world religions diplomacy, and conflict resolution for george mason university. ms. kabawat has trained hundreds of syrians in multi-faith collaboration, civil society development, women's empowerment, and in negotiation skills throughout the middle east, including in aleppo, syria. dr. katherine hanson is a fellow at penn cultural heritage center for the university of pennsylvania museum specializing in the protection of cultural heritage. specifically on the threats to me -- she recently served as the program director for the archaeological site preservation program at the iraqi institute for the conservation of antiquities and heritage in erbil. without objection, the witnesses all prepared statements, will be made part of the record. members are going to have five

calendar days to submit comments and questions on any material they might want to put into the record. with that, sister diana, please summarize your remarks. and sister diana, she'll push that button, that red button there for you. >> thank you. thank you, chairman royce and distinguished members of the committee for inviting me today to share my views on ancient communities under attack. >> sister, i'm going to suggest you move the microphone right in front there. just project a little bit. thank you. >> okay. thank you. november 2009, a bomb was detonated at our convent in mosul. five sisters were in the building at the time and they were lucky to have escaped unharmed. our sister asked for protection from local civilization authorities, but the pleas went

unanswered. as such, she had no choice but to move us. on june 10th, 2014, the so-called islamic state in iraq or syria, or isis, invaded the nineveh plain. starting with the city of mosul, isis overran one city and town after another, giving the christians of the region three choices, convert to islam, pay tribute to isis, leave their cities, cities like mosul, with nothing more than the clothes on their back. as this horror suppressed through all of the nineveh plain, by all 6th, 2014, nineveh was empty of christians and sadly for the first time since the seventh century a.d., no church bells rang for mass in the nineveh plain. from june 2014 forward, more

than 120,000 people found themselves displaced and homeless in the kurdistan region of iraq, leaving behind their heritage and all they had worked for over the centuries. this uprooting of everything that christians owned, body and soul, stripping away their humanity and dignity. to add insult to injury, the initiative is that iraqi and kurdish governments were at best modest and slow. apart from allowing christians to enter the region, the kurdish government did not offer any aid either financial or material. i understand the great strain that these events have placed on baghdad and erbil. however, it has been almost a year and christian iraqi citizens are still in dire need for help. many people spend days and weeks in the street before they found

shelter in tents, schools, and homes. thankfully the churches stepped forward and cared for displaced christians. doing her very best to handle this disaster. buildings were open to accommodate the people. food and non-food items were provided to meet the immediate needs of the people and medical health services were also provided. moreover, the church put out a call and many humanitarian organizations answered with aid for thousands of people in need. presently, we are grateful for what has been done. with most people now sheltered in small containers or some homes, though better than living on the streets or abandoned buildings. these small units are few in number and are crowded with three families. each with multiple people, often accommodated in one unit.

this is, of course, increasing tension and conflict, even within the same family. there are many who say, why don't the christians just leave iraq and move to another country and be done with it? to this question, we would respond, why should we leave our country, what have we done? the christians of iraq are the first people of the land. you read about us in the old testament of the bible. christianity came to iraq from the very earliest days, through the preaching of st. thomas and others of the apostles and church elders. while our ancestors experienced all kinds of persecution, they built a culture that has served humanity for ages. we as christians do not want or deserve to leave or be forced out of our country any more than you would want to leave or be

forced out of yours. but the current persecution that our community is facing is the most brutal in our history. not only have we been robbed of our homes, property, and land, but our heritage is being destroyed as well. isis has continued to demolish and bomb our churches, cultural artifacts and sacred places, like a fourth century monastery in mosul. uprooted and forcefully displaced, we have realized that isis plans to evacuate the land of christians and wipe the earth clean of any evidence that we ever existed. this is human genocide. the only christians that remain in the nineveh plains are those who are held as hostages.

to restore and build the christian community in iraq, the following needs our urgent. helping us return. coordinated efforts to rebuild what was destroyed through slaughter, and electrical supplies and buildings including our churches and monasteries. incouraging enterprises that contribute to the building of iraq and interreligious dialogue. this could be through school and academic projects. i am but one small person. a victim myself of isis, and all of its brutality. coming here has been difficult for me. as a religious sister, i'm not comfortable with the media and so much attention. but i am here, and i am here to ask you, to implore you for the sake of our common humanity, to

to help us, stand with us, as we, as christians, have stood with all the people of the world and help us. we want nothing more than to go back to our lives. we want nothing more than to go home. thank you and god bless you. >> thank you, sister. ms. isaac. ms. isaac: honorable chairman royce, ranking member engel and distinguished members of this committee, i'm honored to be here today. thank you so much for having a crucial hearing that really is a matter of life or death. i'm not talking to you as an attorney, i'm not talking as a politician. i'm talking about being a human being who's been on the front lines. i've been to sinjar mountain. i've met the girls that have been kidnapped and raped by isis. and i'm telling you that we need

to give them seeds of hope. seeds of hope to know that they can live and thrive in their home. i'm here because i promised these people, my friends across the world, that i would be their voices today. hear their narratives. i'm here today because of a woman i met. she was in mosul in home at night and out of nowhere, isis came in and said you have two choices. you either convert to islam, or you pay the gizziah. she gave them the money and said give me one minute because my daughter is in the bathroom taking a shower, i'm just going to get her out. they said, you don't have one second. they took a torch, they lit the house, starting from the bathroom where she was taking a shower. she picked up her daughter rita, and she thought she could take her to the hospital. she had four-degree burns, but

rita died in her arms. i'm here today because of joy. an 11-year-old paralyzed kid from the neck down. isis found him in sinjar town. they thought that he was useless to society, so they picked him up with 190 paralyzed and elderly people and they threw him in the border of syria. but in the midst of all this darkness, i see that there's light. light can breakthrough the darkness, and we need to take our role as human beings, push them and help them to survive and thrive. let me tell you what happened to joy. the heroes of today, the peshmerga army found him with the other 190 and they rescued them, and today they're living

in safety and the peshmerga army, who's out there risking their lives, are doing this on a constant basis. they are constantly rescuing the innocents. one of those innocent girls that i met, i don't want to disclose her name for privacy purposes. she's 15 years old. and in one night in sinjar town, isis came in and took her with a group of hundreds of girls into a broken down building. and isis came in and they started to trade. trading her off. categorizing these girls as merchandise depending on whether they were beautiful in their eyes, how old they were, whether they were virgins or not. literally treating them like merchandise. she was sent off and she was being raped on a constant basis, and she decided to make an escape. she believed that she'd rather die trying.

she believed that somebody out there, another human being would help her if she made an escape. and in one night, she broke out of a window and she started to make a run for it. my brave friend went hours hiking on the top of the sinjar mountain. but isis came back for her. and took her back. when she went to that house, they starved her, they beat her, and again, she said, i'd rather die trying. isis forgot to fix the window today broke. -- they broke. and she made a run for it. and this time, she made it to the very top. and who was there to stand by her side? the peshmerga army. the kurdish regional government, who have already rescued at least 480 girls and children. 30 of which are impregnated.

many of those that have been impregnated by isis committed suicide. the others who received the counseling, who received that push of hope, that seed that each of us can provide, started to dream again. started to see a future. today, i ask for four things. i ask that we support the brave peshmerga army, who's resisting terror at the front lines. they're not just fighting to protect their land. they're not fighting to preserve the religious minorities alone. they're fighting for the entire world. second, i ask that we provide humanitarian assistance, more and more of it, because today there's about two million refugees and idps living in the kurdistan regional government region and they need our support. they need psychological

counseling to deal with the trauma. we're talking about a future generation here. let's help them good what they -- get the support they need. let's help the brave government that's on the front lines. the armies that are truly the boots on the ground. i ask that we recognize the amazing rescue efforts. and lastly, i ask of you to help their partners. a country like egypt who's now taking hundreds of thousands of syrians in their and land. a country like egypt when the president heard that 21 christians were killed in libya, acted immediately by deploying those air strikes. a country like jordan is taking in hundreds of thousands of idps and fighting on those front lines. let's support them, because this is a matter of national security. it's not about them. it's about all of us together. i have a video, if we have a moment to video show these

girls, they're going to share with us their stories. >> without objection. [video clip] [ speaking foreign language ] >> these girls were turned out by isis. [ speaking foreign language ] >> these girls have hope. they have hope that we're going to help them. let's all do it together. thank you.

>> thank you, jacqueline. ms. kabawat. hind kabawat: thank you, chairman royce. ranking member engel. and other members of the committee. i am honored to be here today and speak to you about the status of religious minorities in syria. a subject very close to my heart. growing up as a christian in syria, i was surrounded by rich multi-religious history. i have lived much of my life on a road so ancient, it was mentioned in the bible. today, it saddens me to see the christians in syria paying a very high price for this senseless war.

they have been running from their villages and homes. they are displaced. their churches are being destroyed. a report by my colleague on the destroyed churches in syria, including those destroyed by isis and by the regime. protecting christians is essential. but why i urge you to do whatever is possible to protect minorities and christians from isis, i would like to remind you that isis is killing any and every muslim who oppose them. just as minorities and muslims are killed by assad regime. my friend jemilla, a very religious muslim, was threatened

by isis and escaped at night to turkey fearing death. some sunni tribes have suffered massive losses to isis. for example, isis forced more than 500 jews in one day last year. women and children live constant traumatizing fear of rape and recruitment by isis. as a christian, i cannot request safety for my christian community without worrying about others. yes, we need to create safe havens for minorities and all groups threatened by isis. it's monumental and worthwhile task. and when selecting these areas your organization is essential. -- bureaucracy is essential. areas close to turkish and jordan borders are the best

candidate because of the guarantee that those borders will remain secure. additionally, an important component of safe havens will be the proximity to protect zone. by first liberating all isis controlled cities in these zones. the secretary of the safe haven will be easier to maintain.urity -- maintain. last three years, i have regularly visited refugee camps in turkey, jordan, and idp camp inside syria, and others. the women there want to go back home. they want to live without fear. as we discuss, religious minorities, i urge you also to consider the need of women who have been marginalized as well.

they are the key to peace process, and the key to establishing community that provides support for one another across sectarian lines. empowering local councils to deliver social services is another essential component of establishing safe havens for all syrians. the base guarantee for the prosperities of minorities in the middle east is under a democracy that accords everyone the same rights and privileges regardless of their ethnic or religious background. the message to minorities in the middle east should be one inclusion. equipping and encouraging them to be part of the democratic process. which is the only long-term

possibility to defeat extremism and dictatorship in our country. thank you, and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. thank you. dr. hanson. katharyn hanson: chairman rice -- chairman royce ranking member , engel, and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss isis's destruction of minority religious and cultural sites. isis's campaign of targeted extermination includes the erasure of the outward manifestations of minority religious culture, which threatens these communities' way of life. i study the subject as a fellow at the penn cultural heritage center of the university of pennsylvania museum. but, like others on this panel i was in iraq in august 2014 when isis advanced toward the erbil plain. as a program director at the iraqi institute for the conservation of antiquities and heritage in erbil, i was leading a course for heritage

professionals from throughout the country, men and women of every religion. this training was interrupted and we departed abruptly shortly after air strikes began. despite the setback, the desire of iraqi heritage professionals to protect the religious and cultural sites of the country remain strong. based on my current research experience in iraq, and consultation with iraqi colleagues, i want to share some examples of isis's destruction. slide one, please. in july 2014 in mosul, iraq, isis destroyed the tomb of the prophet jono. analysis of satellite imagery by the american association for the advances of sciences geospaces technology project where i am a visiting scholar confirmed this destruction. slide two, please. this analysis also showed that isis removed all evidence of the

shrine by clearing rubble. in doing so, isis erased the physical presence for the entire local religious community. slide three, please. it is an archaeological site in syria with preserved roman provincial architecture. it includes the world's best preserved ancient jewish synagogue and one of the earliest known christian house chapels. the chapel dates to about 235 a.d. and contains the oldest known depiction of jesus christ. slide four, please. the site has been extensively looted and is currently under isis control. the before-and-after image analyzed analysis completed by the geotech project, demonstrates this over 76% of the site's surface has now been lost. slide five, please. two months ago, i traveled to the area adjacent to isis held

areas. i met with the director of the antiquities department to identify religious and cultural sites at risk. this site may be one of the only surviving yazidi religious centers. slide six, please. isis has released two videos that include the defacement of an ancient sculpture. these are human headed winged gulls. -- bulls. in ancient times, they represented the empire from the ninth to seventh century bc. today, they serve as important symbols for syrian christians. isis's defacement is thus intended to terrorize the present day iraqi christian community while simultaneously destroying artifacts. in thinking about how we can address this destruction, i would like to offer three recommendations. first, we must prepare humanitarian assistance to religious and refugee communities as well as to

displaced heritage professionals. in the near future, i will return to erbil, iraq, with colleagues from the university of pennsylvania museum and the smithsonian institution, and there we will work with iraqi colleagues to determine unmet emergency needs. more programs like this are necessary, and the u.s. government should encourage new collaborations in the non-profit sector. second, this committee should inquire into efforts to protect religious and other cultural sites during military actions against isis. there is a report that should shed some light on these efforts due in june 2015 thanks to a provision sponsored by mr. engel in the national defense authorization act. i recommend that this committee scrutinize the report carefully for evidence that steps are being taken to avoid accidental air strikes on religious and cultural sites, and that protection measures are incorporated into advisory roles and military training.

finally, there is bipartisan legislation to protect and preserve international cultural property act, introduced by mr. engel, mr. smith, mr. royce, and mr. keating. its purpose is twofold. to bring together the agencies that have existing mandates to protect heritage, and to eliminate the financial incentive for entities such as isis to loot religious and cultural artifacts. i commend this community for its bipartisan leadership on this bill and i urge you to advocate for its final passage into law. i would like to thank the chairman for convening this important hearing at a very critical juncture in the preservation of religious and cultural heritage. i am happy to answer any questions that you have. rep. royce: thank you, dr. hanson. that legislation, by the way has been passed out of committee. it's on the floor. and we're going to move it shortly, and i would just make a couple of observations. one is that this isis

phenomenon, another way it could have been handled was when isis originally was in raqqa as they were leaving raqqa. there were those of us on this committee, as well as some of our ambassadors overseas, that suggested the overwhelming u.s. air power hit the isis forces in raqqa or hit the isis forces as they were leaving in their long caravan as they begin their attacks, town by town by town. and we did not act from the air at that time. we allowed them to take some 14 major cities, culminating in taking mosul without the use of air power at the time, to stop them while they were in these long columns. subsequently, we began the process in this committee, bipartisan, to argue for arming the kurds. why? because the kurdish battalions were strung out a 600-mile front

with isis. they were one effective force, not just fighting isis, but taking in behind their front lines christians, yazidis, other minorities, and willing to put themselves at risk to go into territory isis-held in order to rescue yazidis and other minorities, and they were fighting with small arms fire against isis, which had become the best fighting terror group in the history of any terror organization because they took the central bank at mosul and had at their disposal enormous wealth, and because they took weapons along the way. so our efforts here have gone on now i would say for nine months to try to get into the hands of the kurds the anti-tank missiles, the artillery, the long-range mortars that they need on the battlefield. 30% of these kurdish battalions

are females. they are women fighting on the front lines against isis and they are fighting without adequate equipment, and as you put it so well, they're fighting for civilization. not just their own. for other religious minorities and frankly, for a principle. and because of the pressure from iran, pressure on baghdad, you know, yes, you can support the shia militia, but you can't give support to the kurds. for whatever reason, the weapons dribble in, and this is wrong. this is immoral. the other point i would make, i just wanted to ask you some questions on the issue of the sale of female captives from religious minority groups to isis fighters.

how extensively has isis been involved in what we here call sex trafficking, or slavery, frankly, particularly the kidnapping and sale of women and girls from these overrun communities. has it been an outcome of lawlessness, or is it part of a more deliberate isis policy to destroy and to subjugate those who do not share q&a their their fanaticism? ms. isaac? jacqueline isaac: looking at the isis philosophy, they believe that the yazidi people in particular are not only to be tortured, but they are to be destroyed in every single way possible. they want them off the face of this earth. and so it is a philosophy to destroy them and to torture them. with the girls particularly that

i met, they in one night because they felt safe in the beginning in sinjar town, and in one night, isis came and took all of these girls and they told them first, they gave them an option, they said will you become a muslim? will you convert to islam? and many of them said no. and they told them, you are going to be muslim regardless, because we are going to sleep with you, and the moment that we do that, once we rape you, you will be muslim. many of these girls who chose not to be still were raped and came back believing that they were forced into this religion. this is barbaric. it is systematic. to date today it starts with the yazidis. tomorrow it's going to be not only the christians, but every woman that doesn't fit within their philosophy. we need to stop the menace that's going on there.

we need to stop at its root. this is a nerve center. right now, all the crazies from all over the world are coming to this center point. to this nerve center. if we can cut the snake at its head, we can diffuse them. their sex trafficking is systematic and it will continue, and it can reach our families if we don't do something about it. thank you. rep. royce: let me also ask about psychological counselling. and i'd ask that of the panel. what type of trauma resources are available right now for those who have escaped, and what more is needed. sister? donna momeka: yeah, i would say

from my work on the ground, we don't have that strong program to talk about trauma because i just experienced a case go four weeks ago, a woman who was released by isis with 20aa yadi women thrown in, this is a christian, you take it, we go to our yazidi family. the woman was totally devastated. she was in her 40s, brutally beaten, raped constantly, yet her psychological situation is totally destroyed. she can't control herself anymore when she tells her story how they tortured her in so many ways, that when one of the sisters who took her, found that on her body was with the burn of the smoke and all of that. so the woman now we put her in a

safer place, yet we are trying to find a good psychological treatment for her. yet it's not available where we live exactly. so we lack for that thing. so the social psychological programs, i think they are the most important thing to look to to work on at this moment. rep. engel: thank you. my time's about to expire. i'll go to mr. engel. rep. engel: thank you, mr. chairman. dr. hanson, first after all, thank you for being here today. thank you for your work to help iraqi citizens save their religious history. as you know, america has a long history of leading the world in efforts to protect religious and cultural sites from destruction and you're carrying this legacy forward today. during time of crisis such as those in iraq and syria, first priority must always be in saving lives and i thank the other witness for emphasizing that as well. miss isaac, about the women's aspect, and our other witnesses about how this is affecting everybody.

we're committed to the priority of save lives but we also must ensure that we stop isis from destroying the history of these groups. as we create safe havens to protect religious minorities dr. hanson how do we protect cultural sites safe as well? katharyn hanson: thank you. i think it's very important that we make sure we're supporting local actions, local actors are able to protect sites, much like with firemen, you provide the hose and the water. i also think that in terms of safe havens for individuals, we can also think about that as safe havens within a country for portable objects and artifacts and safe locations where things can be moved. we have seen that successfully take place in mali, for instance, recently. rep. engel: thank you.

miss kabawat, let me ask you this question, according to state department testimony last summer, some of isis' religious minority captives have been able to escape while their captors were distracted by coalition air strikes. to what extent have coalition air strikes affected religious minorities? hind kabawat: when we talk about effect of the air strikes, it affect both majority and minorities because they did hit some civilian places why and i was in hiding one month before they started, and where lots of civilians has been hit. the problem is that they need to have more homework. they should know where the

civilian, so when we want to say targeting civilians, minorities, we need to say targeting civilians and we cannot say only minority because it's sometimes hitting everybody. thank you. rep. engel: thank you. let me ask miss isaac, and also sister, isis is waging obviously a campaign of destruction against religious sites across the territory they control. we saw the slides and pictures. can you comment on the impact, the destruction of religious sites on the people who share a religious connection to those sites? what do we lose when isis destroys these sites? start with sister and then miss isaac. donna momeka: what do we lose? i would say we lost everything sir. we left -- we lost everything

that today every christian that's living in the region of kurdistan we feel we don't have dignity anymore. when you lose your home, you lose everything you have. you lose your heritage, your culture, you become with no identity. and today that's how we see ourselves. and the most brutal thing to us when it was put on tv that two monasteries that were one of them found and another one destroyed, -- one of them bombe and another one destroyedd just was a sign for us and , that's your history is gone. you are nothing anymore. that's how we see ourselves now. homeless. rep. engel: thank you. miss isaac? jacqueline isaac: as an american

of egyptian descend, i moved to egypt when i was 13, and i remember holding on to the heritage, knowing there were ancient churches still there even if we were the minority. i had a tie, i could identify with my ancient churches. today in iraq you have the lalesh preserved for the center preserved for the yazidis, that is their mecca that is their rome. today they hold on to that and the peshmerga is working so hard, if that's gone, the yazidi people will feel hopeless, they won't identify anymore with the land they've remained in for many years. for religious minorities in this region, our heritage is everything. it ties us to that land. it keeps us there. we're not supposed to just be there to survive. we should be living there to thrive, we should be able to worship freely, go to the heritage sites, bring our

children and grand children and talk about that history. without those sites, we've lost it all. thank you. rep. engel: thank you. let me again thank all four of you for wonderful testimony and wonderful courage. we really appreciate it. thank you, mr. chairman. rep. royce: thank you. our chairman emeritus. ileana ros-lehtinen: thank you so much. today's hearing, as we know, focuses on a subject that all too often gets overlooked or ignored when discussing the crisis in the middle east and specifically the fight against isil. we have discussed this in our middle east and north africa subcommittee on several occasions, long side chairman smith and his subcommittee and chris smith has been a tireless advocate for this issue. isil has issued warnings to christians in iraq that they can convert, pay taxes, or be killed. churches are being destroyed religious artifact sites are being raided and many christians and other religious minorities have been forced to flee.

isil massacred 20 coptic christians in egypt and the list goes on and on. however we must acknowledge that isil just doesn't target religious minorities, everyone who doesn't ascribe to its form of islam is a target. so that's why it's imperative that we not only defeat isil but find a way to defeat its radical ideology as well. it's also important to recognize that the persecution of religious minorities isn't just isolated to isil or to iraq or syria. the u.s. commission on international religious freedom has repeatedly called upon the obama administration to designate countries like iraq, syria, and egypt as countries of particular concern. that's a special classification. why? for their systemic ongoing and egregious abuses that the religious minorities face in those countries. many of us in this committee

have decried the fact that the iranian regime's deplorable human rights record and its persecution of religious minorities were not made a part of the nuclear negotiations from day one since the p5+1 efforts were announced. a nuclear deal will legitimize the iranian regime and only serve to make the atmosphere even worse for religious minorities in iran. iran's meddling in iraq, its support for shiite militias have played a significant role in the rise of isil's current difficulties we face in the region and the fight against the terror group in iraq and syria. now we have seen the size of the religious minority communities decline dramatically in iraq and syria as a result of isil's onslaught. sister diana, i'll ask you. you felt the pain and the suffering of your own community and you've been witness to what isil has done to ancient

religious communities of iraq. you have been displaced twice. can you describe for us the conditions in mosul where you were forced to flee to kurdistan? could you please also detail the conditions in kurdistan? lastly, what more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? where can we be most effective? momeka: thank you. i would answer your question in a story that touches my heart a lot and the heart of the people that we're working with. when we were forced to leave, we -- our children became without any education, without school. so a congregation we care a lot about education as dominican. we start opening kindergartens. so we had 135 children in one of the kindergartens, we handed --

in one of the classes we hand them papers to draw on the paper. amazingly, most of the children they draw back home, their hometowns. they draw some their beds, church, homes, that they relate back home. when we asked them why did you do that? they said, we miss home, we want to go back home. we want to live normal life. 5-year-olds, stood up and said i don't feel like i am home here. when i was home, i used to go to the kindergarten, i used to go to church with my family. i used to play with my toys, with my friends. that was a normal life when we were back in our homes. we used to live normal life, we have education, our parents, brother, sisters, if they are employed would go to work. now it's the opposite. people are jobless. women do not have any work to do.

they are living in containers or unfinished buildings, facing terrible conditions besides the humanitarian aid is not enough for them. it's so different that today even our children, what i want to say, our children, they feel that they don't have a place to live properly. they don't have home. so our life has changed tremendously. since before we were this is a bridge that we can connect among diversities now we felt we're alone, we're abandoned. that's how we feel. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. we know that isil doesn't discriminate. you're either with the terrorists or they will destroy you or subjugate you. thank you. rep. royce: thank you. mr. brad sherman from california. brad sherman: mr. chairman the two most powerful forces in the syria, iraq shiite alliance in

, iran, and the extremists sunnis, on the other. we've seen our friends saudi arabia and others do is move towards what they'll accept as quote, moderate islam, or acceptable islam, and embrace the brotherhood, turkey, qatar and perhaps ear alal nustra. which is after all, part of al qaeda. had we did more in the process perhaps saudi arabia would not be taking that action. the good news is that, reports in the last half hour that the number two commander in isis has been killed. i hope that's true. we'll see. mr. chairman, you commented that isis has all of this iraqi currency. iraq, should of course issue new currency, making its own currency invalid. many countries have done this. this is a process that is hated by corrupt poll significances

-- corrupt politicians and drug dealers and of course the iraqi government has failed to do so which leads to possible conclusion that perhaps corrupt politicians with huge stashes of cash have some power in baghdad. this congress passed the near east south central asia religious freedom act. that required that the state department have a special envoy for religious minorities in that region. we are still waiting for someone to be appointed. do not hold your breath. the attitude of the administration toward following laws just because they are laws is less than i think it ought to be. speaking of laws passed by congress, we authorized $1.6 billion in nada to counter isil, think included authorization

-- basically, the authorization was amended to include provisions for local security forces on the plane including syrian and ucd forces. so far -- yazidi forces. so far far that hasn't happened. , and of course, communities that cannot defend themselves are in a difficult circumstance on the plane. one of our witnesses has been unabashed in support of the kurdish government, miss isaac. i had in my office yesterday representatives of the yazidi, syrian, and kurdish communities that took a very different view the kurdish government. perhaps a balance between the two is that the kurdish government provided sanctuary that has not allowed these groups to form their own national guard battalions, and no group on the plane will be safe unless they have their own national guard.

mr. chairman, i would like to see us bring to it testify before this committee one of the yazidi women who have successfully fled from isis this would require the state department provide an entry visa , and it the woman or girl was coming from kurdish areas, we would need to get an exit visa from that government. rep. royce: mr. sherman? if i could interrupt for a minute. we did have a young yazidi woman, a young girl, slated to testify. she had to drop off of the trip because of health reasons. >> ah. rep. royce: but we will achieve your goal here. i'll relinquish the time back to you.

sherman: thank you. miss kabawat, yazidis are giving the choice, convert, die, or be given an unfair tax. i put three in one category. something that muslim governments have imposed upon the minority communities for centuries and in prior centuries it has been a tax that was endurable, of course it's outrageous and unfair. is isis imposing a tax that is outrageous, unfair, but is a practical thing that the communities could pay, or is it just an excuse for them to say well, we want to confiscate everything on monday, that's your monday tax. on tuesday you don't have anything left so we're going to kill you? is isis offering to allow at

least christians, the yazidis of course, would be treated differently under their roles, a chance to stay in their homes and pay a tax consistent with what is possible, of course, it's outrageous? hind kabawat: just talking about syria, where the isis has full control, most of the christian there is not many christians now in the isis-control area. like raqqa. when they are there, they are in hiding. they did say that they are -- it happened a few time but i think there's not many christians in this area, they're already gone. in other things, the christians now they're all in aleppo or others. they've been away.

where they have been now, in where there is the moderate muslims control, they're not being asked for any because they treat them as equal citizen. thank you. representative sherman i believe : my time's expired. rep. royce: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. dana rohrabacher of california. dana rohrabacher: thank you very much. let me identify myself with mr. sherman's point about the iraqi currency. we must get to the bottom of who the heck is paying for isis who, what -- what government is responsible for providing them money? whoever that is, we need to make sure we come down like a ton of bricks on that government. and we must make sure that is a high priority for this government to find out who's financing this sinful and this horrendous atrocity against the people of the world. whatever faith you are, whether

you're islam or christian or whatever faith you are, this is an abomination to any belief in god. we must stand in unity with people of all faiths in this endeavor. i want to thank chairman royce and engel who have the demonstrated again, the bipartisan nature of many of these challenges that we face, and that standing together america, if nothing else because we come from, you know we are made up of every race religion and ethnic group in the world. we're supposed to be the one that sets the standard for the world, and we can do that by making sure we don't cozy up to people and remain friends with people who are financing this type of atrocity. i'd like to -- look, it's perplexing position because

people are being murdered in this part of the world. your friends, relatives, really, innocent, human beings are being savaged. should our focus be on trying to defeat and eliminate the evil forces that are at play or should it be to extract people from this danger zone to get them here? i wonder if any of you have any thoughts of than all of you, go right ahead. go right ahead. hind kabawat: mr. congressman, i think the solution is to stop the conflict. we have a conflict in middle east, i'm talking about syria. we have a conflict. you're asking about who is paying isis. they took banks, they took -- they steal.

they do everything they can to -- not to have to be depend on anybody to get their money. we want to get rid of them, we have to end the conflict. there is a conflict in syria and people are suffering, and today we need to think about those civilians, how to stop their suffering. there are -- isis attacks every day, people are scared. i know many people there escaped, even if they're muslim, they escape because isis will threaten their lives. we want to stop isis we need to stop the conflict in syria. we need to stop the dictator. both are the enemies of the security and the safety and the future for syria. thank you.

zach -- ms. isaac: congressman rohrabacher, when i take a look at all of the religious minorities that i've met when i was in iraq and i look at their ancient history, you know that they belong there and they want to stay there. and if we try to get rid of the problem by just bringing the religious minorities here -- yes. -- isis will spread everywhere. it will continue. right now we have a diverse fabric in the middle east and it's really protecting, not only the region, but the entire world. the fact that there are christians and yazidis and jews in that region today makes the middle east what it is. we need to look the bigger fight and understand that isis is against the entire world. their short-term plan right now is trying to get rid of the religious minorities of the region and creating their state. >> right. >> but tomorrow it's going it to be attack the entire world. dana rohrabacher: i think that your point is well made and i

just -- i know that sister diana had trouble even getting here. we should not be having barriers to people, especially coming here to make their case and to warn us. at the same time, i've got a few seconds left, let heme say we need to make sure we are standing behind those people like our friends, the kurds, up in erbil who are making this stand. we can't -- we haven't solved that problem yet, mr. chairman, where our supplies can go directly to the kurds, some of them are now, but many of them we have to go through baghdad in order to get the supplies there. we should be making sure anyone in that region who is fighting isis gets the full support and direct support from the people of the united states. you are in our thoughts and prayers. we know that you're -- these communities, i visited a community in syria. my wife and i actually went and

said it was one of our most important experiences in our life where we said the lord's prayer as jesus spoke. in aramaic. hang tough. we're with you. rep. royce: brian higgins of new york. brian higgins: thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank the panel here. your testimony is both eloquent and compelling. i just want to focus on the christian community in the middle east. isis has declared war on christians. isis wants genocide now. they want to eradicate christians from the middle east and africa. christian kids have been beheaded, their mothers raped, and their fathers crucified literally. isis believes christians are standing in the way of their world conquest, anything pre-islamic they want to destroy and want to prepare the world for the coming of the islamic heldly fate.

-- caliphate. christians in the middle east and africa are losing communities that have lived peacefully for 2000 years. 500,000 christian arabs driven out of syria during the last three years of civil war. christians have been persecuted and killed, from lebanon to sudan, now south sudan. civil wars lasted decades. in iraq, mosul is a christian city, the second largest city in iraq, christians have been living there for 1700 years. as you know better than anybody. after the fall of saddam, the numbers in -- of christians in iraq were estimated christians about 45,000. today, how many christians are living in mosul?

donna momeka: very few. only those held hostage there. we don't have the exact number. yet they are maybe a couple hundred or less. representative higgins a hundred : or less. most of those who have fled have moved up to kurdistan? sister: first of all, they fled to my hometown, and -- >> where? >> it's -- which is close to mosul, about 20 minute distance southwest of mosul. after a week or so our displacement happened, which never thought that would happen with a couple hours that we were forced to leave which take -- it's about one-hour distance from my hometown to kurdistan. took us 11 hours to go there because some were marching, some were driving. because it was a traumatic stage for us. i would say like very few christians have stayed in mosul or that they couldn't leave

because they were asleep when that happened. representative higgins: is the hope of the christians from mosul who have been forced to flee to one day return? sister: yes. the message that i was given before i left, they said to me i've been working every day with the idps -- that's what they call us, actually there -- they said to me, sister, just please tell the community, tell the members of the congress that help us to go back home, we want to go back home. representative higgins: what has been the position of prime minister abody relative to the christian community of iraq? you don't need to say. i get it. yeah. this is, you know, we were told, after al maliki, who was a thug, left, that things would change

that the new iraqi government would be inclusive of all minorities in communities. political stability is dependent on the ability to embrace the kurds, the shia, the sunni, but also the christian community of iraq. so that's not happening, clearly. and this is just one of many consequences of the failure to embrace the minority community. this is again the larger problem in the middle east. it's a highly, highly pluralistic part of the world and unless and until you have minority rights you'll never have stability. a guy like al assad is a bad guy. but what's happening is minority groups have a tendency to gravitate to them for one -- to him for one r