mr. royce: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to dispense ith the reading. i might ask, mr. speaker, just unanimous consent to dispense with the reading if that's appropriate. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the reading of the amendment to the text is dispensed with. mr. royce: so i have an amendment to the preamble at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. mr. royce: i'll suspend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the amendment is agreed to and, without objection, the resolution is agreed to. the gentleman from california. mr. royce: mr. speaker, at this time i have an amendment to the preamble at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the amendment to the preamble. the clerk: amendment to house resolution 707 offered by mr. royce of california. strike the preamble and insert the following. whereas there is clear evidence of increasing incidents and expressions of antisesmtism -- anti-semitism throughout the world. whereas on april 3

mr. royce: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm going to yield five minutes to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. gur lack, he is co-chairman of the house ukraine caucus and he's the author of the resolution we have before us. mr. gerlach: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, thank you for this opportunity to be before this body. particular thanks to chairman royce and to ranking member engel for their great support and cooperation for this resolution. and for the ukrainian people themselves. also special thanks to my colleagues in the house, congresswoman kaptur, congressman levin, and congressman pascrell for their terrific support on these important issues involving our two countries. this resolution sends unmistakable message to the russian federation and the entire world that this house stands united with the people of ecrane. during the last 10 months, no other ally has experienced more internal upheaval or more of an imminent threat to its sovereignty than our friends in ukraine. last november, the people of ukraine floo

mr. royce: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of this amendment.ay we face, as we know, a great and growing threat from isil. never has a terrorist organization controlled so much territory, a safe haven, as well, to plan future attacks. never has one had access to vital natural resources. never has a terrorist organization possessed the cash, the heavy weaponry, the personnel that isil possesses. and we're late in responding. at least two years ago the president had a proposal on his desk to arm those under threat inside syria. it was backed by his secretary of state, backed by his defense secretary, backed by general petraeus, then head of the c.i.a. if the president had accepted this recommendation coming from his entire national security team years ago, we might be in a different position right now. but we are where we are, and the question is -- syria continues to spiral out of control, assad has hung to power and isil has risen from a terrorist group to a terrorist army, that's where we are. and caught in the middle has been the civil society

the chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. royce, for five minutes. mr. royce: well, thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to talk a little bit about the enduring struggle of the cry meehan tutars, a people who ve -- crimian tutars, a people who have endured war in their region, i had an opportunity to meet with many of them when i was in ukraine. myself and eliot he cannle sat down with the minority groups that have been through so much in that region. i just wanted to say this to the members of the house. and that is that russia's aggression this ukraine has produced many tragedies but none -- none more so than that of the crimian. for centuries this muslim community has suffered at the hands of sush russia's rulers. russia's rulers have devastated the population. they've driven countless numbers from their homes and now moscow's forcible occupation of crimea has imposed a new oppression on this long-suffering community, forcing large numbers to flee and making the rest increasingly unwelcomed in their incest rale homeland. and when i was in

. -- mckeon, the gentleman from california, mr. royce, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. frelinghuysen, the gentlewoman from texas, ms. granger, the gentleman from michigan, mr. rogers, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. gerlach, the gentleman from ohio, mr. turner, the gentlewoman from california, ms. pelosi, the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. clyburn, the gentleman from new york, mr. israel, the gentlewoman from -- the gentleman from california, mr. becerra, the gentlewoman from new york, ms. slaughter, the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley, the gentlewoman from ohio, ms. kaptur, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pascrell, the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. corrine brown, the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro. vice president biden: members of the committee on the part of the senate to escort his excellency, petro poroshenko, president of ukraine into the house chamber. enator nevada, mr. reid, mr. durbin, the senator from michigan, ms. stab know, the senator from new jersey,

mr. chairman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> ed royce, the chairman of the houseffairs committee. >>> president obama opened up about his take on isis at a private white house dinner earlier this week. one of those guests, a former national security adviser during the bill clinton administration, sandy berger, was invited to the dinner. he's standing by live to discuss. choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. honey, you did it! baby laughs! could mean less waiting for things like security backups and file downloads you'd take that test, right? what are you waiting for? you could literally be done with the test by now. now you could have done it twice. this is awkward. go to comcastbusiness.com/ checkyourspeed. if we can't offer faster speeds or save you money we'll give you $150. comcast business built for business. >>> tonight, president obama will explain to the american people his specific plans for dealing with the growing terror threat from the group isis. joining us here in washington, sandy berger, form national security adviser to

ed royce, chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. mr. chairman, it's good to have you with us. was your first reaction to the president statement? >> one of the ironies here is that we have gone from this team to it now being a threat. the one of the reasons it has become a thread is because of the kurdish forces that asked for weapons and were not supplied. they told me that they couldn't get the antitank missiles or the artillery or the long-range mortars that they needed in order to help their troops defeat them on the battlefield. so it seems to me that this has been bungled to some extent month after month by not getting the support to the kurdish people. and at the same time, we could have done those strikes months ago when our embassy requested a and when the terrorists with their black flags flying racing across the desert to take town after town. why not catch them out in the open and knock out their columns then? so i think that there has been some lost opportunities there. and i think the question is going to be execution beca

representative from california and chairman of the house foreign affairs committee congressman ed royce. and mrs chairman you have special importance here. so do you plan to support the president's plans to close in on isis? >> yes, i do. but i think also it's important that the president lay out a strategy, long term strategy that will bring on board allies. certainly the arab league has shown a responsiveness now to getting involved here. our nato allies are talking about joining the campaign to attack isis. and i think, i think as arab league said the other day they want to hear the plan. i think members of congress feel the same way. we'll have next week, the secretary of state up to get into the details. but, yes, i think we need -- >> should there be an official authorization, mr. chairman? >> well, i think the president would argue under existing, you know, law he has that authority but as we hear the detail and scope of the plan we can see more authorization is needed. >> some people talk about limiting about the amount of time that congress would authorize it. do you think, because we'

mr. secretary. >> thank you very much, chairman royce, ranking member engel, all the members of the committee. it's my privilege to be here today. i'm glad to have this opportunity. let me begin by both congratulating you and thanking you for the vote that took place yesterday. we are enormously appreciative because stepping up the efforts with respect to the moderate opposition is an essential piece of any strategy against isil and i'll go into that in a little bit in a moment. i know the chairman knows i have a hard stop on this because i have to be at the white house for the meeting with president por shane koe, so i'm going to -- i'll try to really abbreviate and keep my answers short but want to make sure i answer them -- your questions sufficiently. you know, for more than ten years iraq has been a source of debate and some disagreement obviously up on the hill in the country. i think we would waste time today if we focus instead of rehashing past debates. when the issue that confronts us is really straight-forward and one on which we ought to all agree. isil has to be defeated. plain an