Original HR-390 language must be reinstated

    Senator Corker gutted the aid bill for Iraqi and Syrian Christians:  The Religious Freedom Coalition presented or caused to be mailed hundreds of thousands of postcards to the House in 2017, resulting in the passage by voice vote of the Syria and Iraq Genocide Relief and Accountability Act (HR-390).  Then, in the Senate, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held up the bill authored by Congressman Chris Smith for months.

By the time Senator Corker finally presented the bill to his committee for a vote, the actual aid language had been gutted and replaced with bizarre anti-Russia rhetoric that had nothing to do with assisting Christians.  Rather than rush aid to those in need in the Nineveh Plain, Senator Corker’s version set up a committee to examine, among other things, Russian interference in Syria and the “atrocities” of the Syrian government.  The atrocities of the Islamic State came in a distant third.

    The original bill had three main purposes:  First, HR-390 would give assistance for victims of genocide; Second, HR-390 demanded accountability for the perpetrators of genocide and Third, HR-390 would give Christian victims of genocide priority refugee status.

Most of Senator Corker’s version of HR-390 is centered on the creation of a “Syria Study Group” to “review the current situation with respect to the United States military and diplomatic strategy in Syria, including a review of current United States objectives in Syria and the desired end state in Syria.”

The Group is then to “develop recommendations on a military and diplomatic strategy for the United States with respect to the conflict in Syria.”

What do “recommendations on a military and diplomatic strategy” have to do with the original purpose of HR-390 which was to assist Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria who had suffered persecution by Sunni Muslim militias to the extent of genocide?

The original language of HR-390 must be reinstated — and you can help!
Our 2018 postcard campaign is aimed only at Senators, and at Senate Majority Leader McConnell in particular.  Over the next few weeks you will be receiving new post cards to mail to your Senators and to Majority Leader McConnell demanding that the HR-390 language be restored, and that a vote be held to bring real aid to the Christian victims of genocide.  Please mail the new cards even if you have sent previous cards demanding passage of HR-390.

While President Trump has reached out to the Christian victims of Sunni Muslim terror,  now the Congress must act to direct funds and resources to help Christians.