Appropriations Committee adopts Kirk amendments pressing State Department to advocate for Iranian dissidents, require basic accountability from UN agency
Kirk Priorities Included: Promoting Veterans Hiring at USAID, Full Funding for Israel’s Security, Conditions on Assistance to the Palestinian Authority, Extension of the Lautenberg Amendment for Refugees and Increased Focus on Human Trafficking
WASHINGTON D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–July 25, 2013. U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today hailed the Senate Appropriations Committee passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, which funds the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and most foreign assistance programs.
As part of a managers’ package, the Committee adopted two amendments offered by Sen. Kirk. The first, an effort to provide greater transparency and accountability to U.S. taxpayers, requires the State Department to report to Congress with an approximate number of people currently served by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) who actually lived in then-Palestine between 1946 and 1948 and were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
“Despite relying on the United States as its largest single-country donor, UNRWA refuses to provide Congress with basic information on the population it serves and continues to block independent audits of its expenditures,” Sen. Kirk said. “This reporting requirement will increase transparency and accountability for American taxpayers who have provided more than $4 billion to UNRWA since 1950.”
The second Kirk amendment adopted today expresses support for political prisoners in Iran like Nasrin Sotoudeh and requires the Secretary of State to report on steps being taken to raise awareness around the world about Iranian dissidents and political prisoners. During the committee markup, Sen. Kirk called Sotoudeh, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist imprisoned since 2010, a symbol of the human rights abuses committed by the Iranian regime.
“I want to call attention to Iranian human rights case Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose sole crime is being a human rights lawyer, and who was thrown in jail for representing people following the Green Revolution,” Sen. Kirk said during the markup. “I will be putting Nasrin up for a Nobel Peace Prize to increase international pressure and shift the focus to how the Iranian regime is abusing its people. I hope she will become a symbol of their repression.”
Audio of Senator Kirk’s comments can be found here.
The bill also includes language requested or supported by Senator Kirk to:
promote the hiring of veterans at USAID. In FY 2011, USAID had the third lowest percentage of veterans employed among all Executive Branch agencies, despite USAID’s increased work in conflict zones. The Kirk language will require examination of USAID’s veterans hiring programs and recommendations on ways to improve veterans hiring;
fully fund security assistance to Israel at $3.1 billion;
condition assistance to the Palestinian Authority on any future attempt to use the International Criminal Court to castigate Israel;
reauthorize the “Lautenberg Amendment,” key language allowing the expeditious processing of religious minority refugees from Iran and the former Soviet Union. Since 2011, Sen. Kirk and the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), for whom the original amendment is named, led bipartisan coalitions to extend the Lautenberg Amendment and demonstrate U.S. commitment to human rights and religious freedom in Iran; and
support efforts to combat human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence.
Source: kirk.senate.gov
