Press Releases

Prepared remarks from Congressman Hill's May 22, 2019, floor speech are copied below:

I rise today to again speak out against the daily atrocities occurring in Syria.

Few would have predicted that eight years ago, peaceful protests would turn into violent conflict that has left more than half a million men, women, and children dead, millions more displaced, and the entire region feeling like a lit fuse ready to explode into further conflict.

Shortly after coming to Congress, I met Mouaz Moustafa, a young Syrian-American from Arkansas who has been leading a Syrian pro-democracy group here in Washington, D.C. called the Syrian Emergency Task Force.

After meeting Mouaz, I studied his efforts, and I learned more and more about the horrific events happening in Syria. He led me through the “Caesar” file photos in a special exhibit at the Holocaust Museum and, earlier this year, introduced me to Omar Alshogre, who was arrested as a teenager and survived the torture, starvation, and other brutalities in Assad’s prisons for more than three years. Seeing those photos and hearing Omar’s story were powerful experiences.

I believe what is happening in Syria is a modern-day holocaust, and our obligation to end Assad’s reign of terror is something that all Americans must confront.

I am grateful for the New York Times and their recent extensive front page story going inside Assad’s torture prisons. The experiences shared by former prisoners remind us of the likes of Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. Bashar al-Assad can add his name to this list of barbarous thugs who rule with evil, torture, and mass murder. 

We have known about these atrocities for years, but have only expressed outrage while we twiddled our thumbs as these modern day Hitlers annihilate the civilian population of Syria. I commend Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for passing S. 1, the Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act.

Last week, I signed the discharge petition for the companion legislation of S.1, H.R. 336, which includes the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act as a critical provision of the bill. As Speaker Pelosi knows well, this House, under Republican leadership, has passed the Caesar bill three times over the past three Congresses–only to have it bog down in the Senate.