U.S. Representative Chris Smith’s (R-NJ), Co-Chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, today introduced legislation urging Romania to reform its adoption policies which have prevented thousands of children from being placed in permanent loving families in the United States and Western Europe. More than 200 Americans had pending adoption applications when the new law prohibiting inter-country adoptions took affect. Smith has conducted a hearing on the effect of the law and the dire situation for Romania’s abandoned children. Read more

Even though leadership officials snubbed him less than a year ago, ousted House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) wants another chance at a gavel. Read more

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie (Newark) today announced that the "enforcer" of a human trafficking ring that smuggled young Honduran women into the United States and forced them to work at three Hudson County bars pleaded guilty today to her role which violated of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which was authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). Read more

U.S. Representative Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Relations today approved a resolution he introduced calling on Russia to fully protect the freedoms of all religious communities as is required under its constitution and international commitments. Read more

Once again we are gathered to praise the outstanding work that Michael Cromartie and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom are doing. They continue to perform exactly as the Congress intended when it passed the International Religious Freedom Act, which created the Commission. They have kept the eyes of the world, and of our own policy makers, on the central importance of religious freedom in our foreign policy. I am proud to have been an original co-sponsor. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) joined colleagues in the House of Representatives today to pass HR 2419 – the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2006. The final bill included funding directly requested by Smith for crucial projects along New Jersey’s coastline. Smith has worked with many local and state officials for several years to secure critical federal funding for southern Monmouth County shore towns in the Fourth Congressional District as well as the Ocean County shore towns within the Manasquan Inlet to Barnegat Inlet Shore Protection project. Read more

November 7, 2005 The Honorable C.W. Bill YoungChairmanHouse Appropriations CommitteeSubcommittee on DefenseH-149 U.S. CapitolWashington, D.C. 20515 Dear Chairman Young:On October 5th, 90 Members of the U.S. Senate voted to pass Senate Amendment 1977 to the Defense Appropriations bill, H.R. 2863. Introduced by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, that amendment: Mandates that the interrogation of detainees held by the Department of Defense or in a Department of Defense facility will be condu... Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the Committee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations issued the following statement today upon the State Department’s Release of the 2005 International Religious Freedom Report: Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) stood up for individual private property rights by voting for the Private Property Rights Protection Act legislation narrowing Eminent Domain authority in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kelo v. City of New London. The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 376-38, would prohibit states and local communities that receive Federal economic development funds from using their eminent domain power to seize private property that is subsequently used for economic development purposes. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, today criticized the Ethiopian government’s violent response to protestors and condemned the continuing refusal of the Ethiopian government to allow peaceful protests. More than 30 persons have been killed in clashes this week in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa, touched off by violent police reaction to continuing electoral protests by opposition parties and their supporters. Smith has been monitoring the situation since chairing a Congressional hearing this past spring and visiting Ethiopia this summer. Read more