U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), co-chairman of the Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus, today issued the following statement praising President George W. Bush for vetoing S. 5, a bill to allow federal funding for embryo-destroying stem cell research and for expanding the federal government’s commitment to effective, ethical stem cell research: Read more

A resolution authored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that calls on Russian President Vladimir Putin to step-up efforts to investigate a decade-long string of mysterious murders of journalists in Russia was overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives today. Read more

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, having personally visited Uganda in April 2006, I chaired a hearing on the endangered children of northern Uganda for the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. We heard from a number of witnesses and we raised it and continue to raise it with the administration. But one of our witnesses was a particularly noteworthy person, Grace Akallo. Grace is, or was, a child soldier, an abducted ... Read more

The State Department yesterday added seven countries, including four Arab allies, to its list of worst offenders in failing to suppress human trafficking and forced labor, which it called "a modern day form of slavery." Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the author of the nation’s historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and two subsequent expansions of the law, today warned that the US State Department’s annual report on human trafficking reveals a “creeping complacency that must be nipped in the bud since the thugs who traffic in human beings never grow tired of exploiting women and children for profit, they have to be hunted down and prosecuted.” Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) called on governments around the world—including the U.S.—to expand Holocaust education and renew their commitments to eradicating anti-Semitism in the remarks he delivered at the closing session of an anti-Semitism conference in Bucharest, Romania this weekend. Read more

On behalf of the United States delegation, I would like to thank our Romanian hosts and you, the ministers, ambassadors, NGOs and my fellow delegates for engaging in a discussion of how to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance in the OSCE. Let me also commend the Romanian Foreign Minister, Mr. Adrian Cioroianu for proposing to host a regional anti-Semitism meeting. That is a magnificent gesture from Romania. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the House Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus, today issued the following statement in opposition to S. 5—a bill to allow federal funding for embryo-destroying stem cell research—and in support of ethical research alternatives. Read more

June 7, 2007 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, in early January, a team of scientists from Wake Forest University and Harvard Medical School announced a historic breakthrough: a new readily available source of life-saving stem cells derived exclusively from amniotic fluid. The Washington Post called these highly ethically derived pluripotent stem cells ``highly versatile and readily available.'' Newsweek said, ``A new era begins. Stem cells de... Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the House Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus, today issued the following statement in opposition to H.R. 2560, a bill that disingenuously claims to ban human cloning while instead encouraging human embryo destruction: Read more