The Subcommittee will come to order. The Subcommittee will today hear testimony concerning the continuing problem of human trafficking. The U.S. Government now estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men are bought and sold across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor or commercial sex exploitation, potentially millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries. Eighty percent of the victims are women and girls. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign citizens are trafficked into the United States each year. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), who successfully led the delegation effort that convinced the federal government to implement a new Medicare rule that has begun steering more than $145 million annually to New Jersey hospitals, announced today that a New York legal attempt to block the rule’s implementation has been rejected in court. Read more

Good Afternoon. With the concurrence of Chairman Burton, this joint Subcommittee will now come to order. This afternoon, we will examine “Year Two of Castro’s Brutal Crackdown in Cuba.” I want to thank the Chairman of our Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Dan Burton, for agreeing to this joint hearing. I also want to thank our respective Ranking Democratic Members, Mr. Payne and Mr. Menendez, for their support in organizing this important hearing. Read more

The Subcommittee will come to order. I am pleased today to welcome you to the first meeting of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations in the 109th Congress. This new subcommittee brings together three previously separate jurisdictions –Africa, the promotion of human rights around the world, and authorization of U.S. funding of the State Department and other international organizations – into one “super” subcommittee. We have before us a powerful tool to promote basic human rights, defend oppressed people, and ensure that America’s foreign aid programs truly help create jobs for the poor, promote better health for those suffering from diseases like AIDS, malaria, TB and malnutrition, and secure protections for women and children at risk of abuse or exploitation. I am also pleased that my friend and colleague from New Jersey, Rep. Don Payne, is serving as Ranking Member. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Manasquan Mayor Richard Dunn announced a grant that will provide $108,000 in funding for restoration of the historic Manasquan Coast Guard Station. The $108,000 grant follows a $32,000 Historic Trust Preservation grant Smith helped the borough receive last year to provide for the architectural work that has to be completed before the structure is restored. Read more

At briefing on Capitol Hill today, patients who have been treated with cord blood transplants, along with their doctors from the New York Blood Center, gave testimony and stood as living proof of the incredible promise and success of cord blood stem cell treatments. Read more

“A multi-year effort to convince the Department of Defense (DoD) to make a major Army National Guard investment at Navy Lakehurst has proven successful,” said Rep. Chris Smith, who began working on the project in 1998. As a result, President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2006 military construction budget recommends $26.685 million in funding to build a Consolidated Logistics and Training Facility (CLTF) at the far-western edge of the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Vice-Chairman of the House International Relations Committee today welcomed news from the Vietnamese government announcing the planned release of Fr. Nguyen Van Ly and Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, two internationally famous Vietnamese political prisoners who have been held unjustly in prison for the last several years. Read more

Your willingness to endure the cold and snow in this great witness for life is truly inspiring – and special thanks to Nellie Gray for her extraordinary leadership. Read more

While surveying humanitarian relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Congressman Smith met with Howell, New Jersey resident, Lance Corporal Richard Moran who was deployed to Sri Lanka to operate Marine Corps Water Purification Units capable of treating nearly any water source and turning it into clean water at the rate of thousands of gallons per day. Congressman Smith is pictured here with Lance Corporal Moran outside of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition to Sri Lanka, Smith toured Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and Phuket, Thailand as part of a congressional delegation preparing new legislation aimed at helping tsunami victims rebuild their lives. The legislation will provide specific protections for children who are susceptible to water-born disease and most vulnerable to sex traffickers who prey on poor, abandoned or orphaned children. Read more