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

June 6, 2007 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker, beware of false and misleading bill titles. H.R. 2560, rushed to the floor today after only being introduced several hours ago, is misnamed the "Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007." The fact is, this bill doesn't ban any human cloning at all. Absolutely none. Researchers are absolutely free, are given the green light, to clone human life to their heart's content, so long as they kill and destr... Read more

June 5, 2007 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend and colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Ms. Lee for introducing H. Res. 422, which calls on the government of the People's Republic of China to use its unique influence and economic leverage to stop the atrocities being committed in Darfur. This measure builds on numerous steps that this Congress and the United States Government, through the White House and the executive branch, have taken over the past several ... Read more

More than 37,000 servicemen and women from New Jersey are making immense sacrifices to defend and protect America and our freedoms. Multiple and extended tours of duty away from family— and in some cases children they have yet to meet—coupled with battlefield stresses that to most Americans are beyond anything imaginable, make wartime deployments particularly hard on our servicemen and women. Read more