Chairman Royce on passage of H. Res. 758

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded the House of Representatives passage of H. Res. 758, which strongly condemns the actions of Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries, aimed at political and economic domination.  The legislation was introduced by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).

On the legislation’s passage, Chairman Royce said:  “Putin’s aggression against Ukraine and its neighbors must end.  From the annexation of Crimea to the manipulation of energy resources, Russia continues to hold Ukraine hostage, undermining its independence and sovereignty.   The U.S. must not allow Putin and other aggressors to achieve their goals through force, violence and intimidation.

“Russia has been pressing us on many fronts beyond Ukraine, from threatening our NATO allies to supporting Syria’s brutal regime.  The Obama Administration hasn’t met this challenge.

“We must expand our efforts to counter the Kremlin’s propaganda, which is actively sowing dissension and conflict.  The Obama Administration has allowed our international broadcasting efforts to flounder.  If we are to compete in this critical area, we must urgently implement the wide-ranging reforms included in H.R. 4490, which unanimously passed the House this summer.  We cannot surrender the field to Moscow and give it dominance on news and information.  We must move quickly to establish world-class broadcasting services, because the only way to battle propaganda is to ensure that the people targeted by Moscow have access to the truth.” 

Note: Earlier this year, Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel (D-NY) led a bipartisan delegation to Ukraine, where they traveled to Kiev and eastern Ukraine and met with senior Ukrainian officials and leaders of the major ethnic communities in order to assess the impact of Russian aggression, the Ukrainian government’s plans, and U.S. policy options.  In July, the House passed the United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014 (H.R. 4490),  bipartisan legislation authored by Royce and Engel, which  clarifies the missions, deploys more resources to the field, and fixes broken management structures of U.S. international broadcasters.

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