Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) issued the following statement on House passage of H.R. 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019:

“In an increasingly dangerous world, it is critical that our troops have the support they need to keep America safe. This bill includes vital funding for military training and much-needed equipment, and I was pleased to join a strong bipartisan majority in passing it through the House.

“The NDAA also addresses other urgent priorities, including ethnic cleansing in Burma. This provision imposes new sanctions on Burmese military officials and bars their forces from U.S. joint drills. Over the past year, the Burmese military has escalated its decades-long campaign against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. More than 700,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee and thousands have been slaughtered. Entire villages have been burned and bulldozed. I want to thank Ranking Member Engel for authoring this important provision to help put a stop to these atrocities.”

NOTE: Ranking Member Engel’s Amendment #43 was approved by the House by a vote of 382-30. The Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved the measure at a markup last week.

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