{"id":22103,"date":"2017-09-20T16:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/us-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-aid-christians-in-iraq-34564\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T16:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T16:02:00","slug":"us-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-aid-christians-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/us-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-aid-christians-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate committee advances bill to aid Christians in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/United_States_Capitol_Credit_Phil_Roeder_via_Flickr_CC_BY_20_CNA_2_4_15.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 10:02 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to advance a bill that seeks to ensure U.S. aid reaches Christian genocide victims in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe vote from this morning is an important step toward providing relief for those victims of the genocide committed by ISIS,\u201d Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), one of the sponsors of H.R. 390, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act of 2017, stated.<\/p>\n<p>Christians in Iraq who were forcibly displaced from their homes by the expansion of Islamic State in 2014, and many of who have been living in Iraqi Kurdistan, have been dependent on the Chaldean Archeparchy of Erbil and aid groups like the Knights of Columbus and Aid to the Church in Need for basic needs like rent, heating, and food.<\/p>\n<p>Although Mosul and surrounding towns on the Nineveh Plain have been liberated from Islamic State control by coalition forces, some families have not yet been able to return to their homes since they may not have the resources or security to repair their homes and resume their normal lives.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. has declared that Islamic State committed genocide against Christians, Yazidis, and Shi\u2019a Muslims in Iraq and Syria but, despite being genocide victims, Christians in Iraq have also reported that they have not been receiving official U.S. aid. The aid from NGOs is \u201cnot enough,\u201d Smith has said; the Christians need to have access to official U.S. humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for new money,\u201d Smith said at a June press conference before his bill passed the U.S. House. \u201cWe\u2019re asking to make sure the money that\u2019s in the pot is provided to those who have been left out and left behind for about three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christians could have much greater access to the aid if it was allowed to go through churches and church organizations, who are able to reach Christian populations, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), another sponsor of the bill, said at the press conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe State Department would not allow any U.S. dollars to flow to church organizations. And this legislation allows for that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Sept. 19 to advance the bill out of the committee, moving it closer to a floor vote. Smith praised Tuesday\u2019s vote, saying the bill provides much-needed support to the Chaldean Archeparchy of Erbil, which has hosted Christian victims of Islamic State for several years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda has been sustaining more than 95,000 Christians who escaped ISIS \u2013 almost one third of Christians remaining in Iraq,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is incomprehensible that the U.S. has not done more to help,\u201d he said, noting that the bill should be passed soon, as \u201clives are depending upon it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And time is running out to ensure that Christians get the assistance they need. Since the Christian families have been away from home for three years and their children are going without education for another year, the Knights of Columbus said they received reports that families could leave Iraq for good by the fall if they do not have a viable way of returning home.<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=iYl4FMGu9wQ:bQANhmEAPy4:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/iYl4FMGu9wQ\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 10:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to advance a bill that seeks to ensure U.S. aid reaches Christian genocide victims in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The vote from this morning is an important step toward pr&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US Senate committee advances bill to aid Christians in Iraq<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 10:02 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to advance a bill that seeks to ensure U.S. aid reaches Christian genocide victims in Iraq. &ldquo;The vote from this morning is an important step toward pr...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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