{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where party = \"Republican\", state = \"NJ\" and year = 2025 sorted by date descending", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415233", "Rep. Smith condemns Communist China\u2019s provocations and acts of aggression against Taiwan", "2025-12-29", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), issued the following statement in response to China\u2019s deliberately provocative and antagonistic military exercises around Taiwan:\n\n\u201cCommunist China\u2019s egregious violations of Taiwan\u2019s air space, its ships\u2019 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and live-fire drills, which commenced on December 29, are belligerent provocations, which constitute the crime of aggression under international law. Communist China\u2019s violations of the sovereignty of the democratic island nation\u2014coupled with recent transgressions against U.S. treaty allies Japan and the Philippines\u2014directly threaten peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.\n\n\u201cChina is a totalitarian tyrant, which abuses its own people at home and remains a predatory rogue state abroad. Congress stands with freedom-loving peoples in both nations\u2014those in China, working against the oppressive Communist Party ruling their country, and the people of Taiwan, standing firm against this outside aggressor. By its actions, Communist China has put itself outside the community of nations.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415219", "Chairman Smith on President Trump\u2019s decisive action to strike ISIS encampments in Nigeria", "2025-12-27", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee issued the following statement after the U.S. military\u2019s coordinated strikes on ISIS settlements in northwestern Nigeria:\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s decisive action reflects the United States\u2019 unyielding commitment to standing up to the Nigerian terrorists, who have been murdering, raping, torturing and violently harassing Christians and non-radical Muslims in the region for decades.\n\n\u201cCoordinated under Secretary Pete Hegseth, the limited precision airstrikes against Islamist terrorists in Nigeria clearly demonstrate that violent actions against Christians and other religious groups have profound consequences.\n\n\u201cThe strikes also put the radical Islamist terrorists in Nigeria on notice that the United States will never condone or turn a blind eye to religious persecution and violence.\n\n\u201cSignificantly, the U.S. Department of State and Nigeria on December 19 signed a five-year bilateral America First Global Health Strategy, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen Nigeria\u2019s health system with a strong emphasis on promoting Christian faith-based healthcare providers. The U.S. intends to commit $2.1 billion in health assistance in the combined investment of nearly $5.1 billion over the life of the MOU.\n\n\u201cAccording to State, \u2018The MOU was negotiated in connection with reforms the Nigerian government has made to prioritize protecting Christian populations from violence\u2026.\u2019 Additionally, it was announced that the Trump Administration \u2018expects Nigeria to continue to make progress ensuring that it combats extremist religious violence against vulnerable Christian populations.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn October, I and many of my colleagues applauded President Trump and welcomed his declaration of Nigeria as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019 based on the religious persecution of Christians in that country.\n\n\u201cI then chaired a hearing entitled, \u2018President Trump\u2019s Redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d: A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call,\u2019 at which key State Department officials made it clear that the Trump administration was working tirelessly to ensure that human rights and religious freedom remain central to our bilateral relationship with Nigeria.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415214", "TAPinto Gold Coast article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'Federal Pause Hits Offshore Wind Projects Planned Off the Jersey Shore and Along the East Coast'", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jim Lonergan\n\nPublished December 23, 2025 at 9:51 AM\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 The Trump administration has ordered a suspension of construction and lease activity for five major offshore wind projects along the East Coast, including Empire Wind, which is planned off the New Jersey and New York coasts. Federal officials cited national security concerns, specifically the potential for large offshore wind turbines to interfere with military and civilian radar systems used for aviation and maritime navigation.\n\nThe pause, announced by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Defense, applies not only to future permitting but also to projects that were already approved, under construction, or still in the development phase. Administration officials said the action is intended to allow time for additional review and coordination between federal agencies, the military, and project developers.\n\nThe five offshore wind projects affected by the suspension are:\n\nEmpire Wind 1 (New York\u2013New Jersey coast), developed by Equinor\n\nVineyard Wind 1 (off Massachusetts), the nation\u2019s first large-scale offshore wind farm\n\nRevolution Wind (off Rhode Island and Connecticut), led by \u00d8rsted\n\nSunrise Wind (off New York), also developed by \u00d8rsted\n\nCoastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), a Dominion Energy project off Virginia\n\nTogether, these projects represent several gigawatts of planned renewable energy capacity and had been central to state and federal clean energy goals along the Eastern Seaboard.\n\nPhoto Credit: shutterstock/ShutterDesigner\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R\u2013NJ), a long-time critic of offshore wind development, welcomed the administration\u2019s decision, saying it validates concerns he has raised for years regarding radar interference and national security risks. Smith has argued that offshore wind turbines can create radar \u201cclutter\u201d that may weaken or disrupt systems relied upon by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Armed Forces. Click HERE for Rep. Smith's deeper explanation of the risks posed.\n\nSmith pointed to an April 2025 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examining offshore wind\u2019s impact on radar systems, a study he said he requested with other members of Congress. He also cited legislation he sponsored that passed the U.S. House in 2023 requiring certification that offshore wind projects would not interfere with military or aviation radar capabilities.\n\nEmpire Wind has drawn particular scrutiny because of its proximity to major transportation and defense infrastructure, including Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and JFK, as well as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey.\n\nWe spoke with Rep. Smith about the offshore wind pause, and he said, \u201cThis has been one of my deepest concerns and an issue I have fought since day one. The fact that these risks were never fully tested, and that the previous administration would not certify the projects as safe, is alarming and, at best, negligent. You don\u2019t move forward with projects of this magnitude \u2014 especially in close proximity to critical military installations and major airports \u2014 without first proving they pose no risk to national security, aviation safety, or maritime operations.\u201d\n\nLocal Impact: Offshore Turbines and Transmission Lines: Beyond Empire Wind, the federal pause comes as offshore wind development tied to the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind South also fall under the Federal pause. The project, which we've written about at length, would place turbines roughly nine miles off Long Beach Island, while its onshore transmission lines would affect Sea Girt, Manasquan, Wall Township, and Howell. Plans call for subsea cables to make landfall near the Sea Girt National Guard Training Center before running underground through local corridors to grid connections in Howell. Officials and residents in those communities have raised concerns about construction disruption, long-term infrastructure impacts, environmental effects, and potential costs associated with hosting offshore wind transmission infrastructure.\n\nBeyond national security, critics have raised concerns about the potential impact of offshore wind projects on commercial and recreational fishing, marine ecosystems, and coastal tourism. Opponents have also questioned the cost of large-scale offshore wind development and the financial burden it could place on taxpayers and ratepayers.\n\nOffshore wind developers and clean energy industry groups told Reuters that several of the paused projects had already undergone years of federal environmental and security review. They cautioned that suspending construction could delay clean energy goals, disrupt supply chains, and impact jobs tied to offshore wind manufacturing, port infrastructure, and maritime construction across multiple states.\n\nThe administration has not released a timeline for completing its review or for determining whether the projects could resume under revised conditions or additional mitigation measures. For now, construction activity on all five projects remains paused.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415216", "Shorebeat article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'Trump Halts Construction of Remaining Offshore Wind Project Off N.J.'", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Daniel Nee\n\nPublished December 23, 2025\n\nPresident Donald Trump halted numerous offshore wind projects on Monday, citing national security concerns, officials said. The decision led to cheers from U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, who has lobbied against the projects for years, and with consternation from some environmental groups that favored the projects.\n\nThe order from Trump\u2019s administration will stop five major offshore wind farms \u2014 including Empire Wind, located offshore in the New York bight, roughly between Monmouth County and portions of southern Long Island. Unlike some other wind projects, proposed and approved, Empire Wind would not likely have been visible from the New Jersey coast.\n\nOffshore wind development has been a persistent source of partisan wrangling, favored by New Jersey Democrats as well as officials in the former Biden administration. Trump, and GOP congressional leaders, pledged to eliminate the leases of offshore territory after concerns grew over potential negative effects on marine mammals, as well as subsidies for its foreign owner, the Norwegian firm Equinor. An executive order shutting down the projects has bounced between courtrooms since Trump took office in 2025, with the administration suffering a loss in court earlier this month when Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, appointed by President Bill Clinton, struck down the order. The decision is expected to be appealed, but Monday\u2019s order effectively accomplishes the abolition of the projects \u2013 at least in the immediate future \u2013 for reasons related to national security.\n\nOffshore wind turbine. (Photo: Harald Pettersen/Statoil)\n\nThe Department of the Interior halted the projects to allow for a \u201cpause\u201d so a review could be conducted in conjunction with the Department of Defense (War). Critics of the offshore development, most prominently Smith, have raised concerns that the massive turbines atop the structures could create radar clutter in busy airspace, most notably affecting Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a major transit point for materiel between the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.\n\n\u201cI am grateful to President Donald Trump and Secretary Doug Burgum for their leadership in assessing ocean wind\u2019s threats to national security and radar interference,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAs I have argued from day one \u2014 ocean wind projects pose significant, catastrophic impacts to radar, putting military and civilian aircrafts and vessels at grave risk.\u201d\n\nA lawn sign opposing wind turbines off Long Beach Island, Sept. 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\n\nA deceased humpback whale floats off Seaside Park, N.J., March 1, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\n\nA humpback whale is prepared to be buried at Funtown Beach, Seaside Park, N.J., March 3, 2023. (Photo: MMSC)\n\nThose in favor of the projects have said the matter had already been the subject of reviews by the U.S. Coast Guard under the previous administration, which did not identify any issues with radar clutter or interference.\n\n\u201cThe administration is again illegally blocking clean, affordable energy,\u201d said Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Council.\n\n\u201cPlacing largely foreign-owned wind turbines along our coastlines was never acceptable,\u201d countered Robin Shaffer, President of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, largely echoing the concerns raised by Smith.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415218", "Daily Caller article on Smith's Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act'\"Murder Masquerading As Medicine\": Senate Ignores Bill On CCP's Christian Organ Harvesting'", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Derek VanBuskirk\n\nPublished December 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM ET\n\nA bill aimed at curbing the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) forced organ harvesting of cultural and religious minorities, including Christians, has \u201clanguished\u201d in committee for seven months as Senate leaders have failed to act.\n\nRepublican New Jersey Rep. Christopher Smith, sponsor of the legislation that passed the House with a nearly unanimous vote, told the Daily Caller about the growing threat to Christians in China and the real consequences of delaying Senate action.\n\nH.R. 1503, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, is not Smith\u2019s first attempt to confront the practice. A 2023 version of the bill passed the House 413-2 before dying in the same place the current bill now sits: the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.\n\n(Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nSmith chaired his first hearing on forced organ harvesting in 1998, hearing testimony from Chinese security officials. While the practice was once limited in scope, it exploded into a billion-dollar state enterprise following the CCP\u2019s 1999 crackdown on Falun Gong.\n\nFalun Gong, a spiritual practice drawing on Buddhist and Taoist traditions and once widely embraced in China, was the primary early target.\n\nBecause practitioners abstain from tobacco and alcohol, they were considered ideal harvesting candidates, with the average age of those executed and immediately harvested being 28, Smith said.\n\nTaipei, TAIWAN: During a rally joined by thousands of Falun Gong practitioners at Taipei 23 April 2006, four demonstrators play in an action drama against what they said was the Chinese communists\u2019 killing of Falun Gong followers and harvesting of their organs in concentration camps. (Photo: PATRICK LIN/AFP via Getty Images)\n\n\u201cI want to know how long [the patients] have to wait [for a liver transplant].\u201d\n\nDavid Matas and David Kilgour recorded from an undercover conversation they had with a Chinese doctor, as recorded in \u201cBloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe supply of organs we have, we have every day. We do them every day,\u201d the doctor responded.\n\n\u201cWe want fresh, alive ones,\u201d Matas and Kilgour asked.\n\n\u201cThey are all alive, all alive,\u201d the doctor reassured.\n\n\u201cI heard some come from those who practise Falun Gong, those who are very healthy,\u201d Matas and Kilgour said.\n\n\u201cYes, we have. I can\u2019t talk clearly to you over the phone,\u201d the doctor said, before inviting whom he believed was a potential buyer to visit in person.\n\nThis photo taken on June 2, 2019 shows buildings at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, north of Kashgar in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region. (Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nSmith, who has held nine hearings on the issue, said detainees\u2019 health was closely monitored to prepare them for execution and the harvesting of up to six vital organs.\n\nA 2024 report from Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) cited several independent sources verifying that Falun Gong often reported that prisoners of conscience were subject to unsolicited, coerced medical exams and blood testing, adding that guards would use organ transplantation to threaten prisoners who would not comply.\n\nAlthough reliable data is difficult to obtain, DAFOH also found that Chinese organ transplant numbers were reported irregularly, as sudden increases were followed by decade-long standstills, contrasting the steady increase of other countries.\n\nFor example, DAFOH found that Chinese annual transplant numbers increased by 250% between 2000 and 2004, which contrasts with the rates of other countries, ranging from 10-15% during the same time period.\n\n\u201cThey have perfected this art form of killing and stealing organs,\u201d Smith told the Caller.\n\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 NOVEMBER 19: U.S. House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (2nd L) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) (3rd L) join (L-R) Policy and Advocacy Coordinator of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation Frances Hui, Research and Policy Advisor of the Hong Kong Watch Anouk Wear, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council Anna Kwok, Senior International Advocacy Associate of the Hong Kong Democracy Council Carmen Lau during a news conference in response of the sentencing ruling in the Hong Kong 47 case November 19, 2024 in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)\n\nIn a 2024 written testimony, researcher Ethan Gutmann estimated that annual victims may number between 25,000 and 50,000, suggesting as many as 175,000 victims even under lower estimates.\n\nOfficials-turned-witnesses testified in Smith\u2019s hearings that they personally harvested organs from living patients to maximize quality.\n\nSmith said the motive goes beyond profit, serving the party\u2019s pursuit of practical immortality.\n\nWhen a member of the CCP\u2019s totalitarian leadership needs an organ, prisoners\u2019 medical records are searched. If a match is found, the individual is killed for the benefit of the party \u2014 or, more accurately, the men running it, Smith said.\n\nSmith cited a September hot-mic exchange between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discussing harvesting in this manner.\n\n\u201cEarlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 you are still a child,\u201d Xi said through a translator, according to The Epoch Times.\n\n\u201cAs biotechnology advances, human organs can be continuously transplanted, allowing us to become younger and younger, perhaps even achieve immortality,\u201d Putin reportedly replied.\n\nIn this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, (L-R) Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin walks with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping and North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing\u2019s Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025. (Photo by ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nSmith called the practice \u201cmurder masquerading as medicine.\u201d\n\nAfter decades of rapid harvesting, Smith said healthy Falun Gong candidates were depleted, forcing the party to expand into \u201calternative\u201d supply sources, including Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs, other Central Asians and Christians.\n\nChristians\u2019 health and \u201cpure lives,\u201d Smith said, make them highly valuable \u201ccommodities.\u201d\n\nWhile Christians currently represent a \u201csmaller portion\u201d of victims, Smith warned they could become increasingly targeted as other populations are exhausted, serving as a fresh resource for an \u201cever-expanding\u201d enterprise.\n\nReligious persecution is routine in China. Smith told the Caller that Beijing licenses clergy, edits holy scriptures, censors online worship, bars minors from religious life and restricts contact with fellow believers abroad, adding that \u201cthe end goal is eradication.\u201d\n\nA Catholic worshipper prays during an Easter Sunday mass at a prayer house in a village near Beijing on April 4, 2021. (Photo by JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nThough most harvesting occurs in China, H.R. 1503 targets the global organ trade, including Western participants in \u201ctransplant tourism.\u201d\n\nThe U.S. is no exception. Wealthy American patients, Smith said, are willing to pay steep fees to bypass transplant waitlists, funding China\u2019s system in the process.\n\nSmith is not proposing a new approach but expanding a proven one. By attaching organ harvesting to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, the same framework used against Ghislaine Maxwell, he aims to signal that the FBI will treat transplant tourists and brokers like sex traffickers.\n\nThe goal is to make the risk \u2014 up to 20 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine for those prosecuted in the U.S. \u2014 so high that U.S. demand collapses.\n\nThe bill would also impose asset freezes, sanctions, and travel bans on foreign participants of the underground market.\n\n\u201cMaybe it deters it, and after a few prosecutions, it begins to make a real serious impact,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou start prosecuting people, and at least it will dry up people utilizing this tainted supply chain.\u201d\n\nH.R. 1503 passed the House 406-1 under suspension of the rules, a process reserved for broadly nonpartisan legislation.\n\nThe sole dissenting vote came from Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, whom Smith said votes no on almost everything.\n\nAs 2025 draws to a close, the bill remains stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Republican Idaho Sen. Jim Risch.\n\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 MARCH 25: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) arrives for the confirmation hearing for former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. Huckabee, the former governor and presidential candidate, answered questions on Israel and its campaign against Hamas. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)\n\n\u201cI appreciate Rep. Smith\u2019s attention to this horrific issue,\u201d a committee spokesperson told the Caller. \u201cSenator Risch remains committed to countering the dreadful practice of organ harvesting and is happy to work with anyone to counter it. However, this particular piece of legislation has not been raised with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.\u201d\n\nWhile any member may request consideration, only the chairman controls the agenda. That leaves the responsibility ultimately on Risch to get the bill out of what Smith called the legislative black hole of referred-but-ignored legislation \u2014 the same fate as his 2023 effort.\n\nIf Gutmann\u2019s estimates are accurate, between 68,000 and 136,000 people have been killed since the 2023 bill reached the committee, with 15,000 to 31,211 victims since the 2025 bill was referred in June.\n\nWithout action, the Chinese regime and its allies may seek to further expand the practice, and as reserves of Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims are depleted, the CCP may turn to massacring even more Christians to maintain profits.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415204", "Construction of Empire Wind suspendedCiting national security concerns\u2014the critical issue Chris Smith has raised for years\u2014the Trump administration halts construction of offshore wind projects", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a longtime opponent of offshore wind industrialization, issued the attached statement following the Trump administration\u2019s announcement that the Depts. of the Interior and War have paused the leases for five major offshore wind farms\u2014including Empire Wind off the New Jersey and New York coasts\u2014due to national security concerns:\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on May 7, 2025.\n\n\u201cI am grateful to President Donald Trump and Secretary Doug Burgum for their leadership in assessing ocean wind\u2019s threats to national security and radar interference. The safety and security of the American people should always be at the forefront of U.S. policy.\n\n\u201cAs I have argued from day one\u2014ocean wind projects pose significant, catastrophic impacts to radar, putting military and civilian aircrafts and vessels at grave risk.\n\n\u201cThis concern has been raised in a number of studies, including the April 2025 Offshore Wind Energy report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an analysis I requested, along with many of my colleagues, and was also called for in my legislation passed by the House\u2014by a margin of 244 to 189\u2014nearly three years ago.\n\n\u201cAs early as 2023, I joined Fox News\u2019 Madison Alworth in Middletown, NJ to highlight the numerous national security and navigational risks associated with offshore wind industrialization.\n\nRep. Smith debates in favor of his FAA amendment on July 20, 2023.\n\n\u201cThat same year, the House passed my amendment requiring the President or his designee to certify that offshore wind projects \u2018will not weaken, degrade, interfere with, or nullify the capability of radar relied upon the Federal Aviation Administration or the Armed Forces.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt is particularly important that among the five offshore wind projects suspended by the Trump administration, Empire Wind is one of them\u2014a project I have vehemently opposed for years.\n\n\u201cEmpire Wind\u2019s close proximity to major international airports, including Newark Liberty, LaGuardia, and JFK, and critical military installations, such as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and Naval Weapons Station Earle, make the project especially dangerous. It must be halted.\n\n\u201cProjects like Empire Wind have already threatened New Jersey\u2019s commercial and recreational fishing industries, as well as our tourism industry and the ocean environment, which is now recovering after years of pollution. And, these projects are extremely expensive, creating undue burdens on taxpayers\u2014which I discussed with Martha MacCallum in July of 2023.\n\n\u201cI look forward to working alongside the Trump administration in ensuring that these dangerous offshore wind projects are stopped.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415206", "Asbury Park Press article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'Is Lyme disease a military accident? New probe inspired by late Wall woman'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jerry Carino\n\nPublished December 22, 2025 at 5:05 AM\n\nAfter nearly a decade of trying, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has gotten the green light for a federal investigation into whether the military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease as part of a Cold War experiment gone awry \u2014 furthering the spread and intensity of the illness, which has hit New Jerseyans particularly hard.\n\nSmith\u2019s Lyme disease amendment, attached to the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 that was signed into law by President Donald Trump Dec. 18, directs the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to produce a report on the matter.\n\nThe amendment flew under the media radar, but longtime Wall resident Rich Smith took notice. It\u2019s another chapter in the legacy of his late wife, Pat Smith, who was one of the nation\u2019s leading advocates for Lyme disease patients \u2014 in particular those who suffered from chronic or long-term Lyme. Pat Smith died in 2024 at age 78.\n\n\u201cI think she would think it\u2019s way past due and a very positive step in tracing the history of Lyme \u2014 one more step in the process of beating back this disease,\u201d Rich Smith told the Asbury Park Press.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019s smiling from above,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cShe\u2019s the pioneer.\u201d\n\nU.S. Rep. Chris Smith R-N.J., is shown with Pat Smith, Lyme Disease Association President, before a panel discussion about Lyme disease held at the Wall Township Municipal building Wednesday, May 29, 2019. Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press\n\nThe challenge for Lyme patients\n\nIn the 1980s, Lyme disease afflicted two of Pat and Rich Smith\u2019s daughters, one of whom missed four years of school. Pat founded the nonprofit Lyme Disease Association and traveled the country to raise awareness.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019s the one who got me into Lyme,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cShe came to a town meeting in Wall in 1992 and said, \u2018What are you doing about Lyme disease?\u2019 I said \u2018Nothing.\u2019 We had lunch, and I\u2019ve been working on it ever since.\u201d\n\nLyme disease affects nearly 500,000 people a year in the U.S., and New Jersey has the second-most diagnosed cases after Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For many who are diagnosed promptly, the standard month-long course of antibiotics mitigates the illness. But detection is difficult and, for thousands of folks, the symptoms can continue for months or years. For these long-term sufferers, there has been little in the way of established treatment.\n\nTicks, usually found in brush-filled, grassy areas, can be hosts to diseases such as Lyme disease and anaplasmosis to people. Not all ticks are easily seen. This one is just a little larger than the letters on a penny. Graham Hickling/University of Tennessee\n\nPat Smith\u2019s partnership with Chris Smith on the issue led to several laws funding Lyme research, and Pat Smith became part of a 14-person congressional working group on changes to federal Lyme disease policy.\n\nOne thing that eluded them was probing the belief that Lyme\u2019s explosion in the latter decades of the 20th century had military origins. Two prior amendments to that effect by Chris Smith passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate in 2017 and 2019. The theory gained steam in 2019 with the publishing of the book \u201cBitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons\u201d by Stanford University-based science writer and chronic Lyme sufferer Kris Newby.\n\n\u201cWith this new GAO report, we will have both a public report and where necessary, one that is confidential and that hopefully will allow unfettered access to the files about what we (the U.S. Department of Defense) were doing,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not an issue, the investigation will prove that and we\u2019ll turn the page.\u201d\n\n'Quite a testament'\n\nSpecifically, Chris Smith\u2019s amendment compels the Comptroller General of the United States to review research conducted by the military, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies between the period of Jan. 1, 1945 and Dec. 31, 1972, regarding experiments involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales \u2014 two forms of tick-borne bacteria.\n\nThe idea behind the investigation, Chris Smith said, is that \u201can enhanced understanding of how Lyme came to be will only assist in finding a cure for this debilitating disease.\u201d\n\nRich Smith said the amendment\u2019s passage is \u201cquite a testament\u201d to his wife\u2019s legacy.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415211", "Patch article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'For The 2nd Time, Trump Pauses All Offshore Wind Farms, Including Empire Wind 19 Miles Off The Jersey Shore'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Carly Baldwin\n\nPublished Monday, December 22, 2025 at 4:11 PM ET\n\nLONG BRANCH, NJ \u2014 For the second time this year, President Donald Trump's administration put a pause on all offshore wind farm development in the United States, and Empire Wind \u2014 currently being built 19 miles off Long Branch \u2014 is affected.\n\nOn Monday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced here he is pausing the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the U.S. His decision temporarily shuts down existing wind farms that have been in operation for years, including Vineyard Wind off Martha's Vineyard and Sunrise Wind off Rhode Island. It also stops all work on wind farms in development, including Empire Wind, which started installing monopiles into the Atlantic Ocean floor and was 40 percent complete as of August.\n\nEmpire Wind is owned by Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor, the majority shareholder of which is the Kingdom of Norway.\n\nClean Ocean Action took these photos July 30 of Empire Wind being built off Long Branch. That's a monopile, at right, being pushed into the sea floor. (Clean Ocean Action)\n\nBurgum said he made his decision due to national security risks identified by the Department of War. Burgum cited reports from the Dept. of War that said the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers can create radar interference called \u201cclutter.\u201d That radar interference can obscure legitimate moving targets and generates false targets near wind farms.\n\n\"This pause will give the Department, along with the Department of War and other relevant government agencies, time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects,\" the Department of the Interior said Monday.\n\nThese are the five existing or planned wind farms off the United States affected by the new order:\n\nVineyard Wind 1 (OCS-A 0501) - off Marth's Vineyard, Massachusetts\n\nRevolution Wind (OCS-A 0486) - off Rhode Island and Connecticut\n\nCVOW \u2013 Commercial (OCS-A 0483) - off Virginia\n\nSunrise Wind (OCS-A 0487) - off Block Island, Rhode Island\n\nEmpire Wind 1 (OCS-A 0512) - off New Jersey\n\n\u201cWe are aware of the stop-work order announced by the Department of Interior involving five wind projects under offshore construction in the U.S. We are evaluating the order and seeking further information from the federal government,\" an Equinor spokesman said Monday.\n\nJersey Shore Congressman Chris Smith, a Republican who\u2019s opposed wind farms for years, said Monday:\n\n\"They will sue (referring to the wind companies), but it's done. This is the nail in the coffin. This is more than a pause. It's stopped. When you get into issues of national security, the courts will err on the side of national defense and the Department of Defense, or Department of War rather, as it's now called ... Offshore wind farms disrupt radar; the military has been saying this for years. You really could have planes flying into planes.\"\n\nOn his first day back in office in January, President Trump issued an executive order that put a pause on all U.S. wind farm development. However, Trump's order could not legally apply to existing wind farm leases that received permits from the Biden administration. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intervened (Empire Wind is meant to supply wind power only to New York state, not New Jersey), and in May, the federal government lifted its stop-work order. Empire Wind was allowed to resume building off Long Branch.\n\nEmpire Wind is the only wind farm off New Jersey to actually begin construction; by mid August they were in the process of installing 54 monopiles into the ocean floor. Here are photos of Empire Wind being built off Long Branch.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415213", "New York Post article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'Trump admin scraps 5 offshore wind farms \u2014 including New York projects \u2014 citing \"national security risks\"'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Josh Christenson\n\nPublished December 22, 2025\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 The US Interior Department announced Monday that it was immediately pausing leases for five offshore wind farms \u2014 including two in New York \u2014 \u201cdue to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.\u201d\n\nThe renewable energy projects included the Massachusetts and Rhode Island-headquartered Vineyard Wind 1 and Revolution Wind, a commercial wind farm in Virginia and New York\u2019s Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind \u2014 several of which had gotten either funding or regulatory boosts from the Biden administration.\n\nUnclassified reports have previously cited radar interference, also known as \u201cclutter,\u201d prompting false alarms due to \u201cthe movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers\u201d of the wind farms,\u201d the Interior Department noted in a press release.\n\nThe projects were scrapped due to unspecified national security risks. Empire Wind / Vestas Wind Systems A/S\n\nTrump speaks before delivering remarks at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, 2025.AFP via Getty Images\n\nIn some cases, radar would also \u201cmiss actual targets.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,\u201d Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers,\u201d he added.\n\n\u201cThe Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.\u201d\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), whose brothers are both pilots, told The Post Monday that has been advocating against the offshore wind farms for years based on their potential to disrupt both aircraft and ships\u2019 radar \u2014 for both civilians and military service members.\n\n\u201cCamp Evans is located in my district, and that\u2019s where the radars were created for World War II,\u201d he explained, \u201cand we knew before the [Mitsubishi A6M] Zeros hit Pearl Harbor about 40 plus minutes before, that they were coming because of the radars they deployed there, and they really made a difference.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is something that Xi Jinping just loves. Iranians just love, and Putin just loves because we\u2019re blinding ourselves willfully \u2014 for what?\u201d\n\nTrump speaks at the White House on Dec. 17, 2025. AP\n\nThose concerns were confirmed in an April 2025 Government Accountability Office report that found the turbines \u2014 some as large as the Chrysler building \u2014 \u201ccan reduce the performance of radar systems used for defense and maritime navigation and safety in several ways.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese include reducing detection sensitivity, obscuring potential targets, and generating false targets, according to a DOE report,\u201d GAO stated. \u201cIn addition, offshore wind energy development may affect larger military exercises by obstructing flight and surface and subsurface vessel movement, according to DOD officials.\u201d\n\nSmith also noted potential hindrances to roughly 1,000 US Coast Guard rescues annually \u2014 or the ability to intercept foreign drones, some lawmakers and experts speculated, that vexed the Biden administration in December 2024.\n\nHuge disruptions could also result like what air passengers saw earlier this year when a frayed piece of copper wiring caused a radar outage at Newark airport, forcing delays and cancellations of flights, he added.\n\nThe Biden administration\u2019s response, Smith claimed, was instead: \u201cBuild it and who gives a damn about national security and, you know, security of the people when they\u2019re flying out of Newark or you name the place.\u201d\n\nRoughly a third of all construction costs for the wind farms has been borne by US taxpayers, according to Smith.\n\nBut that doesn\u2019t begin to include the costs of clean-up efforts when a powerful hurricane hits the wind farms.\n\nBurgum informed the congressman that there\u2019s concerns about the football field-size propellers being decommissioned for scrap metal within just 13 or 14 years \u2014 despite the wind projects touting environmental benefits, Smith noted.\n\nPresident Trump pledged to block all new wind and solar projects from receiving federal funding in August, calling the renewable energy sources the \u201cSCAM OF THE CENTURY!\u201c\n\nConstruction on Revolution Wind was halted the following month, only to be reinstated by a federal judge.\n\nBoth it and Empire Wind had been contracted for six-figure contracts by the Interior Department under former President Joe Biden, according to a review of federal spending records.\n\nSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters on Dec. 16, 2025. AP\n\nMore than half-a-million dollars was also shoveled out the door by Biden\u2019s administration via a grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in December 2024, which in part funded \u201cemissions target setting, emissions strategy development and community stakeholder collaboration\u201d for Vineyard Wind.\n\nThat funding all stemmed from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden\u2019s marquee legislation focused on climate and renewable energy alternatives.\n\nThe so-called green subsidies could top $1 trillion over the next decade.\n\nRhode Island approved Sunrise Wind just weeks after the Biden administration gave final approval to the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project in August 2023.\n\nBoth were joint enterprises between the Danish wind gian Orsted and a New England utility firm.\n\nSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) fumed over the Trump administration\u2019s latest moves.\n\n\u201cTrump\u2019s obsession with killing offshore wind projects is unhinged, irrational, and unjustified,\u201d Schumer said in a statement. \u201cAt a time of soaring energy costs, this latest decision from DOI is a backwards step that will drive energy bills even higher.\n\n\u201cIt will kill good union jobs, spike energy costs, and put our grid at risk; and it makes absolutely no business sense. Many of us have been fighting Trump\u2019s war against offshore wind \u2014 a war on American jobs and American energy \u2014 and we will keep fighting to make sure these projects and the thousands of jobs they create and the energy they provide can continue.\u201d\n\nNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Big Apple lame-duck mayor Eric Adams also slammed the decision, touting how the projects could have helped power 1 million homes.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415215", "Save Jersey article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'Citing national security concerns, Trump pauses all U.S. offshore wind construction'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Matt Rooney\n\nPublished December 22, 2025\n\nThis has been a long time in coming, Save Jerseyans.\n\nThe negative impact of offshore wind development on tourism and marine life is well established. Back in early 2023, I wrote about the building body of evidence suggesting that giant, radar-confusing turbines off of the East Coast also posed a threat to navigation and national security.\n\n\u201cAlthough the base of the tower is stationary, the nominal area of the turbine to the radar is dynamic since the machine is constantly tracking the wind,\u201d explained Wind Systems Magazine way back in 2010. \u201cWind turbines are made of highly reflective materials\u2014steel, fiberglass, and carbon fiber composite\u2014and can scatter and return a significant amount of the energy. The turbine tower is the most reflective component, but since it is constantly stationary the rotor is the largest problem to the radar. In most cases the signature can be quite large and can affect the radars/operator\u2019s ability to differentiate the wind farm from flying aircraft and weather storms. The Doppler effect is due to the moving rotor and can affect the moving target indicator of a radar.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnyone who has been paying close attention to the shoddy and reckless approval process for these offshore wind projects will not be fooled by this after-the-fact proposal\u2014which is far too little and far too late,\u201d added Congressman Chris Smith (R, NJ-04) in October 2024. \u201cFor years, we have been pointing out the lack of serious scrutiny and proper vetting for these projects\u2014especially and including the likely dire impacts on national security and military readiness\u2014but the Biden-Harris Administration has ignored our concerns,\u201d Smith added. \u201cIn fact, the implementation of this agreement so late in the process begs the question of what national security threats have been downplayed or neglected by BOEM over the past few years during its reckless, fast-track approval process.\u201d\n\nOn Monday, the Trump Administration relied upon the clear threat to our homeland to issue a general pause on all active offshore wind projects.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers,\u201d said Doug Burgum, the Secretary of the Interior. \u201cThe Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.\u201d\n\nThis new executive action impacts Empire Wind which would be visible from many of New Jersey\u2019s iconic beach communities. Two weeks ago, Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts struck down the President\u2019s original January 20, 2025 order halting the issuance of new offshore wind leases.\n\nBurgum joined Fox News on Monday to explain the Administration\u2019s latest effort to protect the coastline.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415201", "Jimmy Lai\u2019s son, Sebastien, testified at CECC hearingRep. Smith on the shameful conviction of Hong Kong businessman and democracy/free speech champion, Jimmy Lai", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), issued the below statement following a Hong Kong court\u2019s unjust conviction of Jimmy Lai\u2014the founder of newspaper Apple Daily and an outspoken advocate for democracy and free speech\u2014on fraudulent, politically motivated national security and sedition charges:\n\n\u201cJimmy Lai\u2019s \u2018guilty\u2019 verdict by a Hong Kong court\u2014clearly orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party\u2014is an affront to justice everywhere. Promoting democratic ideals and free speech is not, and should not be, a crime.\n\n\u201cIn addition to Jimmy\u2019s leadership as an advocate for democracy and free speech, he is a model of Christian conscience and a hero of the Catholic Faith. Though an evil regime seeks to crush him, his witness to Truth\u2014and to Jesus as the Truth\u2014will outlive and outshine his oppressors.\n\n\u201cRight now, Jimmy has been deprived of medical care, and his health is declining due to harsh prison conditions. We call upon Hong Kong authorities to release Jimmy on simple humanitarian grounds, as a humane gesture to him and his family.\u201d\n\nAt a Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing chaired by Smith in 2023, entitled \u201cOne City, Two Legal Systems: Political Prisoners and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Hong Kong,\u201d Jimmy\u2019s son, Sebastien, gave compelling testimony about how his father has been vilified and targeted by the CCP and Hong Kong authorities:\n\n\u201cMy father has never advocated for violence. He is a man of peace. His only so-called \u2018crime\u2019 is to disagree and condemn the actions of the CCP and the Hong Kong authorities that seek to silence critical voices. For that, he faces the rest of his life in prison.\n\n\u201cMy father is a victim of an autocratic State which will not tolerate dissent or criticism. It is clear that there is no longer \u2018One Country, Two Systems\u2019 but that Beijing is now controlling Hong Kong. The [National Security Law] spells that out. His treatment is grossly unfair.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415202", "Smith authored the laws that created the position and elevated it to AmbassadorSmith commends Senate confirmation of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun as U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, today welcomed the U.S. Senate\u2019s confirmation of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun as the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.\n\n\u201cI am glad to see that the U.S. Senate has finally confirmed Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to serve as the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, who I am confident will be an extraordinarily effective and formidable force in the global fight against antisemitism,\u201d said Smith, who, in 2004, wrote the amendment (PL 108-332) that created the State Department\u2019s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.\n\nIn 2020, Smith authored the law\u2014the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act\u2014to elevate the Office of the Special Envoy to the high-level position of ambassador (PL 116-326).\n\n\u201cWhen I first authored the legislative provisions to create the position back in 2004, Rabbi Kaploun was exactly the type of leader I had in mind: incredibly strong, remarkably productive, and wholly committed to countering the escalating threats and acts of violence against Jews,\u201d continued Smith.\n\n\u201cAs acts of antisemitic violence and hate continue to rise\u2014including the horrific December 14th terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Australia\u2014President Trump\u2019s nomination of Rabbi Kaploun sends a strong message to the international community: the United States will never tolerate, excuse, or accept antisemitism within its borders\u2014and anywhere else in the world,\u201d stated Smith, who has chaired 18 congressional hearings on global antisemitism.\n\n\u201cI am grateful to President Trump for nominating such an impressive and accomplished candidate to serve as the Special Envoy, and I wish Rabbi Kaploun every success in his new position.\n\n\u201cI look forward to working alongside Rabbi Kaploun and his Office of the Special Envoy to eradicate the spiritual cancer of antisemitism that metastasizes around the world,\u201d concluded Smith.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415208", "Utility Dive article on Harris-Smith-Van Drew SPEED Act amendment'House passes permitting reform bill with anti-offshore wind amendment'", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Diana DiGangi\n\nPublished December 19, 2025\n\nThe U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed permitting reform legislation, the SPEED Act, with an amendment that prevents the bill from applying to offshore wind projects.\n\nThe SPEED Act would amend the National Environmental Policy Act to ease and speed the permitting of energy projects. It introduces new deadlines for opposition to projects \u2013 opponents would have to make a claim against a project no later than 150 days after final agency action is made public, for instance.\n\nIt also mandates that \u201cnot later than 30 days after completing an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment for the proposed agency action, the lead agency, and any cooperating agency, shall issue a final agency action.\u201d\n\nGetty Images\n\nThe offshore wind carveout applies to \u201cthe issuance, modification, approval, or administration of any lease, easement, right-of-way, site assessment plan, construction and operations plan, or any other authorization for an offshore wind energy project,\u201d the amendment says.\n\nThe amendment was proposed by two New Jersey representatives, Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., along with Maryland\u2019s lone Republican representative, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.\n\nSmith said in a Thursday release that the amendment was \u201cabsolutely critical for preserving the Trump administration\u2019s ability to continue its much-need reviews of ocean wind projects off of the Atlantic Coast due to overwhelming safety and national defense concerns.\u201d\n\nHe said that the amendment was designed to avoid nullifying the Trump administration\u2019s actions against offshore wind, including a halt on offshore wind permitting which a federal judge struck down as illegal in a Dec. 8 ruling.\n\nIn his own release, Harris said he \u201cwas engaged in deliberations with the House Natural Resources Committee for months to ensure the inclusion of this language, guided by a single principle: my constituents in Ocean City and communities across the Atlantic Coastline are not for sale.\u201d\n\nThe Oceantic Network said in a Thursday release that the group is \u201cdisappointed in the late inclusion of an amendment which is discriminatory toward renewable energy\u201d and urged the Senate to \u201crestore the heart of bipartisan permitting reform\u201d when it takes up the bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415209", "CatholicVote article on PLC statement on CMS Section 1303 guidance'Pro-life caucus praises CMS guidance barring states from redirecting unused abortion funds'", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished on December 19, 2025\n\nLawmakers in the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus welcomed new guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Dec. 18 that clarifies that leftover abortion-related funds collected under Obamacare cannot be redirected to support state-level abortion programs.\n\nThe statement was released by the caucus\u2019 co-chairs: Republican Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Andy Harris of Maryland, Bob Onder of Missouri, Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota, and Kat Cammack of Florida.\n\nThe CMS guidance, released Dec. 9, centers on Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare, which requires qualified health plans that cover elective abortions to collect a separate payment from enrollees for abortion-related services. The law mandates that those funds be kept segregated from federal subsidies.\n\nAccording to the caucus\u2019 statement, the new CMS guidance clarifies that any unused money from the segregated account must be returned to the health plan issuers at year\u2019s end, rather than being reallocated by states for broader abortion programs.\n\n\u201cWe applaud CMS\u2019s clear guidance that leftover money collected by qualified health plans (QHPs) to fund on-demand abortions, in compliance with Section 1303 of the PPACA, are returned to the QHP issuers,\u201d the lawmakers said. \u201cLeftover funds do not become available to states seeking to bankroll extreme abortion agendas.\u201d\n\nThe guidance addresses previous concerns that some state legislatures could seize unspent funds for state-run grant programs, effectively \u201cblurring the line between federal taxpayer dollars and individual contributions,\u201d according to the statement.\n\nThe caucus also credited CMS leadership under Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz for \u201cpreventing violations of Section 1303\u201d and reiterated their commitment to upholding the Hyde Amendment\u2019s longstanding prohibition on using federal taxpayer dollars for elective abortions.\n\nIn the statement, lawmakers argued that the PPACA conflicted with the Hyde Amendment by allowing plans that cover elective abortions to receive federal subsidies. They noted that while former President Barack Obama issued an executive order stating the law would comply with Hyde, it instead required health plans covering elective abortions to keep those funds completely separate from federal dollars.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415198", "Congressional Pro-Life Caucus statement on CMS Section 1303 guidance", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Today, the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus\u2014Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Andy Harris (R-MD), Bob Onder (R-MO), Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), and Kat Cammack (R-FL)\u2014issued the following statement after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) releasedguidance on the use of segregated funds, obtained in accordance with Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA):\n\n\u201cWe applaud CMS\u2019s clear guidance that leftover money collected by qualified health plans (QHPs) to fund on-demand abortions, in compliance with Section 1303 of the PPACA, are returned to the QHP issuers. Leftover funds do not become available to states seeking to bankroll extreme abortion agendas.\n\n\u201cThe CMS guidance clarifies that no funds reallocated from Section 1303 separate accounts at the end of the year may be used to pay for elective abortion.\n\n\u201cPreviously, it was suggested that state legislatures could seize unspent Section 1303 funds and use the money for state-run grant programs, blurring the line between federal taxpayer dollars and individual contributions.\n\n\u201cWe are thankful for CMS\u2019s steadfast leadership, under Dr. Mehmet Oz, in preventing violations of Section 1303.\n\n\u201cThe Pro-Life Caucus remains committed to preventing taxpayer dollars from being used for elective abortions and protecting Hyde\u2019s longstanding, lifesaving legacy.\u201d\n\nThe Hyde Amendment, which has passed annually with bipartisan support for nearly 50 years, protects federal taxpayer dollars from paying for elective abortion or health plans that cover elective abortion.\n\nThe PPACA violated the Hyde Amendment by expressly allowing funding for plans that covered elective abortion.\n\nAlthough President Obama issued an executive order claiming that the PPACA would comply with the Hyde Amendment, it instead required health plans that chose to cover elective abortion to keep elective abortion funding completely separate from federal dollars. These plans must collect abortion-related funds in a separate account that is paid for only with non-federal funds. This requirement does not change the fact that federal taxpayer dollars are paying for ACA plans covering abortion in violation of the Hyde Amendment.\n\nFurthermore, in practice, even this small provision has been undermined. Instead of truly separating abortion funding from federal subsidies, plans do not issue a separate payment for the $1 abortion fee to be placed in a separate account.\n\nEven more concerning, some states are now attempting to repurpose these leftover funds to expand access to elective abortions, including paying for travel and other abortion-related assistance.\n\nRecent guidance from the Trump Administration reaffirmed the original intent of Section 1303. It makes clear that these separate accounts cannot be used as abortion-agenda slush funds, and that any leftover funds must be returned to the health plans at the end of the plan year, preventing states from stockpiling funds to advance an abortion agenda.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415200", "House adopts key amendment to preserve Trump administration review of offshore wind projects as part of SPEED Act", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "During debate on HR 4776, the SPEED Act, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted Amendment #4, offered by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) and cosponsored by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), which is absolutely critical for preserving the Trump administration\u2019s ability to continue its much-need reviews of ocean wind projects off of the Atlantic Coast due to overwhelming safety and national defense concerns.\n\nThe amendment was drafted following a December 5th letter to President Trump, led by Smith and cosigned by Harris and Van Drew, which raised concerns over the legislation\u2019s potential to undermine the Trump administration\u2019s ability to review offshore wind industrialization, should the bill be enacted.\n\nWith the adoption of the Harris/Smith/Van Drew amendment, the provisions of the SPEED Act will no longer nullify the administrative actions undertaken by the Trump administration prior to the bill\u2019s enactment.\n\nThis amendment preserves vital tools for President Trump to deliver on his promise to end the ill-conceived ocean wind industrialization experiment off the New Jersey coast.\n\nThe SPEED Act and the critical Harris/Smith/Van Drew amendment passed the House on Thursday, December 18th and is now pending in the Senate.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415195", "Lakewood Alerts article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'Congressman Smith Joins RFK Jr. for Lyme Disease Roundtable'", "2025-12-17", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Lakewood Alerts\n\nPublished December 17, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, joined U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday for a roundtable discussion focused on advancing diagnostics, treatment options, and long-term care for Lyme disease patients.\n\nThe discussion, convened by Kennedy at HHS, brought together senior federal officials, lawmakers, medical experts, and patients. Participants included Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), and specialists in Lyme and tick-borne diseases.\n\nSmith, who has authored multiple laws aimed at increasing federal investment in Lyme disease research, said the meeting addressed both current gaps and future opportunities in diagnosing and treating the illness.\n\n\u201cThis chronic, life-altering disease\u2014which continues to rise throughout the United States, including and especially in my home state of New Jersey\u2014deserves the federal government\u2019s undivided attention and assistance,\u201d Smith said.\n\nDuring the roundtable, Kennedy announced several initiatives intended to strengthen federal efforts on Lyme disease. Among them was the renewal of the $10 million LymeX Innovation Accelerator, a public-private partnership supported by the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation that focuses on developing improved diagnostic tools. Smith has previously advocated for federal funding to sustain the program.\n\nKennedy also said CMS will expand its Chronic Care Management program to include individuals with Lyme disease and related conditions. The move is intended to increase access to coordinated medical care and reduce financial barriers for patients with long-term or persistent symptoms.\n\n\u201cOne of the reasons we wanted to host this meeting is to announce to the world that the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over,\u201d Kennedy said. He added that HHS aims to ensure physicians nationwide are better equipped to recognize Lyme disease, test for it, and guide patients toward appropriate treatment.\n\nKennedy also referenced the personal impact Lyme disease has had on members of his family, underscoring the need for improved awareness and research.\n\nSmith said the discussion marked a turning point for patients who have long argued that Lyme disease has been underdiagnosed and undertreated.\n\n\u201cLyme patients have suffered in silence for far too long,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWith stronger diagnostic criteria and improved treatment options, we can work toward finally finding a cure for this invisible yet debilitating illness.\u201d\n\nThe roundtable follows recent congressional action related to Lyme disease research. Last week, the U.S. House passed an amendment authored by Smith as part of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment directs the Comptroller General to review whether U.S. government agencies conducted research between 1945 and 1972 involving the use of ticks as potential vectors for biological warfare agents.\n\nThe review would examine experiments involving two types of tick-borne bacteria, Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales. The amendment is expected to be considered by the Senate later this week.\n\nSmith said the legislation was prompted in part by the high prevalence of Lyme disease in New Jersey and by research discussed in Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby. The book includes accounts from the late Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist credited with identifying Lyme disease, who later described work involving ticks and pathogens during his time as a federal researcher.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-announces-2025-congressional-app-challenge-winners", "Kean Announces 2025 Congressional App Challenge Winners", "2025-12-17", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 17, 2025) LEBANON BOROUGH, NJ \u2014 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) announced the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey\u2019s Seventh Congressional District. The winning team, Maxwell Brohm of Califon and Zander Leon of Kinnelon, are students at the Morris County School of Technology. Their winning app, ChronoIQ, is designed to enhance students\u2019 time management skills, promoting greater efficiency while minimizing stress and academic pressure.\n\nThe Congressional App Challenge (CAC) is a district-wide competition for middle and high school students that encourages coding and inspires student interest in computer science and other STEM fields. This year, the CAC received more than 4,600 applications nationwide and it has become the most prestigious competition in computer science for students, as well as the largest competition of its kind in the country.\n\n\u201cI am excited to announce Maxwell Brohm and Zander Leon as the winners of this year\u2019s Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey\u2019s 7th Congressional District,\u201d said Congressman Kean. \u201cToday\u2019s students are balancing demanding academic schedules alongside extracurricular activities and personal commitments, and ChronoIQ offers a smart, practical solution to help them manage their time more effectively. Maxwell and Zander's app reflects the remarkable talent, creativity, and problem-solving skills we have in NJ-07. I would also like to commend every student who participated in this year's competition and thank the judges for their time and dedication.\u201d\n\nReflecting on what inspired their app, Brohm and Leon said, \u201cOur inspiration for ChronoIQ came from our own struggles with time management. We both have struggled with procrastination, which causes a lot of stress during school and at home. Staying up late to finish assignments has even affected our health. That\u2019s why we created ChronoIQ, to help students stay organized, lower stress, and live healthier lives.\u201d\n\nAs winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge, the students are eligible for the following recognitions:\n\nTheir winning app featured in the U.S. Capitol Building\n\nDisplay of their app on House.gov, which receives more than 10 million visitors annually\n\nInvitation to attend the #HouseOfCode celebration in Spring 2026\n\nWaived copyright registration application fees through the ARTS Act\n\nAll submissions for this year\u2019s Congressional App Challenge were judged by Mr. Vincent Panico, Mrs. Samantha Billig, and Mr. David Angradi. A former computer science professor at Raritan Valley Community College, Mr. Panico uses his tech background as a sales leader in the enterprise technology world and as Deputy Mayor of his hometown of Readington. Mrs. Billig, named in 2016 as the Hunterdon County Teacher of the Year, has been a Business Education Teacher at Hunterdon Central in Flemington for 18 years, where she teaches Entrepreneurship 1 and 2, as well as Digital Multimedia Design. A graduate of Rutgers University, Mr. Angradi leverages his more than 20 years of experience helping customers with their Digital Transformation initiatives as Field CTO with Presidio.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415190", "New diagnostics, effective treatmentsRFK Jr., Smith push solutions to tick-borne disease pandemic", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith and Sec. Kennedy at the HHS' Lyme Disease Roundtable on December 15, 2025.\n\nYesterday, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, joined U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a \u201cgame changing\u201d discussion about new and improved diagnostics, therapeutics, and prognoses for Lyme disease patients.\n\nThe HHS\u2019 Lyme Disease Roundtable discussion, convened by Sec. Kennedy, was also attended by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Lyme disease experts, and patients.\n\n\u201cAs Co-Chair of the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, I was honored to join Secretary Kennedy and other distinguished stakeholders, such as my fellow members of Congress, experts, and patients, in discussing the present state and future possibilities of Lyme disease diagnostics, treatments, and therapies,\u201d said Smith, the author of numerous laws to enhance federal funding for Lyme disease research.\n\n\u201cThis chronic, life-altering disease\u2014which continues to rise throughout the United States, including and especially in my home state of New Jersey\u2014deserves the federal government\u2019s undivided attention and assistance,\u201d stated the longtime advocate for Lyme patients.\n\n\u201cI want to thank, first of all, Congressman Chris Smith, who is the Chair of the Lyme Caucus and who has been responsible for getting some of the funding that we need to make sure that this works,\u201d said Sec. Kennedy. \u201cOne of the reasons we wanted to host this meeting is to announce to the world that the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over.\n\n\u201cWe want to make sure that every physician in the country can recognize the symptoms of Lyme disease and test for it and then direct patients to the best possible treatments,\u201d continued Sec. Kennedy.\n\nThroughout the roundtable discussion, Sec. Kennedy\u2014who described the personal impact of Lyme disease on his family\u2014announced numerous, significant HHS initiatives to better research and treat Lyme disease, including:\n\nThe renewal of the $10 million LymeX Innovation Accelerator initiative, made possible through the partnership of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, which will advance new and improved diagnostic tools and resources. Smith has successfully advocated for and secured millions of dollars in federal funds for the continuation of the program; and\n\nThe expansion of CMS\u2019 Chronic Care Management program to include and support beneficiaries with Lyme disease and related conditions, increasing access to coordinated care and reducing financial barriers for patients with chronic Lyme.\n\nRep. Chris Smith speaks at the HHS' Lyme Disease Roundtable.\n\n\u201cThe highly productive and enlightening conversations between government officials, lawmakers, and experts at yesterday\u2019s roundtable should serve as beacons of hope for all Lyme patients and advocates throughout the country,\u201d stated Smith. \u201cLyme patients have suffered in silence for far too long. With stronger diagnostic criteria and improved treatment options, we can work towards finally finding a cure for this invisible yet debilitating illness.\n\n\u201cI am very grateful for Secretary Kennedy\u2019s unwavering commitment to uncovering the origins, investigating the comorbidities, and developing new diagnostics and treatments for Lyme disease\u2014significantly improving the qualities of life and care for patients. Lyme patients deserve answers, and under Secretary Kennedy\u2019s phenomenal leadership, the HHS is steadfastly working towards procuring them,\u201d concluded Smith.\n\nThe Lyme Disease Roundtable comes on the heels of another breakthrough for federal Lyme disease research\u2014the House passage of Smith\u2019s FY 26 NDAA amendment to probe whether the Cold War-era U.S. government weaponized ticks with Lyme disease to serve as hosts or delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents.\n\nSmith\u2019s amendment\u2014which compels the Comptroller General of the United States to perform an exhaustive review of research conducted by the military and other federal agencies between 1945 and 1972 regarding experiments involving two forms of tick-borne bacteria, Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales\u2014was included in the major 2026 defense bill passed by the House last week and is expected to be voted on by the full Senate later this week.\n\nThe legislation was inspired in-part by the explosion of Lyme disease in New Jersey and Kris Newby\u2019s book, Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons.\n\nBitten features in-depth interviews with and the personal files of Dr. Willy Burgdorfer\u2014the federal researcher and U.S. bioweapons specialist credited with discovering Lyme disease\u2014who later revealed that he and other bioweapons specialists injected ticks with pathogens in a quest to cause severe disability, disease, and even death to potential enemies in unsuspecting ways.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415193", "Thanks to President Trump for direct engagementChris Smith on the release of Belarusian political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski; announces January hearing on remaining prisoners", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), a longtime champion of human rights and democracy in Belarus and author of landmark U.S. legislation\u2014the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004\u2014welcomed the December 13th release of 123 political prisoners by the government of Belarus\u2014a release made possible through the energetic efforts of President Trump.\n\n\u201cI rejoice with everyone released and their families\u2014today, they are free, and God willing, the remaining prisoners in Belarus will be free one day as well,\u201d said Smith.\n\nAmong those freed were Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, prominent opposition figures Maria Kolesnikova and Viktar Babaryka, and one American citizen. Thanks to President Trump\u2019s direct engagement, more than 200 political prisoners have now been released, including several U.S. citizens.\n\n\u201cAs the prime author of the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 and multiple reauthorizations, as well as the current Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2025 (HR 3225), I have worked for decades to hold the Lukashenko regime accountable and secure freedom for Belarus\u2019s political prisoners,\u201d stated Smith, who co-chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.\n\n\u201cFull credit should be given to President Trump for this remarkable achievement\u2014his bold diplomacy and personal engagement have delivered life-saving results for 123 innocent people, who were languishing in brutal detention. Now, they are with their families. I have had the privilege of meeting some of the released prisoners, and their stories of courage amid unimaginable hardship are deeply inspiring,\u201d continued Smith.\n\n\u201cWe must not forget the more than 1,000 political prisoners who remain behind bars in harsh and often life-threatening conditions. Their immediate and unconditional release is clearly a top priority for President Trump. In order to build on the President\u2019s momentum, I plan to hold a congressional hearing in January focused on the remaining prisoners.\u201d\n\nSmith has led U.S. legislative efforts on Belarus for over two decades, authoring the original Belarus Democracy Act (P.L. 108-347) and subsequent laws\u2014including the Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 5948) and the Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2011 (HR 515)\u2014which impose sanctions on the regime until it releases political prisoners, respects human rights, and moves toward free and fair elections. His current bill, HR 3225, the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2025, updates and strengthens these measures.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415194", "The Lakewood Scoop article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'RFK Jr., Smith Push Solutions to Tick-borne Disease Pandemic'", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By The Lakewood Scoop\n\nPublished December 16, 2025 at 7:45 PM\n\nCongressman Chris Smith, the longtime Co-Chair of the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, joined Kennedy this week at a high-level Lyme Disease Roundtable convened by HHS to address what both leaders described as a growing public health crisis. The discussion brought together federal health officials, members of Congress, medical experts, and Lyme disease patients to explore new diagnostics, therapies, and long-term care options.\n\nLyme disease cases continue to rise throughout the country, with New Jersey among the hardest-hit states. Smith, who has authored and championed numerous laws to increase federal funding for Lyme research, said the disease has been ignored for far too long.\n\nKennedy credited Smith with securing critical funding and helping elevate the issue nationally, stating that federal agencies are now committed to ending what he described as the \u201cgaslighting\u201d of Lyme disease patients. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that physicians nationwide can recognize symptoms, properly test for Lyme, and guide patients to effective treatment.\n\nDuring the roundtable, Kennedy announced several significant initiatives, including the renewal of the $10 million LymeX Innovation Accelerator, which will support the development of improved diagnostic tools through a public-private partnership, and the expansion of Medicare\u2019s Chronic Care Management program to include Lyme disease patients, reducing financial barriers and improving coordinated care for those suffering from chronic symptoms.\n\nSmith praised the announcements as a turning point, calling the discussions \u201cbeacons of hope\u201d for patients who have long struggled to obtain answers and proper treatment. He said stronger diagnostic standards and improved therapies are critical steps toward finally addressing what many patients describe as an invisible yet debilitating illness.\n\nThe meeting follows another major development in federal Lyme research efforts: the recent House passage of Smith\u2019s amendment to the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The measure calls for a comprehensive investigation into whether the U.S. government experimented with ticks as potential biological warfare delivery mechanisms during the Cold War era.\n\nThe amendment requires an exhaustive review of military and federal research conducted between 1945 and 1972 involving tick-borne bacteria. The legislation, inspired in part by the sharp rise of Lyme disease cases in New Jersey and the book Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, is expected to be taken up by the Senate in the coming days.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415197", "Jewish Insider article on letter from co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism'After Sydney Hanukkah massacre, House lawmakers urge Australia to act to protect Jewish community'", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Marc Rod\n\nPublished December 16, 2025\n\nThe co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism are urging Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to act more forcefully to protect Australia\u2019s Jewish community and implement months-old recommendations from the country\u2019s antisemitism envoy.\n\nIn a letter to Albanese sent Monday, the ten lawmakers said that the attack, which killed at least 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration, \u201ccomes in the wake of the Australian Jewish community repeatedly raising the alarm and urging swift action to counter the spread of unchecked antisemitic rhetoric and demonstrations occurring in Australia for far too long.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers said that there have been repeated \u201cwarning signs,\u201d including firebombings of synagogues, graffiti, assaults and threats of violence, which \u201chave now led to a tragic reality.\u201d\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference in Canberra on August 11, 2025.\n\nThey noted that Jillian Segal, the Australian special envoy to combat antisemitism, released 49 recommendations to be implemented across a range of institutions in July, and questioned what the Australian government has done to enact that plan and how it will protect the Jewish community going forward.\n\nThe lawmakers called on Albanese to \u201cmove swiftly and decisively\u201d to implement those recommendations.\n\n\u201cWhile we appreciate Australia joining the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism led by the United States, we urge your government to implement and actively utilize this document and its recommendations within,\u201d the letter continues. \u201cWe also encourage you to further insulate Australia from malign foreign influence, like that of Iran and possibly others, which has been found to be supporting antisemitic attacks in Australia.\u201d\n\nThe letter states that Australia\u2019s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as a terrorist organization \u201cis an important first step, but it cannot be the last step if Australia is to address the antisemitism brewing at home while also thwarting collusion from abroad.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-delivers-500000-federal-grants-support-local-fire-departments", "Kean Delivers $500,000 in Federal Grants to Support Local Fire Departments", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 16, 2025) LEBANON BOROUGH, NJ \u2013 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) announced that $510,531 in federal grant funding will be delivered to six fire departments in New Jersey\u2019s 7th Congressional District to support their public safety missions. The funding was provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s (FEMA) Fiscal Year 2024 Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program.\n\nCongressman Kean played a key role in securing these funds for local fire departments. In February 2024, he hosted a webinar to explain the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program and assist departments in navigating the application process. Congressman Kean also submitted letters of support for fire departments that requested assistance.\n\nThe funding was made possible through Congressman Kean\u2019s legislation, the Fire Grants and Safety Act, which provided critical federal resources to support many fire departments across New Jersey and over 1,000 other departments nationwide. His bill, which was signed into law in July 2024, reauthorized for five years the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) Program, the Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Grant Program, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program.\n\n\u201cI am thrilled to announce that we brought home over $500,000 in federal dollars to support six fire departments in New Jersey\u2019s Seventh Congressional District,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cEvery day, our firefighters put their lives on the line to protect our families and neighbors, and these grants will help departments purchase essential equipment, enhance training, and strengthen readiness to keep communities safe. I remain committed to supporting our first responders and I encourage other departments in the district to apply for these grants. My office stands ready to assist throughout the process.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe are grateful for this $75,000 AFG grant and for Congressman Kean\u2019s support in securing these funds for Summit,\u201d said Summit Mayor Elizabeth Fagan, M.D. \u201cThis grant directly benefits our residents by giving our firefighters the tools and training they need to respond quickly and safely in any emergency. Investing in our fire department is investing in the safety and well-being of the entire Summit community.\u201d\n\n\u201cWith this AFG grant, we are looking to purchase between 15-18 sets of turnout gear, boots, helmets, gloves, and cancer reducing hoods. We thank the Congressman for advocating for us and the district,\u201d said Clinton Fire Department Chief Jeff Hedden.\n\n\u201cThis grant is a game-changer for our department,\u201d said Greg Bunting, Chief of the Delaware Township Fire Company. \u201cOur firefighters rely on dependable communications when responding to emergencies. These new radios will not only improve our operational efficiency but will also help keep our members and residents safe.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am honored to announce that the Westfield Fire Department has been awarded $45,818 from the FY2024 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program,\u201d said Westfield Fire Chief Michael Duelks. \u201cThe funding will be utilized to assist the department in purchasing additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for our personnel.\u201d\n\n\"These federal grants are very important to small towns like Pohatcong. Our budgets are extremely tight as it is and these federal grants provide the funding needed to our first responders to things possibly outside our current budgets,\u201d said Pohatcong Mayor David Slack.\n\nThe full list of AFG grant awardees is as follows:\n\nTownship of Pohatcong Fire Department - $68,571\n\nTown of Westfield Town Hall - $45,818\n\nDelaware Township Fire Company (f.k.a Sergeantsville Volunteer Fire Co) - $242,857\n\nKingwood Township Volunteer Fire Co No 1 - $4,000\n\nTown of Clinton Fire Department - $74,285\n\nCity of Summit - $75,000\n\nThe AFG program helps firefighters and other first responders obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources necessary to protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415188", "Daily Mail article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'US military under investigation over claims it weaponized ticks to spread insidious disease'", "2025-12-15", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Stacy Liberatore, US Science & Technology Editor\n\nPublished 11:01 EST, 15 December 2025\n\nScientists have long debated a chilling question: Did the US military weaponize ticks during the Cold War?\n\nNow, Congress is demanding answers with a newly filed amendment that directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether federal agencies experimented with pathogen-laden ticks as tools of war.\n\nThe provision, authored by New Jersey Representative Chris Smith and filed on Friday, calls for a review of military, National Institutes of Health and US Department of Agriculture projects conducted between 1945 and 1972 involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales, two families of bacteria linked to tick-borne illnesses.\n\nSmith, who co-chairs the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, said the effort is driven by New Jersey's unusually high infection rates and concerns for civilians and military personnel stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.\n\n'The hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans suffering from Lyme disease deserve to know the truth about the origins of their illness,' Smith said.\n\nSmith is not the first public official to raise such questions, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has previously suggested that Lyme disease may have emerged from a failed US bioweapons program in the 1970s, allegedly involving research at Plum Island, New York.\n\nScientists, however, have repeatedly rejected those claims, calling them a debunked conspiracy and pointing to evidence that Lyme-causing bacteria existed in North America long before the 20th century.\n\nLyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is reported in 30,000 to 40,000 cases annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though the agency estimates that as many as 476,000 infections may occur each year and go undiagnosed.\n\nCongress is demanding answers with a newly filed amendment that directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether federal agencies experimented with pathogen-laden ticks as tools of war\n\nMuch of the theory traces back to the 2019 book 'Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons' and related interviews with the late Swiss-born scientist Willy Burgdorfer, who identified the Lyme disease pathogen in 1981 and previously worked as a US military bioweapons specialist during the Cold War.\n\nAccording to the book and related sources, Burgdorfer and other researchers allegedly injected ticks and other insects, including fleas and mosquitoes, with pathogens such as those causing Q fever, tularemia and relapsing fever to study their potential use as biological weapons.\n\nThe accounts also describe experiments in which ticks were force-fed infectious agents through glass capillary tubes and discussions about dispersing 'weaponized' ticks from aircraft to incapacitate enemy populations.\n\nThe book further alleges that hundreds of thousands of radioactive ticks were released in Montana and along the Atlantic Flyway to track how far they could spread.\n\nThe new amendment revives two similar efforts Smith introduced in 2019 and 2021 that passed the House but stalled in the Senate.\n\nSmith said the latest GAO probe could either substantiate or finally put to rest theories about government involvement in the spread of Lyme disease.\n\n'If the investigation finds that our bioweapons program had nothing to do with it, we turn the page,' Smith said. 'But the American people deserve answers.'\n\nWithin 3 days to a month, a red, bull's-eye rash will appear in 70 to 80 percent of cases involving a tick bite\n\nLyme disease is a bloodborne bacterial infection. The bacteria enters the skin from a tick bite, then travels through the bloodstream to spread to other parts of the body (STOCK)\n\nSmith called for an investigation in 2020 into claims that secret research was conducted on Plum Island and at Fort Detrick in Maryland on weaponizing ticks.\n\nPlum Island is an 840-acre island off the northeastern coast of Long Island, New York.\n\nIt's home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) and has been used by the US government for research on infectious animal diseases since the 1950s.\n\nThe US Department of Homeland Security has previously stated that the government facility at Plum Island 'does not and has not performed research on Lyme disease.'\n\nIn 2024, RFK Jr made the same claims about the disease, alleging on his own podcast that government scientists were experimenting with ticks on this island in the Northeast.\n\n'The ticks are an epidemic because of what happened at Plum Island and the other labs,' the health secretary said in the January 2024 episode of the RFK Jr Podcast.\n\n'We also know that they were experimenting with diseases of the kind, like Lyme disease, at that lab, and they were putting them in ticks and then infecting people,' RFK Jr added.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415189", "TAPinto Gold Coast article on Smith's statement condemning antisemitic violence'Congressman Smith Condemns Deadly Antisemitic Attack at Hanukkah Event in Australia'", "2025-12-15", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jim Lonergan\n\nPublished December 15, 2025 at 9:10 AM\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., condemned a deadly antisemitic terrorist attack this weekend at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, where gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more, including children and elderly attendees.\n\nThe attack occurred during a public Hanukkah gathering near the beach, where families and community members had assembled to celebrate the holiday. Authorities have described the shooting as a targeted act of antisemitic terrorism. Multiple attackers were involved, and police said the rapid intervention of bystanders and first responders prevented an even higher death toll. The incident has sent shockwaves through Australia and prompted heightened security around Jewish institutions nationwide.\n\nIn a statement, Smith expressed condolences to the victims and the Australian Jewish community, calling the attack a stark example of the global rise in antisemitic violence.\n\n\u201cMy heart breaks for the victims, their families, and the entire Australian Jewish community enduring this unimaginable tragedy,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe savagery and cruelty of this attack on Jewish families echoes the worst antisemitic violence we have seen since the October 7 Hamas atrocity.\u201d\n\nSmith also praised the actions of a bystander who intervened during the attack, tackling and disarming one of the gunmen. He said the individual\u2019s actions likely saved many lives.\n\nA longtime advocate for combating antisemitism, Smith is the author of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act of 2021. He used the moment to renew calls for stronger international efforts to confront antisemitism and hold perpetrators accountable.\n\nUnder the law, President Trump nominated Yehuda Kaploun in April to serve as the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, with the rank of ambassador. Smith noted that nearly nine months later, the nomination is still awaiting final Senate confirmation.\n\nThe delay reflects the modern Senate confirmation process, which has grown increasingly slow and politicized, particularly for ambassador-level appointments. While the position requires Senate approval, extended confirmation timelines have become common due to partisan divisions, limited floor time, and competing legislative priorities.\n\nIn announcing the nomination earlier this year, Trump described Kaploun as a successful businessman and a strong advocate for the Jewish faith, citing the need for decisive leadership as antisemitism continues to rise worldwide.\n\nSmith emphasized that antisemitism must be confronted across all fronts, including extremist violence, institutional bias, and inflammatory rhetoric.\n\n\u201cThe United States must stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies to ensure Jewish communities can practice their faith openly and without fear,\u201d Smith said. \u201cLeaders worldwide must redouble their efforts to counter this rising tide of hate, including through enhanced security measures and accountability for those who incite or commit these crimes.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415185", "Calls on U.S. Senate to confirm Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat AntisemitismSmith condemns antisemitic terror attack targeting Jewish community during Hanukkah in Australia", "2025-12-14", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "The author of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act of 2021\u2014 Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)\u2014condemned the horrific, antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The attackers opened fire on a peaceful Hanukkah celebration, killing at least 15 innocent people\u2014including children and the elderly\u2014and injuring dozens more.\n\n\u201cMy heart breaks for the victims, their families, and the entire Australian Jewish community enduring this unimaginable tragedy, and my wife, Marie, and I pray for the swift recovery of the wounded. The savagery and cruelty of this attack on Jewish families echoes the worst antisemitic violence we\u2019ve seen since the October 7th Hamas atrocity. It is a stark reminder of the truly dark nature of the spiritual cancer of antisemitism that metastasizes around the world,\u201d said Smith, who, in 2004, wrote the amendment that created the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, now known as the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.\n\n\u201cI commend the extraordinary courage of the bystander who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen\u2014he saved many lives.\u201d\n\nSmith, a longtime advocate for combating antisemitism through legislation and congressional hearings, called for immediate international action to root out this hatred.\n\nPursuant to Smith\u2019s law, last April, President Trump nominated Yehuda Kaploun to serve as the Special Envoy with the rank of Ambassador to \u201cserve as the primary advisor to, and coordinate efforts across, the United States Government relating to monitoring and combating anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement that occur in foreign countries\u2026\u201d\n\nSmith said, \u201cNearly nine months later, the U.S. Senate may finally confirm Yehuda Kaploun.\u201d\n\nIn April, President Trump wrote on Truth Social: \u201cI am proud to nominate Yehuda Kaploun as the United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Ambassador-at-Large.\n\n\u201cYehuda is a successful businessman, and staunch advocate for the Jewish Faith and the Rights of his people to live and worship free from persecution. With Anti-Semitism dangerously on the rise, Yehuda will be the strongest Representative for Americans and Jews across the Globe, and promote PEACE\u2026\u201d\n\nSmith stated: \u201cAntisemitism in all its forms\u2014whether fueled by extremist ideologies, biased institutions, like the United Nations, or unchecked rhetoric\u2014must be confronted and defeated wherever it rears its ugly head. The United States must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies, including and especially Israel, to ensure Jewish communities can practice their faith openly and without fear. I urge leaders worldwide to redouble efforts to counter this rising tide of hate, including through enhanced security measures and accountability for those who incite or perpetrate such crimes.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415180", "Export Compliance Daily article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Sudan'House Lawmaker Seeks Terror Label for Sudan's RSF'", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Marc Selinger\n\nPublished December 12, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, said Dec. 11 the U.S. should designate Sudan\u2019s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia a Foreign Terrorist Organization.\n\nAt a hearing on Sudan\u2019s civil war, which pits the militia against the Sudanese Armed Forces, Smith accused the RSF of a host of crimes, including a recent deadly attack on a kindergarten. His comments came about six weeks after a bipartisan group of six senators said the U.S. should consider designating the RSF an FTO or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (see 2511040018).\n\nAlso at the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., the panel's ranking member, urged the Trump administration to sanction entities in the United Arab Emirates that back the RSF. She also called for blocking weapons sales to the UAE until it stops providing material support to the RSF. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., tried unsuccessfully last month to force a Senate vote on a bill to suspend arms sales to the UAE (see 2511210036).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415184", "Fox News article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Sudan'As world fixates on other wars, Sudan sees 12 million forcibly displaced in devastating conflict'", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Chris Massaro\n\nPublished December 12, 2025 at 10:18 AM EST\n\nWhile the world\u2019s attention has focused on Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and Israel\u2019s war with Hamas in Gaza, Sudan remains the world\u2019s largest displacement crisis, with some 12 million people driven out of their homes.\n\n\"Sudan is under the darkest of clouds, a catastrophe that has, for far too long, been met with paralysis by the international community,\" Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee, said during his opening statements during a December 11 hearing on crimes against humanity in Sudan.\n\nSmith said the hearing was a global call to action and that there must be an immediate cessation of hostilities between the warring factions.\n\nSmoke rises as clashes continue in the Sudanese capital on April 16, 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The death toll in ongoing clashes between Sudan's military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has reached 56, while the injured is 595. (Photo by Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\n\n\"Crimes against humanity \u2014 particularly by the Rapid Support Forces \u2014 including mass rape, ethnic targeting and systematic looting, must be investigated, and perpetrators held accountable,\" Smith added.\n\nThe conflict in Sudan has received renewed attention after President Donald Trump vowed to secure a peace deal in the African nation following his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November.\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, recently said repeated drone strikes on Dec. 4 in Sudan\u2019s South Kordofan region struck a kindergarten and nearby hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children.\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee, held a hearing on Sudan\u2019s devastating civil war on Thursday. (Rep. Chris Smith's Office)\n\n\"Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital,\" Tedros said in a statement.\n\nSudan Doctors Network, a medical organization, said the attacks were perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces.\n\nThe conflict in Sudan has been raging since April 2023, when an uneasy alliance between Sudan\u2019s two warring factions, the government-led Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) collapsed following a tenuous power-sharing agreement struck in 2021.\n\nSudan\u2019s army and the RSF had collaborated for years under the previous regime of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir.\n\nMembers of the Sudanese army's Special Mission Forces battalion in the Northern State hold a parade in Karima city on May 19, 2024. Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nThe situation has only escalated since fighting first broke out in 2023 and has not garnered the same level of international effort or outrage that the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have generated.\n\n\"The war in Sudan has been one of the most gruesome humanitarian catastrophes in world history. However, there has been frequent paralysis by world leaders and international institutions to solve it, in addition to reduced, fluctuating media attention on the conflict,\" Caroline Rose, director of Military and National Security Priorities at New Lines Institute, told Fox News Digital.\n\n\"This could be attributed to the fact that, unlike wars in Ukraine and Gaza, there is not a component of great-power competition or regional contestation,\" she added.\n\nRose and other observers of the conflict note that there is inhibited ground access, creating challenges not only for journalistic reporting, but also the documentation of war crimes and testimonies.\n\nThe Sudanese armed forces have prevented access to aid workers in territories they control on the basis of sovereignty and have expelled humanitarian workers that had been in the country.\n\nThe RSF has also been accused of committing grave human rights violations and reportedly killed over 400 aid workers and patients in October at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in the North Darfur city of El Fasher. The RSF siege of El Fasher caused at least 28,000 people to flee to neighboring towns, and the U.N. Human Rights Office accused the RSF of \"summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement.\"\n\nA man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)\n\nEven as the Trump administration works for a ceasefire between the warring factions, the killings continue.\n\nTom Perriello, the former U.S. special envoy for Sudan, said in a September New York Times interview that he believed up to 400,000 have been killed since the outbreak of violence in 2023. A recent article in Foreign Policy put the figure at 100,000 in what it called the \"forgotten war.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-amo-introduce-bill-promote-drone-and-aviation-safety-advance-research", "Kean, Amo Introduce Bill to Promote Drone and Aviation Safety, Advance Research & Development", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 12, 2025) WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Representatives Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) and Gabe Amo (RI-01) announced the introduction of the Drone Safety Enhancement Act, bipartisan legislation designed to advance research on drones and support the future of advanced air mobility.\n\nThe bill strengthens federal research and development (R&D) efforts focused on drone safety and autonomous aviation within the national airspace system. It also directly supports ongoing work at federal aviation laboratories\u2014including the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace located in New Jersey\u2014to ensure safe, efficient, and modern evolution of aviation technology.\n\n\u201cAs technology rapidly advances and drones become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, it is critical that air traffic for these systems is managed safely and transparently,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cI introduced the Drone Safety Enhancement Act with Representative Amo to direct the research needed to modernize our national airspace and support responsible integration of emerging technologies. Continued R&D in autonomous aviation is vital to America\u2019s competitiveness and to guaranteeing our airspace remains safe, efficient, and prepared for the future.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m proud to help introduce the bipartisan Drone Safety Enhancement Act with Congressman Tom Kean to ensure the federal government is collaborating across agencies and with leaders in academia and industry to enhance our understanding of drones and advanced air mobility,\u201d said Congressman Gabe Amo. \u201cWe must harness emerging technologies for good.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, the bill would:\n\nRequire the NASA Administrator, the FAA Administrator, and leaders of other relevant federal agencies to collaborate on research related to unmanned aircraft systems and advanced air mobility. This includes research on unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) and autonomous aviation capabilities.\n\nRequire congressional briefings on the progress of this research 18 months after the bill\u2019s enactment.\n\nThe full text of the bill is available HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415165", "Lakewood Alerts article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'Is Lyme Disease a U.S.-Made Biological Weapon? Rep. Chris Smith Triggers Federal Probe'", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Lakewood Alerts\n\nPublished December 11, 2025\n\nA long-debated question about the origins of Lyme disease is poised for federal scrutiny after Congress approved an amendment requiring an investigation into whether the U.S. military once weaponized ticks. The provision, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 and now awaits the President\u2019s signature.\n\nSmith\u2019s amendment, now Sec. 1068 of the defense bill, directs the Government Accountability Office to examine Cold War-era biological weapons research and determine whether federal agencies used ticks as delivery mechanisms for pathogens. The review will encompass military, NIH, and USDA projects from 1945 to 1972 involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales, two families of bacteria linked to tick-borne illnesses.\n\nSmith, who co-chairs the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, said the push is rooted in New Jersey\u2019s unusually high infection rates and concerns for both civilians and military personnel stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. \u201cThe hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans suffering from Lyme disease deserve to know the truth about the origins of their illness,\u201d he said.\n\nThe amendment follows two similar efforts Smith advanced in 2019 and 2021, which cleared the House but were blocked in the Senate. His renewed push has drawn attention in part because of claims featured in Kris Newby\u2019s book Bitten, which cites interviews and files from Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist credited with discovering Lyme disease. Burgdorfer, according to the book, said he and other researchers experimented with pathogen-loaded ticks for potential battlefield use.\n\nSmith said the GAO probe could either confirm or definitively dispel theories about government involvement in the spread of Lyme disease. \u201cIf the investigation concludes that our bioweapons program was not involved, we turn the page,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we need answers.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415166", "Opening statement of Chairman Smith at hearing on SudanStopping the Bloodshed: U.S. Response to Crimes Against Humanity in Sudan", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "The following are excerpts of Chairman Chris Smith\u2019s (R-NJ) opening statement at the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee\u2019s December 11th hearing\u2014his seventeenth hearing chaired exclusively on Sudan\u2014entitled \u201cStopping the Bloodshed: U.S. Response to Crimes Against Humanity in Sudan\u201d:\n\nLast week, I had the honor of attending President Trump\u2019s convening of two African leaders to bring an end to decades of bloodshed and war in eastern Congo. It is through the President\u2019s leadership, and the tireless efforts of his staff, that the leaders were able to sign an historic accord\u2014the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity\u2014the gravity of which, we hope, will result in a lasting peace between Rwanda and the DRC.\n\nThe President is a man of peace\u2014peace through strength\u2014and I am encouraged by his focus and engagement on Sudan.\n\nSudan is under the darkest of clouds, a catastrophe that has, for far too long, been met with paralysis by the international community.\n\nThe people of Sudan have been subjected to unbearable pain, suffering, and loss of life\u2014even slavery\u2014for decades. Three decades ago, I chaired a hearing in 1996 on the scourge of slavery in Sudan and Mauritania, where we heard testimony that chilled the soul.\n\nI went to Khartoum in August of 2005 and met with President Omar al Bashir and other government officials to press for an end to the genocide in Darfur. The meeting was necessarily contentious. Bashir denied any wrongdoing or complicity in the Darfur genocide. In 2009, however, Bashir was charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in 2010, he was the first person ever charged for the crime of genocide.\n\nAfter meetings with Bashir and other government officials, my staff director, Greg Simkins, and I visited two refugee camps in Darfur\u2014Kalma camp and stayed overnight at another, Mukjar\u2014an experience that profoundly motivated me to do more to end the mass violence. When our helicopter landed at the remote Mukjar camp, thousands of women and children danced, clapped, and sang beautiful traditional African songs. The people of Darfur have a remarkable generosity and spirit\u2014and it was awe-inspiring.\n\nJust about everyone we spoke with, however, especially the women, told us personal stories of rape, senseless beatings, and massacres by the Janjaweed and Sudanese militias.\n\nFormer Trump Administration Africa Director in the National Security Council, Nicole Widdersheim of Human Rights Watch\u2014one of our witnesses today\u2014lived and worked in Sudan for seven years and was on that trip to Mukjar.\n\nAmbassador\u2014then-U.S. Senator\u2014Sam Brownback, along with Congressman Frank Wolf, were the first members of Congress to visit Darfur in June of 2004. Their historic trip\u2014followed by aggressive advocacy for the vulnerable and the victims\u2014helped galvanize efforts to end the violence.\n\nFormer Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Tony Perkins has also led a delegation to Sudan in 2020, and today will testify that \u201cboth the RSF and the SAF have a common enemy in Christians\u2026 Christians have been denied food aid and told, unless you leave your Christianity, no food for you.\u201d\n\nKen Isaacs of Samaritan\u2019s Purse, who testified at our subcommittee hearing this past May 22nd, will testify that \u201cToday, the humanitarian situation in Sudan has deteriorated further,\u201d that \u201cwhat\u2019s happening in Sudan is a manmade famine\u201d with \u201ctwenty-one million people facing acute food insecurity, and 6.5 million in or near famine\u2026\u201d\n\nHistory is not just repeating itself in Sudan\u2014it is compounding. President Trump called Sudan \"the most violent place on Earth\" and \"the single biggest Humanitarian Crisis,\" and said \"tremendous atrocities are taking place.\"\n\nToday, Sudan is in a state of collapse. We are witnessing a genocide that echoes the horrors of the early 2000s, perpetrated by the very same actors who soaked the soil of Darfur in blood two decades ago.\n\nThe Catholic Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan said: \u201cWe find ourselves deeply disturbed by the ongoing devastating conflicts and the dishonoured peace agreements in both nations, especially with the worsening situation in 2025. It is alarming that dialogue is no longer seen as a vehicle for harmony, healing, reconciliation, and unity,\u201d the prelates write.\n\nThe Bishops call out politicians in Sudan and South Sudan for their astonishing lack of respect for human dignity.\n\nThere will never be peace in Sudan until there is accountability for the atrocities committed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known to the world as \"Hemedti,\" of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).\n\nThese two warlords have ravaged Sudan with utter impunity. Their bloody records are littered with war, arbitrary killings, detentions, abductions, and the mass rape of women and children. We have received credible reports of child soldier recruitment and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, including just last week, a bombing of a World Food Program convoy, which is not an isolated incident. This is the sixth bombing of a World Food Program convoy in Sudan.\n\nJust last week, over 100 civilians \u2013 including at least 63 children \u2013 were killed in South Kordofan state when the RSF attacked a kindergarten. To compound the horror, the RSF then reportedly attacked the first responders and ambulances as they rushed wounded children to local hospitals. Since this conflict erupted in April 2023, estimates suggest as many as 150,000 people have been slaughtered, and more than 10 million have been displaced.\n\nThese are not just numbers. Each murdered civilian, each child starved to death in the Zamzam camp, each woman violated in El Geneina, is a person whose life has been taken or irrevocably shattered.\n\nI was deeply disappointed by the previous administration's delays in imposing robust sanctions and allowing the fight to spin out of control from the beginning. For too long, we dithered while Burhan and Hemedti cemented their power. It was unconscionable that Burhan was allowed to travel to New York and be received by the UN Secretary-General, granting legitimacy to a man with massive amounts of blood on his hands.\n\nWe must also be clear-eyed about the external actors fueling this fire. On Tuesday, the Department of the Treasury announced sanctions on a Colombian-led transnational network of hundreds of former Colombian military personnel, who have traveled to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF since 2024.\n\nIt is the illicit flow of Sudanese gold, smuggled by the RSF through the United Arab Emirates, that is directly funding Hemedti\u2019s war machine. We cannot turn a blind eye to the UAE\u2019s role in supplying weapons that kill innocent Sudanese civilians. Simultaneously, we see the malign influence of Russia seeking naval access to Port Sudan, and reports of Iranian drones bolstering the SAF. Sudan has become a playground for foreign powers, while its people serve as the collateral damage.\n\nToday\u2019s hearing is a global call to action. We must demand an immediate cessation of hostilities.\n\nExternal financing and arms flow must stop. The UAE must cease all support for the RSF, and Turkey and Iran must halt military assistance to the SAF.\n\nCrimes against humanity\u2014particularly by the RSF\u2014including mass rape, ethnic targeting, and systematic looting, must be investigated, and perpetrators held accountable. RSF should be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415176", "WATCH: Rep. Chris Smith highlights House hearing on Sudanese Civil War and religious liberty concerns there", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, sat down with Tony Perkins on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins to discuss religious persecution throughout the globe, the violence perpetrated by Hamas and other radical Islamist groups, and his recent House hearing on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.\n\nThe full interview can be viewed by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415178", "The National article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Sudan'US politicians condemn RSF and SAF over human rights abuses in Sudan'", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By The National\n\nPublished December 11, 2025\n\nMembers of the US Congress on Thursday called for accountability in the civil war in Sudan, urging both sides to declare a ceasefire in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.\n\nThe Africa Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee met to discuss the US response to the humanitarian crisis.\n\n\"There will never be peace in Sudan unless there's accountability for the atrocities committed by Gen [Abdel Fatah] Al Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces and [Gen] Mohamed Dagalo \u2026 of the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF,\" Representative Chris Smith said. \"These two have savaged Sudan with impunity.\"\n\nThe war between the armed forces and the RSF erupted in April 2023, when simmering tension between the military and the paramilitary group broke into open conflict. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced almost 13 million and pushed some regions into famine.\n\n\"From our perspective, there are no good actors in this conflict,\" Vincent Spera, deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs.\n\nThe armed forces and RSF have been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. The US has imposed sanctions on Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo, as well as people and entities involved in human rights violations. Mr. Spera pointed to the army being placed under sanctions in May for its use of chemical weapons in 2024.\n\nThe UAE embassy in Washington issued a statement on Sudan, condemning attacks on civilians and lamenting the humanitarian crisis in the East African nation.\n\nThe embassy said the UAE has consistently called for an arms embargo across Sudan and said there is no substantiated evidence that it has provided any support to the RSF or any warring parties.\n\n\"Claims suggesting otherwise are an attempt to misrepresent the facts and distract from the urgent need for a ceasefire and for accountability among those perpetrating violence on the ground,\" the statement said.\n\nCongressman Gregory Meeks condemned the RSF and the Sudanese military for destroying \"a nation's hopes for the future in the pursuit of corrupt wealth and power.\"\n\n\"I think it's past time for Congress and for the administration to take action collectively,\" Mr. Meeks said. \"This means not only pressing the RSF and SAF to agree to cease fire in negotiations, but also enforcing real consequences for external actors.\"\n\nUS President Donald Trump declared last month that he would focus on ending the conflict, after a conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US form the Quad group that is working to bring about peace in the region.\n\n\"We're focused on a road map to peace, starting with the humanitarian truce, to allow for the delivery of more humanitarian assistance, which would create the conditions for political dialogue and ultimately, a civilian-led process,\" Mr. Spera said.\n\nMr. Smith said that Sudan \"has become a playground for foreign powers.\" He and congresswoman Sara Jacobs accused the UAE of arming the RSF.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415161", "The Epoch Times article on the CECC's 2025 Annual Report'CCP's History of \"Broken Promises,\" Human Rights Abuses Harms US, World: Congressional Commission'", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Catherine Yang\n\nPublished December 10, 2025\n\nChina has regressed with respect to rule of law, according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China\u2019s (CECC) 2025 annual report, released Dec. 10, which highlights the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) long history of breaking promises.\n\nThe commission was created in 2000 to monitor human rights and rule of law in China.\n\n\u201cBroken promises are not an exception; they are a feature of how the CCP deals with the world and with its own people,\u201d commission co-chairs Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said in a statement in the report.\n\n\u201cThese broken promises affect Americans,\u201d they stated. For example, Americans traveling to China for work or study can become subject to exit bans and arbitrary detention, Chinese forced labor becomes intertwined with U.S. supply chains, national security laws grant the regime \u201csweeping access\u201d to American data, and the regime carries out its human rights abuses extraterritorially through transnational repression such as overseas police stations.\n\nThe annual report includes dozens of recommendations aimed at curbing longstanding CCP practices that harm the United States and international community, including several bills that lawmakers have introduced this year.\n\nOfficers of China's military and police arrive for the third plenary session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 12, 2019. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images\n\nThe chairs called on the United States and free world allies to reject Beijing\u2019s attempts to incentivize and divide, because otherwise \u201cAmericans pay the price\u2014in security, in prosperity, and in credibility.\u201d\n\n\u201cUpholding human dignity helps keep markets fairer, travel safer, technology freer, and alliances stronger. It reduces the leverage authoritarian states\u2014led by a totalitarian [People\u2019s Republic of China]\u2014wield over people and partners,\u201d the chairs stated.\n\nIn addition to producing an annual report, the CECC maintains the Political Prisoner Database, which contained 11,262 records as of June 30, which the commission believes is an underreporting of the actual number. They include 2,755 active detentions; the rest are either believed or known to have been released, or have been executed, died in custody, or escaped.\n\nThey include Zhang Zhan, a journalist who reported on the CCP\u2019s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as critics of that response who hung banners in public spaces, such as Peng Lifa, Mei Shilin, and Fang Yirong. They also include artists depicting what the regime considers sensitive issues, such as Gao Zhen, whose work depicted the Cultural Revolution, and Uyghur filmmaker Ikram Nurmehmet.\n\nAmong them are religious believers who do not promote and practice the CCP\u2019s version of religions, such as Xin Ruoyu, who worked on developing a Christian app that provided users access to hymns and worship music, and Zhao Ying, an elderly woman aged over 80 sentenced to more than three years in prison for giving people materials about Falun Gong.\n\nWorst Offender\n\nChina continues to rank among the worst human rights offenders in various reports. Reporters Without Borders ranked China 178 out of 180 countries and territories and the leading jailer of journalists in its 2025 press freedom reports. Freedom House scored China zero out of four on \u201cfree and independent media.\u201d\n\nThe commission saw an increase in dissent as well as suppression in recent years. It cited a China Dissent Monitor report finding a 27 percent year-on-year increase in events from a period July to September 2023 to 2024. The regime created central and local branches of the Central Society Work department in 2023 to further control society and eliminate \u201cillegal social organizations.\u201d In 2025, it tightened rules on banning these organizations.\n\nThe commission reported it observed a \u201ca coordinated campaign, led by the United Front Work Department\u201d to tighten \u201cgovernance of religion\u201d in 2025. This included suppression of ethnic minority Muslim groups, asserting authority of the Catholic Church in China despite an agreement with the Vatican, mass arrests of Protestant house church leaders, and directing \u201cconsiderable resources and attention\u201d in the CCP\u2019s continued persecution of Falun Gong.\n\nUnder the CCP, the criminal justice system is a \u201cpolitical instrument,\u201d according to the report. Dissidents can be arbitrarily detained in \u201cblack jails\u201d such as psychiatric facilities, without formal legal process, and subjected to torture and other mistreatment.\n\nInfluence Operations and Overseas Oppression\n\nThe commission reported an increase in the regime\u2019s digital activities in realms of censorship and global influence campaigns. For instance, U.S.-based OpenAI found accounts that \u201cappear to originate in China\u201d using AI to write articles criticizing the United States and denouncing a critic of the regime.\n\nThe regime\u2019s regulations require embedding \u201ccore values of socialism\u201d into its AI models, raising concerns about how Chinese AI and software can expand the regime\u2019s censorship model.\n\nBeijing is also building out physical infrastructure by way of satellite expansion, which has raised concerns about the regime\u2019s ability to spread its digital authoritarianism.\n\nIts efforts to suppress critics internationally are \u201cmultifaceted,\u201d according to the report, which cites bounties the regime placed on Hong Kong activists, as well as passport cancellations, harassment, hacking, and diplomatic pressure for extradition of dissidents.\n\nThe commission noted that several pieces of legislation addressing transnational repression have already been introduced, and recommended that the government produce a threat assessment of CCP transnational repression and whether there are statutory gaps.\n\nIt also recommended an interagency hub be formed to address the CCP\u2019s malign influence on civil society and institutions.\n\nLong History of Broken Agreements\n\nIn addition to Chinese laws that outline several human rights protections, Beijing has signed onto several international human rights and standards agreements that the regime continually violates, according to the report.\n\nIn 1979, Beijing ratified the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations which requires consular officers to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state, and Chinese embassies in the United States have many times found to be engaging in the CCP\u2019s transnational repression against critics of the regime, such as the high profile incident of instigating violence against peaceful protestors during the 2023 APEC summit in San Francisco, and carrying out espionage.\n\nIn 1981, it ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, requiring a commitment to reverse laws or regulations that perpetuate racial discrimination. Yet the CCP is currently actively erasing minority cultures by forcing Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian children to attend \u201ccolonial boarding schools\u201d that teach a CCP-centric curriculum and penalize the use of native languages and cultural customs.\n\nIn 1984, Beijing ratified the Sino-British Joint Declaration, meant to guarantee Hong Kong \u201ca high degree of autonomy\u201d with independent executive, legislative, and judicial powers. In recent years, the world witnessed as the CCP cracked down on protesters in Hong Kong and the passing of vaguely worded national security laws that give the CCP sweeping power to target dissenters.\n\nIn 1988, the regime ratified the Convention Against Torture, but regular reports from human rights lawyers and religious prisoners show that the regime is continuing to torture political and religious prisoners such as the Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners, which have found to be targets of live organ harvesting by the regime. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that teachers truth, compassion, and tolerance. It was introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s and banned by the regime in 1999. The commission recommended passing bills introduced that would prohibit U.S. public funds from paying for medical care related to organ transplants obtained in China and sanction perpetrators of organ harvesting.\n\nIn 1996, it ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the regime has violated by building and militarizing artificial islands in contested territory in the South China Sea and increasing maritime aggression against Philippine vessels.\n\nIn 2001, Beijing ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which includes agreements safeguarding fair labor practices. However, the only labor union in China is one led by the CCP, and the regime typically treats strikes as a criminal offense. Multiple investigations in recent years have also uncovered regime-imposed slave labor, including the exploitation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.\n\nAn Environmental Justice Foundation investigation also revealed the forced labor of North Korean workers on Chinese fishing ships, and the Brazilian government has accused China\u2019s BYD of employing at least 163 workers in \u201cslave-like conditions\u201d and withholding workers\u2019 passports and salaries. The report also noted that workers are subjected to \u201cexcessive overtime practices,\u201d including coffee farm workers in Yunnan who supply coffee to Starbucks and Nestle.\n\nThe covenant also protects parents\u2019 freedom to choose schools to \u201censure the religious and moral education of their children,\u201d which the CCP continues to violate.\n\nIn 2022, the regime ratified the Forced Labor Convention, but the commission found that systemic forced labor practices involving Uyghurs and Turkic minorities have expanded in Xinjiang this past year. The United States government considers the CCP\u2019s persecution of the Uyghur minority a genocide and has enacted law to prohibit the entry of goods made with forced labor in response. The commission recommended strengthening existing mechanisms and expediting the blacklisting of companies using forced labor and mandating transparency in supply chains. The vast majority of Chinese cotton is produced in Xinjiang, and U.S. lawmakers have pressed for better disclosures and due diligence from Chinese fashion retailers.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415162", "Major 2026 defense bill includes Smith amendment to combat LymeSmith amendment to probe whether the U.S. military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease passes House", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "A critical amendment authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) to investigate whether the U.S. military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease has been included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26 NDAA) (S. 1071), which has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives, headed to the Senate, and is expected to be signed by President Trump upon its final passage.\n\nSmith\u2019s amendment\u2014now Sec. 1068 of the bill\u2014directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO)\u2014the Congressional \u201cwatchdog\u201d\u2014to investigate the Cold War-era Department of Defense (Department of War) bioweapons program and determine whether they ever used ticks as hosts or delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents.\n\n\u201cNew Jersey has one of the highest Lyme rates in the United States\u2014the disease is present in all 21 counties,\u201d noted Smith, Co-Chair of the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus. \u201cThe pervasive presence of Lyme disease in New Jersey not only carries concerns for civilians, but also for the military personnel stationed in the state\u2014especially and including those serving at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, part of which is located within my congressional district.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, Smith\u2019s amendment in the NDAA compels the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct an exhaustive review of research conducted by the military, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other federal agencies between the period of January 1, 1945 and December 31, 1972, regarding experiments involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales\u2014two forms of tick-borne bacteria.\n\n\u201cNow that this vital provision has advanced out of the House, we are one step closer to finally determining whether the U.S. government\u2019s bioweapons program contributed to the proliferation of Lyme disease,\u201d stated Smith. \u201cIf the GAO investigation concludes that our government\u2019s bioweapons program was not involved, we turn the page.\n\n\u201cThe hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans suffering from Lyme disease\u2014in addition to the millions across the United States\u2014deserve to know the truth about the origins of their illness. An enhanced understanding of how Lyme came to be will only assist in finding a cure for this debilitating disease,\u201d said Smith.\n\nIn previous Congresses, Smith offered two similar amendments\u2014one in 2019 and the other in 2021\u2014both of which passed the House, but were blocked in the Senate.\n\nSmith\u2019s amendments have been inspired in-part by the explosion of Lyme disease in New Jersey and Kris Newby\u2019s book, Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons. The book includes in-depth interviews with and the personal files of Dr. Willy Burgdorfer\u2014the federal researcher and U.S. bioweapons specialist credited with discovering Lyme disease\u2014who later revealed that he and other bio-weapons specialists injected ticks with pathogens in order to cause severe disability, disease, and even death to potential enemies in unsuspecting ways.\n\nIn addition to Smith\u2019s section on Lyme disease, the FY26 NDAA includes significant reforms to our Nation\u2019s military, making it better prepared to meet the threats of the future and ensuring fairness for those who answer the call to serve.\n\n\u201cThe FY26 NDAA authorizes $900.6 billion for national defense discretionary programs\u2014proving that Congress is capable of properly funding our military\u2019s operations and supporting our servicemembers, all while ensuring greater fiscal accountability for American taxpayers,\u201d said Smith, the former Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs.\n\n\u201cThis bill supports President Trump\u2019s \u2018peace through strength\u2019 agenda by investing in enhanced defense technologies and activities to more effectively protect America\u2019s lands, seas, and skies.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, the FY26 NDAA:\n\nImproves servicemember quality of life by implementing a 3.8% pay raise and enhances military bonuses and special pay;\n\nFully funds the establishment and enforcement of National Defense Areas along the southwest border;\n\nCodifies President Trump\u2019s executive orders and legislative proposals to eliminate poisonous \u201cwoke\u201d and DEI policies, which harm military recruitment and retention;\n\nAdvances and supports President Trump\u2019s Golden Dome program for missile and drone defense to protect the homeland;\n\nAuthorizes more than $1 billion to combat drug trafficking, including $398 million for DOW support of counter-narcotics operations and $216 million for National Guard counter-drug initiatives;\n\nAllocates $145.7 billion to research, develop, test, and evaluate new technologies, such as drones and counter-drone systems, urgently needed by warfighters;\n\nAuthorizes $26 billion in shipbuilding funding for submarines and surface vessels;\n\nAuthorizes more than $35 billion to restore the United States\u2019 arsenal of munitions\u2014critical for installations, such as Naval Weapons Station Earle;\n\nAuthorizes $38 billion to ensure air dominance, including funds for a next-generation fighter;\n\nProtects the security of Israel by fully funding joint U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs, such as the Iron Dome, Arrow, and David\u2019s Sling;\n\nCounters the innumerable national security threats posed by Communist China by removing Chinese products from our defense supply chains, authorizing $2.7 billion for military construction projects in the Indo-Pacific, fully funding the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative at $1 billion, and supporting our allies in the Indo-Pacific to oppose China\u2019s malign influence operations; and\n\nReforms the defense acquisition system by fast-tracking novel war technologies to the warfighter.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415163", "Catholic News Agency article on Smith's work to promote religious freedom'Trump to create sanctions plan for Nigeria, congressman says'", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Madalaine Elhabbal\n\nPublished December 10, 2025 at 15:30 PM\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump is crafting a sanctions plan to increase pressure on the Nigerian government amid ongoing Christian persecution, according to a leading member of Congress.\n\nPresident Trump \u201cis in the process of crafting a comprehensive action plan including sanctions to pursue reform,\u201d according to Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, who described Nigeria as \u201cground zero,\u201d and the \u201cfocal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today.\u201d\n\nSmith, a Catholic who chairs the house Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, mentioned the plan during his Dec. 9 speech at \u201cThe Emergency Summit on Crimes Against Christians,\u201d organized by For the Martyrs, a nonprofit that aids persecuted Christians. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Rep. Marlin Stuzman, R-Indiana, also spoke at the event.\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, speaks about a sanctions plan to increase pressure on the Nigerian government amid ongoing Christian persecution on Dec. 9, 2025. | Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA\n\nThe veteran New Jersey congressman praised Trump\u2019s designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and affirmed that \u201cReligious freedom will now be at the forefront of the U.S.-Nigeria bilateral relationship.\u201d\n\nThe president can choose from a menu of sanctions for a CPC-designated country under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), ranging from diplomatic measures to economic sanctions. The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.\n\nDuring his remarks, Senator Josh Hawley said Nigeria \u201chas recently drawn global attention and has drawn the attention of our own president.\u201d\n\n\u201cI applaud President Trump for standing up for persecuted Christians. I applaud the president for putting Nigeria back on the watch list where it belongs,\u201d Hawley said. The Missouri senator quoted the Book of Revelation while praising Christians persecuted around the world, saying: \u201cThey love not their lives, even unto death.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe see here in the Lord's own word, his testament to the power of the persecuted church,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cThat he says it is those who are persecuted, who are willing to lay down their lives for the Gospel\u2026it is those believers whose blood bears witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nStutzman, whose district includes Fort Wayne, Indiana, also condemned the persecution of Christians in Nigeria during his remarks, and praised Trump for being \u201cthe strongest president on [religious freedom] since probably Ronald Reagan.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have a president who's willing to call out those bad guys around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of the day, I think this is why it's so important for us as Americans, especially for us as Christians. We are the party of life. We believe life is a gift from God. And so therefore, we should protect it. And we should be asking those folks, What is the threat? What is the threat of Christians in Nigeria to the government, to the leaders in that nation? What is the threat of Christians there?\u201d\n\nTrump has charged Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, with leading an investigation into persecution in Nigeria.\n\nChina\n\nCongressman Smith went on to highlight religious persecution in China, saying \u201cChinese dictator Xi Jinping\u2019s accelerated and brutal crackdown on believers in China must be exposed and stopped as well.\u201d He highlighted the October raids on home churches by Chinese security agents, saying, \u201cin Xi Jinping\u2019s China, devotion that isn\u2019t Communist Party-approved is treated as a political problem to be solved by police brutality.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe must act with sanctions, especially those prescribed by the International Religious Freedom Act,\u201d Smith said.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415170", "SeafoodSource article on the CECC's 2025 Annual Report'US commission on China calls on Congress to do more to curtail forced labor in seafood supply chain'", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Chris Chase\n\nPublished December 10, 2025\n\nThe U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China\u2019s (CECC) latest annual report \u2013 released to coincide with International Human Rights Day \u2013 features seafood prominently as it calls on Congress and the U.S. government as a whole to do more to combat forced labor.\n\nSeafood from China has been under scrutiny by the U.S. government, in part thanks to a report released by The Outlaw Ocean Project which released findings of a multi-month investigation into the global seafood supply chain. That investigation found extensive evidence of forced labor in processing facilities operated by multiple Chinese companies connected to the U.S. supply chain and U.S. companies.\n\nA later report revealed further evidence of Uyghur and forced labor being used by the Chinese processing industry, and Outlaw Ocean followed that report up with one in 2024 on the presence of North Korean laborers, the abuses they suffer, and the seafood produced by them present in the U.S. supply chain.\n\nThe U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China is calling for more action to tackle the presence of forced labor in China's seafood supply chain | Photo courtesy of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China\n\nSince that time, the U.S. government has placed an increased focus on Chinese seafood and removing seafood linked to forced labor from the supply chain. The CECC first called for an investigation into allegations from the first Outlaw Ocean report on Uyghur labor and later called on the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden to collaborate across departments to determine whether seafood processed in China using North Korean labor was making its way into the U.S.\n\nThose efforts have continued in 2025, as U.S. lawmakers demanded the elimination of Chinese-sourced seafood from its military, called for harsh sanctions against Chinese seafood over human rights violations, and recently the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the Stop Illegal Fishing Act which would impose sanctions on foreign individuals and vessels connected to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing \u2013 particularly China\u2019s distant-water fleet.\n\nThe CECC\u2019s latest report continued those calls for action and again highlighted seafood in what it said was evidence of promises broken by the Chinese government.\n\n\u201cPromises made, promises broken: The People\u2019s Republic of China \u2013 in reality, a party state run by and for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party \u2013 makes solemn commitments then governs as if those commitments are optional,\u201d CECC Chair Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Co-Chair Representative Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey) wrote in the report.\n\nThe two chairs said the broken promises by China are affecting Americans, including through the continued use of forced labor in seafood processing, which exposes U.S. consumers to seafood sourced unethically.\n\n\u201cWhere commitments are repeatedly set aside \u2013 on labor, religion, due process, or maritime norms \u2013 U.S. policy must be calibrated to address behavior that harms U.S. interests,\u201d the chairs wrote. \u201cThat means sustained enforcement against forced labor, real traceability in high-risk sectors like seafood and lithium, and alignment of federal procurement with human rights standards so that American consumers and workers are not made to subsidize coercion.\u201d\n\nThe CECC said the U.S. government should work to stop imports of Chinese seafood associated with forced labor, both to defend the U.S. fishing industry from unfair competition and to pressure China and its corporations to end exploitive labor practices violating international standards.\n\nAs part of that, the CECC has urged Congress to follow through on restricting Department of Defense spending on Chinese seafood imports, urged the Office of Management and Budget to issue clear guidance on procuring goods made with forced labor \u2013 particularly seafood processed in China \u2013 and said the secretary of state and U.S. director of national intelligence should issue a report on how much money is being exchanged between China and North Korea linked to seafood processing that skirts U.S. sanctions.\n\nOn top of its calls for action from Congress, the CECC said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump should work to implement its executive order on seafood and issue an interagency trade strategy to combat forced labor and IUU fishing, establish a blacklist of vessels that have engaged in IUU and of Chinese processing facilities implicated in using forced labor, and grant law enforcement more resources to investigate Chinese fleets engaged in IUU and processing facilities connected with forced labor.\n\nThe CECC also said the U.S. government should strengthen its enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act \u2013 which includes more targeted sanctions for goods like seafood that were found to be connected to the use of Uyghur labor.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-votes-fy2026-national-defense-authorization-act-supports-pay-raise", "Kean Votes for FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, Supports Pay Raise for Servicemembers and Picatinny Arsenal Mission", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "December 10, 2025\n\n(December 10, 2025) WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) released the following statement after voting yes on the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act:\n\n\u201cTonight, I voted in support of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to strengthen our national security, promote peace through strength, and deliver real improvements for our servicemembers.\n\n\u201cThis year's NDAA makes major strides in protecting our homeland. It provides critical resources to ensure continued security at our southern border, counters growing threats from foreign adversaries like China, and strengthens counterterrorism efforts. The SAFER SKIES Act, which is included in the bill, empowers authorities with the necessary tools to defeat drones when they present a threat to the public. Our bill also advances America\u2019s military dominance by revitalizing the defense industrial base and investing in key priorities like missile defense, autonomous systems, and new warships.\n\n\u201cFor the state of New Jersey, the final NDAA includes a version of my amendment to bolster ammunition capabilities, which will support the critical work being done at Picatinny Arsenal. To support our servicemembers and their families, the bill provides a 3.8% troop pay raise, expands access to childcare and healthcare, and improves housing. These improvements will ensure that those who serve our country can focus on their mission without worrying about the well-being of their loved ones.\n\n\u201cI look forward to seeing this legislation, which puts our national security and servicemembers first, head to the President\u2019s desk for signing.\u201d\n\n###\n\nIssues:National Defense", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415160", "CatholicVote article on Smith's upcoming House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Sudan'Rep. Chris Smith calls attention to bloodshed in Sudan'", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished December 9, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is spotlighting Sudan\u2019s deepening civil war and the mounting atrocities against civilians ahead of a new congressional hearing on the conflict.\n\nSmith, a Catholic who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, will lead his 17th congressional hearing on Sudan Dec. 11. He said the scale of mass violence since the Sudanese Civil War began in 2023 demands urgent action from U.S. officials and the international community.\n\n\u201cSince 2023, as many as 18,000 civilian deaths have been committed in Sudan \u2014 with estimates as high as 150,000 \u2014 and more than 10 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the Sudanese Civil War,\u201d Smith said in a statement. \u201cThe catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Sudan \u2014 which includes the systemic killings, rapes, abductions, detentions, and child soldier recruitments of innocent civilians \u2014 demands our attention.\u201d\n\nAs CatholicVote previously reported, the war erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over a stalled plan to integrate the RSF into the national army.\n\nAdobe Stock\n\nThe upcoming hearing will review the current status of the war, the widespread crimes attributed to the Sudanese government and armed groups, and the deepening humanitarian emergency facing civilians.\n\nThe first panel will feature Deputy Assistant Secretary Vincent D. Spera of the State Department\u2019s Bureau of African Affairs. A second panel will include Samaritan\u2019s Purse Vice President Ken Isaacs, Family Research Council President and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Vice Chair Tony Perkins, and Human Rights Watch Deputy Washington Director Nicole Widdersheim.\n\nChurch leaders have also raised alarms over the conflict. In two appeals last month \u2014 during his Nov. 2 Angelus address and again in a Nov. 16 social media post \u2014 Pope Leo XIV urged prayer for victims of violence in Sudan and highlighted the persecution of Christians there.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415159", "Thurs., December 11: Rep. Chris Smith to chair Foreign Affairs hearing\u201cStopping the Bloodshed: U.S. Response to Crimes Against Humanity in Sudan\u201d", "2025-12-08", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "On Thursday, December 11th, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, will chair his seventeenth congressional hearing on the civil conflicts in Sudan and the resulting human rights abuses against civilians in the country.\n\n\u201cSince 2023, as many as 18,000 civilian deaths have been committed in Sudan\u2014with estimates as high as 150,000\u2014and more than 10 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the Sudanese Civil War,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThe catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Sudan\u2014which includes the systemic killings, rapes, abductions, detentions, and child soldier recruitments of innocent civilians\u2014demands our attention.\u201d\n\nWHAT: Congressional hearing on the status of the Sudanese Civil War, the widespread atrocity crimes and human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government against civilians, and the corresponding humanitarian crisis in Sudan.\n\nWHEN: Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 12:30 PM\n\nWITNESSES: (Partial list)\n\nPANEL 1:\n\noThe Honorable Vincent D. Spera, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State\n\nPANEL 2:\n\noMr. Ken Isaacs, Vice President, Programs and Government Relations, Samaritan\u2019s Purse\n\noMr. Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council (FRC), Vice Chair of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom\n\noThe Honorable Samuel Dale Brownback, Former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom\n\noMs. Nicole Widdersheim, Deputy Washington Director, Human Rights Watch\n\nWHERE: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building\n\nWHO: Chairman Chris Smith, other members of the HFAC Africa Subcommittee, and witnesses\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415154", "Rep. Smith on Taiwan's special defense budget announcement", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), issued the following statement, welcoming President Lai Ching-te\u2019s announcement that Taiwan would be investing $40 billion to meet defense needs:\n\n\u201cPresident Lai understands that cutting edge deterrence capabilities are needed to protect Taiwan\u2014a democratic Chinese society free from tyranny, where the people are able to achieve both liberty and wealth.\n\n\u201cFree and prosperous Taiwan presents a stark contrast to mainland China, which, under Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, enjoys neither; people struggle under a forced labor regime and a \u20189-9-6 economy\u2019 to simply make ends meet\u2014while propping up the dictatorship.\n\n\u201cI strongly encourage Taiwan\u2019s legislature\u2014and all political parties\u2014to approve President Lai\u2019s proposal and work with the President to advance other key measures to support Taiwan\u2019s military and the men and woman who serve to defend their nation.\n\n\u201cTaiwan is America\u2019s frontline in the Pacific, and Taiwan\u2019s security is America\u2019s security. I urge my fellow Americans to stand firmly with Taiwan.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415155", "CatholicVote article on the PROTECT Our Kids Act'House passes bill to prevent China's communist teachings in American schools'", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished December 5, 2025\n\nThe House approved legislation Dec. 4 to bar federal funding from any K-12 school that receives money from the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC), as lawmakers sharpen scrutiny of Beijing\u2019s attempts to influence American education.\n\nThe measure, the PROTECT Our Kids Act (HR 1069), passed by a vote of 247-164, with all 164 opposing votes coming from Democrats.\n\nRepublican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a Catholic, said the bill, which was introduced by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., is needed to counter the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) \u201cpervasive and insidious influence\u201d in U.S. classrooms. He argued the measure would help shield students from CCP propaganda and bolster national security.\n\n\u201cThe PROTECT Our Kids Act is a vital tool for helping to stop the spread of the PRC\u2019s lies about communism and the operations of the Chinese government, as well as promote the importance of protecting national security interests in America\u2019s schools,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThis legislation helps ensure that American students can no longer be misled and misinformed by foreign governments, such as the PRC, about the empty promises of communism.\u201d\n\nShutterstock\n\nThe House also advanced a related bill Dec. 3. Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, introduced the Combatting the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems Act, which passed with 242 votes.\n\nJoyce\u2019s bill would bar federally funded schools from accepting money or contracts from the Chinese government or its affiliates and would require schools to disclose any foreign funding to the Department of Education. He said the legislation responds to China\u2019s expanding attempts to shape American classrooms.\n\n\u201cThe CCP\u2019s attempts to shape narratives in our classrooms threaten the fairness and independence of American education,\u201d he said. \u201cGiven China\u2019s growing influence in education worldwide, taking commonsense steps to protect our children and safeguard the integrity of our school systems is essential.\u201d\n\nThe legislation comes amid heightened concern over what Smith has called the CCP\u2019s \u201cwar on religion.\u201d Earlier this year, Beijing detained about 30 leaders of the underground Zion Church, including well-known pastor Mingri \u201cEzra\u201d Jin, whose family holds U.S. citizenship. Catholic dissident Jimmy Lai has similarly spent nearly five years in a Hong Kong prison and still awaits sentencing.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415156", "Breitbart article on Smith-Lee letter to OPM'GOP Lawmakers Demand OPM Halt Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for Members of Congress, Staff'", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Katherine Hamilton\n\nPublished December 5, 2025\n\nTwo dozen Republican lawmakers say members of Congress and their staff have access to taxpayer-funded healthcare plans that include coverage for elective abortions, in violation of federal law.\n\nSen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) led a bicameral letter on Friday to U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor demanding the agency stop \u201cadministering government contributions for Members of Congress and Congressional staff in connection with health insurance plans that cover elective abortion, in violation of the longstanding Smith (NJ) Amendment.\u201d\n\nThe letter explains that, since 1984, federal laws have prohibited the use of appropriated funds \u201cto pay for an abortion, or the administrative expenses in connection with any health plan under the Federal employees health benefits program which provides any benefits or coverage for abortions\u201d except in cases of rape or incest or if the life of the mother is in danger. Lawmakers said the provisions restrict OPM from administering government contributions in connection with any health plan for federal employees that covers elective abortion.\n\nJemal Countess/Getty Images for Women's March\n\n\u201cHowever, OPM is currently subsidizing plans that cover elective abortion in clear violation of the Smith Amendment,\u201d the letter alleges. \u201cWhile the Affordable Care Act (ACA) limits Members of Congress and designated Congressional staff to purchasing health plans offered through an Exchange, under a current Obama-era rule in effect since plan year 2014, OPM administers government contributions\u2026for Members of Congress and Congressional staff enrolled in any Gold level health insurance plan offered through the District of Columbia\u2019s Health Exchange Small Business Health Options Program (DC SHOP)\u2014also known as DC Health Link\u2014including plans that cover elective abortion.\u201d\n\nThe letter points out OPM\u2019s claim on its website that abortion coverage is enabled by segregated costs, meaning the individual\u2019s contribution to their health plan is used for abortion coverage, while other coverage is derived from taxpayer funds. Republicans rejected that claim in their letter, calling it an \u201caccounting gimmick.\u201d\n\n\u201cOPM\u2019s use of this accounting gimmick to grant abortion subsidies to Congress is not provided for under Section 1303 of the ACA and is blatantly illegal under the Smith Amendment\u2019s strict requirement for a complete exclusion of elective abortion coverage for federal employees,\u201d they wrote. \u201cBy flouting the Smith Amendment, such subsidies also violate the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the authorization of expenditures or obligations without an appropriation by law.\u201d They continued:\n\nTaxpayers, who contribute 72 to 75 percent of these health benefit premiums, do not want their hard-earned tax dollars to pay for abortions,\u201d they continued. \u201cThe Smith Amendment does not allow Members of Congress and Congressional staff to operate under a different set of rules than other federal employees when it comes to taxpayer funding of abortion. For 2026, there are only two health plans offered through DC Health Link that do not cover abortion, CareFirst\u2019s BluePreferred PPO Gold and United Healthcare\u2019s Choice Plus Gold.\n\nTherefore, we request swift action by OPM to ensure that any health insurance subsidies for members of Congress or Congressional staff are in full compliance with the clear terms of the Smith Amendment. Any DC SHOP plan that covers elective abortion should not be eligible for a government contribution.\n\n\u201cThank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to working with you to ensure the health and safety of the American people,\u201d lawmakers concluded.\n\nLawmakers sent the letter amid a larger battle in Congress to extend the Hyde Amendment to expiring Obamacare premium subsidies. The Hyde Amendment bans the use of federal taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, with exceptions for rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. It was first enacted in 1976 and must be renewed annually through the congressional appropriations process.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415158", "SeafoodSource article on the Stop Illegal Fishing Act'US House committee approves Stop Illegal Fishing Act'", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Nathan Strout\n\nPublished December 5, 2025\n\nThe U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved the Stop Illegal Fishing Act, legislation that authorizes U.S. President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and vessels that engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) fishing.\n\nThe authors of the bill say the measure is necessary to crack down on large foreign fishing fleets that have dodgy records on the environment and human rights \u2013 particularly China\u2019s distant-water fleet.\n\n\u201cFleets of illegal fishing vessels are devastating sensitive fish populations, harming food security and local economies around the world. Nearly half of these vessels, 44 percent, originate from China. If Beijing won't hold these exploitive vessels and individuals accountable, the U.S. must. That is why we\u2019ve introduced legislation that would grant the president power to impose sanctions on any individual or entity engaging in IUU fishing,\u201d U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks (D-New York) and U.S. Representative Young Kim (R-California) said in a joint statement.\n\nThe Stop Illegal Fishing Act would give the president the authority to impose sanctions on individuals who own vessels engaged in IUU fishing, those who hold leadership positions at companies engaged in IUU fishing, and captains and senior crew members on the vessels. Sanctioned individuals could have their U.S.-based assets frozen and their visas revoked.\n\nIf passed, the legislation would require a report from the president to produce a list of all individuals and vessels sanctioned under the new law within 180 days.\n\nU.S. Representative Brian Mast (R-Florida), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was highly critical of China\u2019s distant water fishing practices.\n\n\u201cIt is a serious threat to coastal nations worldwide,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat it really is, it's harassment. It is mostly a middle finger from the Chinese Communist Party to neighboring and coastal countries. The Chinese Communist Party oversees the largest illegal fishing fleet. They deplete fish stocks. They violate maritime laws. They harm local economies across the globe.\u201d\n\nU.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of China\u2019s seafood sector following the Outlaw Ocean Project\u2019s reports documenting state-sponsored forced labor and other worker violations in the nation\u2019s domestic processing sector and distant water fishing fleet.\n\nThe first report, which was published in 2023, revealed evidence that the Chinese government was forcing members of the oppressed Uyghur population to work in seafood-processing plants, where they were subject to a litany of abuse. Follow-up reports alleged abusive working conditions on Chinese squid-harvesting vessels and the use of North Korean labor at seafood-processing facilities \u2013 a violation of international law. All told, the Outlaw Ocean Project alleged that at least 47,000 metric tons of seafood processed with Uyghur labor made its way to U.S. markets.\n\nDuring the 1 December markup of the Stop Illegal Fishing Act, U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) \u2013 who chaired a Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing on \u201cHow Forced Labor in China Taints America's Seafood Supply Chain\u201d shortly after the first Outlaw Ocean Project report dropped \u2013 urged his colleagues to support the bill.\n\n\u201cChina\u2019s fleet is filled to overflowing with forced labor,\u201d Smith said. \u201cOn the open seas, cut off from contact with the land, harsh and very cruel punishment is meted out to laborers, who are treated as slaves \u2013 wages are withheld. Captive peoples, especially the Uyghurs, are often conscripted onto these boats.\u201d\n\nSmith and other lawmakers on the commission have called on the federal government to further investigate the seafood industry\u2019s connections to forced labor and block seafood imports from China. Not long after the Outlaw Ocean Project revelations, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the Ban China\u2019s Forbidden Operations in the Oceanic Domain (Ban C-FOOD) Act, but no action was ever taken on the bill.\n\nWhile the U.S. has not outright banned Chinese seafood, the government has taken several actions targeting individual companies and restricting Chinese imports.\n\nIn 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security added seafood to its high-priority list for enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and banned imports from the Shandong Meijia Group under the same law. The U.S. Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force held three webinars last year on what the government was doing to enforce the UFLPA.\n\nLawmakers are also currently pushing to pass the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, a bill that would establish a blacklist of vessels involved in IUU fishing and ban them from U.S. waters.\n\n\u201cThe FISH Act gives us more enforcement tools in response to illegal fishing,\u201d U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) said during a November hearing. \u201cIt creates a list for illegal vessels, holds vessel owners accountable, and improves tracking of foreign boats, which helps keep illegal seafood out of American stores through sanctions and import restrictions, protecting consumers and vulnerable workers.\u201d\n\nThe Senate passed the FISH Act as an amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill in October, but it\u2019s not clear if that language will survive negotiations between the House and Senate. There are several differences between the two versions of the bill, including an amendment eliminating exceptions for seafood from the government\u2019s \u201cBuy American\u201d provisions in the House bill and an amendment banning the military from buying seafood originating from or processed in China in the Senate bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415150", "Combating foreign influence in American K-12 schoolsHouse passes the PROTECT Our Kids Act to prevent the People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s communist teachings in American schools", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "With the strong support and vote of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PROTECT Our Kids Act (HR 1069), legislation to \u201cprohibit the availability of Federal education funds for elementary and secondary schools that receive direct or indirect support from the Government of the People\u2019s Republic of China\u201d (PRC).\n\n\u201cThe PRC\u2019s goal in influencing American students is not an altruistic one; they are not seeking to merely \u2018enlighten\u2019 American children and expand their worldviews,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThe purpose of these so-called \u2018Confucius Classrooms\u2019 is to undermine and subvert American business, national security, and civic interests by manipulating malleable students into perceiving China favorably on the global stage.\n\n\u201cFor many years, I have been sounding the alarm on the PRC\u2019s pervasive and insidious influence on American students in our colleges and universities,\u201d continued Smith, the author of legislation to require Confucius Institutes, think tanks, academic programs, or nongovernmental organizations funded by the PRC to register under section 2 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 612).\n\n\u201cStudents in our elementary and secondary schools are especially vulnerable to the PRC\u2019s fabrications\u2014we must immediately end these pernicious programs.\n\n\u201cThe PROTECT Our Kids Act is a vital tool for helping to stop the spread of the PRC\u2019s lies about communism and the operations of the Chinese government, as well as promote the importance of protecting national security interests in America\u2019s schools,\u201d noted the China policy expert. \u201cThis legislation helps ensure that American students can no longer be misled and misinformed by foreign governments, such as the PRC, about the empty promises of communism.\n\n\u201cChina, led by the dictator thug General Secretary Xi Jinping, has been a standalone leader in perpetrating mass human rights abuses; a foreign government, especially of this nature, should have absolutely zero say in the education of our students.\n\n\u201cI strongly urge my colleagues in the Senate to immediately take up this critical legislation for a vote. The United States should be educating our future leaders on the cruel truth of communist governments\u2014not allowing their impressionable minds to be shaped by a foreign government\u2019s lies,\u201d concluded Smith.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415151", "Signifying an end to decades of conflict and killingsPresident Trump\u2019s historic peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Today, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, joined President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other high-ranking U.S. officials and foreign leaders at the historic peace deal signing ceremony between DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda President Paul Kagame at the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.\n\n\u201cSkillfully and brilliantly brokered by President Trump, this momentous peace deal\u2014known as the \u2018Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity\u2019\u2014signifies an end to the lengthy, bloody, and costly conflict in the region,\u201d said Smith, who, earlier this year, introduced legislation to formally recognize and applaud the President for arranging a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda.\n\n\u201cFor decades, the people of the DRC have endured intense conflict, political instability, humanitarian crises, displacement, and human rights violations.\n\n\u201cThe unstable situation in the DRC has developed into one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world. Under President Trump\u2019s strong leadership, we are now taking the necessary steps to end the violence and agony that has ravaged the region,\u201d stated Smith.\n\nDuring the ceremony, President Trump thanked Smith for his longtime leadership on the issue. In 2008, Smith led a four-day human rights mission to Goma, DRC, with an emphasis on combating human trafficking, child soldiers, and sexual violence, as well as underscoring U.S. commitment to critical peace negotiations.\n\nSmith has also chaired 13 congressional hearings on the DRC-Rwanda conflict\u2014one of which, held in 2011, featured the testimony of Ben Affleck, an actor and founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative. Another critical hearing chaired by Smith in 2012, entitled \u201cThe Devastating Crisis in Eastern Congo,\u201d examined the humanitarian crisis in the DRC and the role of U.S. policy in bringing an end to the conflict.\n\n\u201cI am enduringly grateful to President Trump for his unwavering commitment to promoting and securing peace throughout the globe, and I extend my deepest thanks to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as well as his Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos,\u201d continued Smith.\n\n\u201cI look forward to working alongside President Trump and his extremely effective administration to watch the peace process unfold and ensure that the leaders of the DRC and Rwanda are honoring the terms of the agreement.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-colleagues-introduce-bill-protect-patients-high-prescription-drug-costs", "Kean, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Protect Patients from High Prescription Drug Costs", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 4, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, Representatives Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-CA), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) reintroduced the Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act to make life-saving prescription medications more affordable for patients with rare, serious, and chronic conditions.\n\nThis bipartisan legislation would require insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to count the value of copay assistance they receive on a patient\u2019s behalf toward cost-sharing requirements. This change ensures that payments, whether they come directly out of a patient\u2019s pocket or with help from non-profit organizations and prescription drug manufacturers, contribute toward a patient's annual deductible and out-of-pocket limit.\n\nCongressman Tom Kean, Jr. said, \u201cCopay assistance programs help make costly medications attainable for Americans who rely on them. Yet under current law, insurers and PBMs can pocket this assistance without lowering patients' cost-sharing obligations. Our bipartisan legislation will fix that problem by ensuring those savings are passed on to patients. This solution will protect access to essential prescription drugs, reduce overall healthcare costs for families, and hold these health companies accountable.\u201d\n\nRep. Barrag\u00e1n said, \u201cFor patients living with complex and chronic diseases, access to prescription drugs that help them manage their condition saves lives, plain and simple. But too many Americans are unable to afford the medications they need because the out-of-pocket costs are too high. This is unacceptable. Americans work hard every day to make sure they can feed their families and take care of their loved ones. They should not be priced out of receiving the life-saving medications they rely on. That is why I am proud to co-lead, the HELP Copays Act, with Congressman Kean. This bipartisan bill will help working American families afford their prescriptions by putting a stop to harmful practices by insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and ensuring that patients\u2019 copay assistance counts towards their cost-sharing requirements. Because drug affordability is not a blue-state issue or a red-state issue \u2014 it is an issue that affects tens of millions across the country and in every state.\u201d\n\nCongresswoman Miller-Meeks said, \u201cToo many patients are forced to walk away from the pharmacy counter because their out-of-pocket costs are simply too high. The HELP Copays Act is a commonsense, bipartisan solution that ensures financial assistance, from nonprofits or drug manufacturers, actually counts toward a patient\u2019s deductible and copay. As a physician, I know how devastating it is when a patient can\u2019t afford the medication they need. This bill puts patients first by lowering their real, day-to-day costs and stopping insurance companies from shifting more of the burden onto families.\u201d\n\nCongressman Auchincloss said, \"Drug pricing middlemen want patients to pay deductibles twice. That\u2019s not how insurance should work. With this bill, those schemes stop.\"\n\nCongressman Fitzpatrick said, \u201cFor people living with chronic and rare diseases, copay assistance is often the only path to staying on lifesaving treatment. Yet far too many are paying twice, while insurers and PBMs pocket that assistance without ever counting it toward a patient\u2019s costs. That\u2019s wrong\u2014and it\u2019s exactly what the bipartisan HELP Copays Act corrects. This is common-sense, patient-first reform to lower out-of-pocket costs and ensure every dollar intended to help a patient actually does.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, the HELP Copays Act would:\n\nClarify the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to require that health plans count payments made \u201cby or on behalf of\u201d patients, including financial assistance offered by non-profit organizations and prescription drug manufacturers, toward cost-sharing requirements.\n\nClose the ACA's Essential Health Benefit (EHB) loophole to ensure that any covered prescription drug is defined as \u201cessential\u201d so that all related cost-sharing counts towards a patient\u2019s cost-sharing limits.\n\nThe full text of the House bill is available HERE. An identical companion Senate bill (S.864) was introduced by Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tom Kaine (D-VA) in March 2025.\n\nThe legislation is endorsed by the All Copays Count Coalition, a group of nearly 90 national patient and provider advocacy organizations. Read their press release HERE and endorsement letter in support of the bill HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-joins-bipartisan-group-35-house-members-announcing-new-health-care", "Kean Joins Bipartisan Group of 35 House Members Announcing New Health Care Framework", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, December 4, 2025, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) joined a bipartisan group of 35 total House Members, co-led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Jen Kiggans (VA-2), announcing a new health care framework, CommonGround 2025. The bipartisan framework includes a two-year extension of health insurance premium savings for American families, including a year of the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs), with targeted modifications, to be voted on by December 18, 2025, in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.\n\nThe Members backing the framework have also co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leadership to meet with them to discuss the framework and a constructive pathway forward in both chambers.\n\n\u201cToday, I joined both Democrats and Republicans to advance a new, bipartisan framework to make healthcare more affordable for New Jersey families,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cOur CommonGround 2025 plan responsibly extends Premium Tax Credits and pairs them with targeted modifications, including PBM reform, guardrails against fraud, greater transparency, and other critical improvements.\n\n\u201cWe need to reduce health insurance premiums for every family and we need to hold accountable drug-pricing middlemen and fraudsters who are abusing our health care system,\u201d Kean continued. \u201cThrough bipartisan action, I am fighting for the people of New Jersey and driving forward a solution that Congress can deliver now.\u201d\n\nThe framework and letter, co-led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Jen Kiggans (VA-2), are also co-signed by Reps. Adam Gray (CA-13), Juan Ciscomani (AZ-6), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Maria Salazar (FL-27), Darren Soto (FL-9), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Jim Costa (CA-21), Jefferson Van Drew (NJ-2), Josh Riley (NY-19), Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-7), Susie Lee (NV-3), Jeff Hurd (CO-3), Jared Golden (ME-2), David Valadao (CA-22), Chris Pappas (NH-1), Ryan MacKenzie (PA-7), Ed Case (HI-1), Carlos Gimenez (FL-28), Maggie Goodlander (NH-2), Monica De La Cruz (TX-15), Sam Liccardo (CA-16), Robert Bresnahan (PA-8), Greg Landsman (OH-1), Don Bacon (NE-2), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Kevin Kiley (CA-3), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Nick LaLota (NY-1), Don Davis (NC-1), Scott Peters (CA-50), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-3), Hillary Scholten (MI-3), and Tom Suozzi (NY-3).\n\nFind the CommonGround 2025 framework here and the bill text here. Find the letter to House and Senate leadership here.\n\nTop-line Summary.\n\nTwo-year extension of health insurance premium savings for American families \u2014 including a year of the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs), with targeted modifications, to be voted on by December 18, 2025, in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.\n\nYear One: An extension of the ePTCs, with targeted modifications.\n\nExtension of the ePTCs for enrollees earning less than 600% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and a phase out of the ePTCs for enrollees earning between 600% FPL and 1000% FPL.\n\nNew guardrails to prevent \u201cghost beneficiaries\u201d and crack down on fraud, including:\n\nImplementing the Insurance Fraud Accountability Act to crack down on civil & criminal penalties for fraudulent agents / brokers;\n\nCodifying part of CMS\u2019s marketplace integrity rule to remove bad actors from ACA marketplaces;\n\nDirecting ACA marketplaces to regularly confirm enrollee eligibility with the Death Master File; and,\n\nRequiring marketplaces to better notify recipients of the amount of PTCs they are receiving from the federal government.\n\nExtension of open enrollment until March 19, 2026, and requiring HHS to notify qualified individuals of the extension of open enrollment.\n\nPBM reform (provisions included in the bipartisan Continuing Resolution from December 2024 and featured in the PBM Reform Act and Bipartisan Health Care Act) which:\n\nBans \u201cspread pricing\u201d in Medicaid.\n\nReforms Medicare Part D by delinking PBM compensation from the cost of medications.\n\nPromotes transparency for both employers and patients in their prescription drug plans.\n\nYear Two: Continued health insurance premium savings, including more significant reforms, agreed upon and voted on in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives by July 1, 2026.\n\nReforms for consideration:\n\nOption for consideration: Medicare physician fee schedule (from December 2024 CR).\n\nBoosts the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.\n\nOption for consideration: Hospital billing transparency.\n\nRequires hospitals to disclose prices, including negotiated rates and cash prices.\n\nOption for consideration: Give Kids A Chance Act (from December 2024 CR).\n\nAccelerates pediatric cancer treatments and expands access to life-saving therapies for children battling rare diseases.\n\nOption for consideration: Elimination of zero-dollar premiums with minimum monthly payments, but with need-based hardship support for those who cannot afford this payment.\n\nOption for consideration: HSA Accounts (Sen. Cassidy proposal).\n\nShifts funding that would have paid for the ePTCs to HSA accounts.\n\nPotential Pay-fors.\n\nAnti-Fraud provisions of IFAA, HOPE Act: not yet scored, but substantial.\n\nPBM reforms: as delineated in the December 2024 CR.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415146", "Smith-cosponsored bill combats forced labor on Chinese shipsStop Illegal Fishing Act heads to House floor", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Comprehensive legislation cosponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)\u2014the bipartisan Stop Illegal Fishing Act (HR 6338)\u2014was today approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee during their markup session and is now headed to the full House for its consideration.\n\nThe bill, introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), would impose sanctions upon foreign vessels or individuals that engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing).\n\nDuring the markup, Smith\u2014who, in 2023, chaired a Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing entitled \u201cFrom Bait to Plate\u2014How Forced Labor in China Taints America's Seafood Supply Chain\u201d\u2014spoke in favor of the legislation, describing how China utilizes forced labor on their ships to cheaply and quickly process and package large volumes of seafood for international distribution\u2014including and especially to the United States.\n\nCiting expert testimony from the hearing, Smith recalled Ian Urbina\u2019s four-year investigation, which revealed that 357 of the 751 Chinese squid fleets studied\u2014nearly half\u2014had serious concerns tied to forced labor.\n\n\u201cChina\u2019s fleet is filled to overflowing with forced labor,\u201d said Smith, who has chaired more than 108 congressional hearings on human rights abuses in China. \u201cOn the fishing boats, as well as in the processing plants, China uses forced labor to undersell competitors. They have very, very small amounts of cost associated with the people around the ships.\n\n\u201cOn the open seas, cut off from contact with the land, harsh and very cruel punishment is meted out to laborers, who are treated as slaves\u2014wages are withheld. Captive peoples, especially the Uyghurs, are often conscripted onto these boats,\u201d continued the China policy expert.\n\nSmith then went on to discuss how North Korea exploits its women by forcing them to process the fish caught on Chinese fleets. The North Korean government receives significant compensation from China for these \u201cservices,\u201d which is then used to fund their military machine.\n\nDisturbingly, Smith noted, the United States government has also benefited from China\u2019s IUU fishing: \u201cHere\u2019s the kicker\u2014the United States government has been subsidizing this barbaric behavior.\n\n\u201cOur commissaries are going with the best price, and so often, the fish that lands in those commissaries is tainted with forced labor,\u201d stated the senior lawmaker.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to stop our complicity in this forced labor, and our purchase and procurement of those products made with forced labor. I, along with my colleagues on the Commission, will continue to write and ask and call that [the Trump administration] stops our complicity in this, and I do hope that this legislation passes,\u201d concluded Smith.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-johnson-introduce-bill-protect-american-ai-chips-strengthening-export", "Kean, Johnson Introduce Bill to Protect American AI Chips, Strengthening Export Control Enforcement", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 3, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, Representatives Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ) and Julie Johnson (D-TX) announced the introduction of theStop Stealing Our Chips Act, bipartisan legislation designed to prevent the smuggling of American-made artificial intelligence (AI) chips and other sensitive technologies into China. The bill would establish a whistleblower incentive program at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), thereby strengthening U.S. export control enforcement and encouraging reporting of export control violations.\n\nThe legislation is cosponsored by Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on China, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI), and Representative Josh Harder (D-CA).\n\nCongressman Kean said, \u201cChina and other foreign adversaries are actively working to circumvent U.S. export control laws and illegally obtain advanced American chips and other sensitive technologies. I introduced the Stop Stealing Our Chips Act to help authorities identify and mitigate those threats. By offering robust protections and meaningful financial incentives for whistleblowers with credible information, we can strengthen enforcement, prevent violations before they occur, and protect our national security.\u201d\n\nCongresswoman Johnson said, \u201cAmerica\u2019s technological leadership is one of our greatest strategic advantages \u2014 and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to steal it, risking our national security. This is especially important in my district, home to Texas Instruments headquarters \u2014 one of the top semiconductor companies in the world \u2014 as well as Qorvo, which produces critical components for F-35s and other key defense technologies, and many more. The Stop Stealing Our Chips Act is a commonsense, bipartisan step to protect our most sensitive supply chains and ensure that the innovations powering our economy and safety stay in American hands.\u201d\n\nChairman Moolenaar said, \u201cArtificial intelligence is the defining technology of the new Cold War. Whether the U.S. or China wins this race will be determined in large part by who has more and better chips. The Stop Stealing Our Chips Act will encourage those who witness chip smuggling to speak out while shielding them from retaliation. Whistleblowers who protect our national security deserve to be protected by our laws.\u201d\n\nRanking Member Krishnamoorthi said, \u201cI\u2019m proud to join this bipartisan effort to crack down on the smuggling of advanced U.S. chips to the Chinese Communist Party. A strong whistleblower program at BIS will help surface the facts we too often miss and ensure our export-control laws actually carry weight. Effectively enforcing our export controls is essential to protecting our national security.\u201d\n\nChairwoman McClain said, \u201cThe Stop Stealing our Chips Act is about protecting America\u2019s technological edge and holding bad actors accountable. By cracking down on illegal exports and empowering whistleblowers, we will make sure U.S.-made AI chips strengthen our future, not our adversaries.\u201d\n\nCongressman Harder said, \u201cU.S. chip leadership is the product of decades of American innovation and central to our economic and national security. The Stop Stealing Our Chips Act is a common-sense measure to maintain this hard-won advantage and prevent China from using American technology against us.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nAs the United States forges ahead in the global AI race, it is critical that existing export control laws governing the sale and distribution of advanced semiconductor technology are rigorously enforced. However, recent reporting has revealed persistent violations involving diversion of American-made microchips into China, underscoring ongoing enforcement challenges. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the agency responsible for ensuring effective export controls and treaty compliance, often lacks timely and credible information needed to identify violations, initiate investigations, and hold violators accountable. Strengthening the mechanisms for reporting and detecting violations is essential to ensuring that competitive U.S. technologies do not end up in the hands of foreign adversaries.\n\nSpecifically, the Stop Stealing Our Chips Act would:\n\nRequire BIS to establish a secure, public portal for whistleblower submissions.\n\nCreate a whistleblower incentive program to reward individuals who submit original and credible information that leads to a formal investigation and the imposition of a fine.\n\nProvide confidentiality protections and anti-retaliation safeguards for whistleblowers who report violations of U.S. export control laws.\n\nBoth U.S. and foreign citizens who provide actionable information leading to fines against violators could receive 10-30% of any resulting penalty, with exclusions for known terrorists and federal employees acting within the scope of their duties.\n\nThe full text of the House bill is available HERE. A companion Senate bill (S.1473) was introduced in April 2025 by Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Mark Warner (D-VA).\n\nIn August 2025, Congressman Kean also co-introduced the BIS IT Modernization Act (H.R.4920), which would update BIS\u2019s outdated information technology systems at the U.S. Department of Commerce, ensuring the United States can meet the demands of modern export control enforcement.\n\nCongressman Tom Kean, Jr. serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415142", "Supreme Court hears arguments in First Choice Women\u2019s Resource Centers v. PlatkinSmith urges Supreme Court to protect pregnancy centers from 'unconscionable abuse of power' by NJ Governor and Attorney General", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in First Choice Women\u2019s Resource Centers v. Platkin, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, issued the following statement on behalf of pro-life pregnancy centers that have been unjustly targeted by the state of New Jersey:\n\nRep. Smith, Dean of New Jersey\u2019s congressional delegation, said, \u201cPregnancy care centers are an oasis of love and support for mothers and their precious children\u2014according to a recent report, in 2024 alone, 2,775 pregnancy centers nationwide provided over $452 million in medical care, support and education services, and material goods.\n\n\u201cYet, in an unconscionable abuse of power, NJ Governor Murphy and Attorney General Matt Platkin have gone to great lengths to strip women of life-affirming support, simply because pregnancy centers refrain from promoting or participating in the killing of unborn children by abortion.\n\n\u201cI urge the Supreme Court to uphold the pregnancy centers\u2019 constitutionally protected freedoms against the bullying and discrimination of the state of New Jersey.\u201d\n\nBackground: First Choice, a faith-based pregnancy center network located in New Jersey, is challenging an unwarranted subpoena issued by the New Jersey Attorney General on the grounds that the subpoena violates the organization\u2019s first amendment rights and that they have been viciously targeted because of their life-affirming mission and religious speech.\n\nSmith, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and 30 other members of the House and Senate filed an amicus brief supporting the pregnancy center. Authored by Chris Murray of the law firm First & Fourteenth, the brief argues that Congress has given First Choice the right to seek immediate redress in federal court, instead of being forced to defend its constitutional rights before a hostile state court. It says that \u201cstates may not deprive citizens of their right to freely associate and then force those citizens to try to vindicate their rights in hostile state forums before they can darken the door of a federal courthouse.\u201d\n\nSmith is the author of the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 (HR 2226), federal legislation to prohibit federal, state and local governments from discriminating against the over 2,700 pregnancy care centers across the United States. Smith\u2019s bill, which was introduced at a widely attended Capitol Hill press conference in March, will protect the centers by strengthening federal conscience laws, prohibiting states from requiring pregnancy care centers to be complicit in abortion promotion, and identifying mechanisms for relief, including compensatory damages.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415143", "Strengthening survivor-centered protectionsHouse passes the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), author of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and four additional comprehensive laws to combat human trafficking, issued the below statement following the U.S. House of Representatives\u2019 passage of the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (HR 4323):\n\n\u201cHR 4323\u2014legislation I have cosponsored\u2014provides a critical pathway for vacating or expunging certain non-violent criminal convictions for offenses that trafficking victims\u2014mostly women and children\u2014were forced to commit by their traffickers.\n\n\u201cLargely due to the criminal records tied to their exploitation, many survivors face lifelong barriers to employment, housing, education, and stability. This bill ensures that survivors can no longer be punished for crimes that were the direct result of coercion and control.\n\n\u201cSurvivors should not have to constantly relive the trauma of their trafficking experiences through the unabating reminder of an indelible criminal record\u2014all for actions they were forced to commit against their will. This legislation helps to ensure that survivors have a real chance to rebuild their lives and experience a future free of exploitation.\n\n\u201cThe passage of HR 4323 builds upon the quarter-century of anti-trafficking progress in the United States, initiated through our enactment of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations. With this new bill, we will continue to strengthen survivor-centered protections. HR 4323 is another crucial step towards procuring justice and long-overdue relief.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415145", "House Committee on Appropriations press release'Appropriators, Lawmakers Investigate Religious Persecution of Nigerians with Joint Briefing'", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Press Release by the House Committee on Appropriations\n\nPublished Tuesday, December 2, 2025\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 House Appropriations Vice Chair and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Mario D\u00edaz-Balart (R-FL)\u2014alongside Appropriators Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV)\u2014led a joint briefing with the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss the escalating violence and targeted persecution of Christians in Nigeria with religious freedom and foreign relations experts.\n\nThis roundtable follows President Donald J. Trump\u2019s October 31st directive to the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria and report back with their findings.\n\nParticipants included:\n\nRep. Mario D\u00edaz-Balart (R-FL), House Appropriations Committee Vice Chair and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee Chairman\n\nRep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman and Values Action Team (VAT) Chair\n\nRep. Riley Moore (R-WV), House Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee Vice Chair and leading religious liberty advocate\n\nRep. Brian Mast (R-FL), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee Chairman\n\nHonorable Vicky Hartzler, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair\n\nSean Nelson, Alliance Defending Freedom International\n\nDr. Ebenezer Obadare, Council on Foreign Relations\n\nRep. Mario D\u00edaz-Balart (R-FL)\n\nSubcommittee Chairman D\u00edaz-Balart said, \"No one should live in fear because of how they worship. Defending religious liberty worldwide is both a moral duty and a vital American interest. As Chairman of the subcommittee that funds U.S. national security interests and foreign policy priorities, I remain committed to advancing policies that protect the freedom to live according to one\u2019s faith without fear of violence and retribution. I address this issue in my FY26 funding bill, and I intend to strengthen these efforts by passing a full-year funding measure, which is essential to advancing an America First agenda.\"\n\nRep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)\n\nCongressman Aderholt said, \u201cThe rising violence and targeted persecution of Christians in Nigeria is a crisis that can\u2019t be ignored. Throughout my time in Congress, I have worked to protect the most vulnerable, including those whose lives and liberties are threatened simply because of their faith. We must stand firmly with Nigeria\u2019s Christian communities and all persecuted believers worldwide, and I commend our collaborative efforts to provide the President with the information needed to confront this growing tragedy.\u201d\n\nRep. Riley Moore (R-WV)\n\nCongressman Moore said, \"Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted and slaughtered in Nigeria simply for professing their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That\u2019s why President Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, and why he asked me, along with the House Committee on Appropriations, to look into the horrific persecution of Christians in Nigeria. I\u2019m grateful to Chairman D\u00edaz-Balart for convening this critical discussion to receive expert testimony and engage in an important dialogue to ensure we have a full picture of the ongoing crisis Nigerian Christians face every day. The world will no longer turn a blind eye to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\"\n\nRep. Brian Mast (R-FL)\n\nChairman Mast said, \u201cThis is not merely 'inter-communal violence' or a 'resource conflict,' as many claim. This is a targeted campaign of religious cleansing. Whether it is Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, or radicalized nomadic Fulani militants, the objective is to drive Christians out of their ancestral lands in the Middle Belt and impose a radical Islamist ideology, as has already happened across the northern states, where blasphemy laws are used to oppress. As Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I firmly stand with President Trump in his decision to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. We must demand that the Nigerian government disarm these militias, return displaced families to their homes, and bring the perpetrators to justice.\u201d\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)\n\nCongressman Smith said, \"To be a Christian\u2014or moderate Muslim\u2014living in Nigeria means to be living under the constant threat of murder, rape, and torture by radical Islamist groups, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists. The most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world\u2014as well as the systemic targeting and killing of moderate Muslims who speak out against radical Islamists or refuse to conform with their extreme ideals\u2014occurs in Nigeria, the ground zero of religious violence. The Nigerian government has a fundamental, constitutional obligation to protect its citizens; however, the perpetrators of this persecution operate with complete impunity. The United States is committed to standing firmly with the persecuted, no matter where in the world. Under the strong leadership of President Trump, I am confident that the United States will hold the Nigerian government accountable for its complicity in the rampant religious persecution occurring within its borders. The Nigerian government is trying to run out the clock; we cannot allow this to happen. We must act quickly and decisively to save more lives.\"\n\nExpert witnesses provided key insight into the ongoing conflict in Nigeria and discussed ways Congress can support the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts to help vulnerable religious groups in Nigeria and around the world.\n\nHonorable Vicky Hartzler, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair, illustrated the real and viable threat to religious freedom and the very lives of innocent people in Nigeria that is happening right now.\n\nHonorable Vicky Hartzler\n\nHon. Hartzler said, \"Religious freedom in Nigeria has been under siege in 2025 and, unfortunately, it seems to be getting worse. Just a few days ago, on November 22\u207f\u1d48, 303 children and 12 teachers were abducted in an attack on St. Mary's School, a Catholic institution in Niger State. A few days earlier in Kwara State, gunmen besieged a church and kidnapped several innocent people, including a pastor, and killed two others. Muslims, too, fall victim to such violence: in August, bandits abducted over 100 individuals, mostly women and children, from a mosque in Zamfara State and killed 27 worshipers in a mosque in Katsina State... No matter the group perpetrating the violence, we must be clear: religious freedom violations are rampant. They are horrible, egregious, violent, and Christians are the predominant victims. But no matter the religion of the victim, all killings must be stopped, and the government must take decisive action now to prevent any further killings.\"\n\nHartzler detailed the importance of President Trump's action designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a distinction reiterated in our Fiscal Year 2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations bill, and conveyed further steps the U.S. can take to encourage solutions in the region.\n\nHon. Hartzler continued, \"The U.S. government should also work directly with the government of Nigeria to vastly improve its accountability and transparency, while better leveraging relevant U.S. security assistance such as police training and reform, and conflict mediation. Resources could also be invested in using early warning systems to reduce community violence, and the U.S. government should insist Nigerian government officials respond when there is an early warning. Too many times, local villagers learn of an impending attack and reach out for protection, only to have their cries for help ignored to their ultimate demise. Worse yet, there are stories of law enforcement being called during an attack, and yet no help is sent. This is unacceptable!... Washington has always seen Nigeria as the linchpin to West African economic prosperity, and the U.S. government should continue to work with the Nigerian government to provide technical expertise and other forms of assistance to train, support, and counter violent insurgent groups so the entire region can prosper. After all, peace not only promotes religious freedom but secures trade and markets so Nigeria can be more self-sufficient and achieve the great potential it has long sought.\"\n\nSean Nelson, Senior Counsel, Global Religious Freedom for the Alliance Defending Freedom International, spoke to firsthand accounts from Christians in Nigeria he\u2019s worked with of the violence and terror the Christian communities face, with no help from the government.\n\nSean Nelson\n\nNelson said, \u201cOur cases have involved Christians unjustly imprisoned by Sharia courts, false allegations of crimes merely for evangelism or protecting Christian converts or operating charities, Christians kidnapped and tortured, girls taken from their parents and forced into marriages and forcefully converted to Islam, and both Christians and minority Muslims charged with blasphemy accusations. I have met with clients who have shared their heartbreaking testimony directly with me, many of whom barely escaped being murdered by extremists or even people that they knew within their communities. I have visited with villages directly attacked by Fulani militants and witnessed the aftermath of pastors beheaded, mass graves, widows and orphans, churches and homes torched, destroyed farmlands, and the pains of mass displacement and the constant sense that Christians are defenseless against these religiously-motivated attacks, and that the government has regularly failed to protect them.\u201d\n\nNelson explained the Nigerian government\u2019s failure to protect Christian communities, often leaving them to fend for themselves against heavily armed militant bands of terrorists.\n\nNelson continued, \u201cOfficials in Nigeria dismiss any consideration that religion plays a role in these attacks, and have put very few resources into the areas where Christians have been hit hardest, in the Middle Belt. When Christians report imminent attacks, their pleas are often ignored by law enforcement and officials, leading to tragic results. Nigeria also maintains and enforces one of the most draconian blasphemy laws in the world. In the 12 northern Sharia states, a person can be sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy, one of only seven places in the world with such a law. These laws inspire terrible mob violence, including against Christians like Deborah Yakubu and Rhoda Jatau.\u201d\n\nEbenezer Obadare, the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke to the root cause of the violence: unchecked jihadist terror groups, chief among them Boko Haram.\n\nDr. Ebenezer Obadare\n\nObadare said, \u201cThe deadliest and most serious threat confronting the Nigerian state today is jihadist terror, perpetrated by the Islamist group Boko Haram. Boko Haram translates to \u2018Western education is forbidden.\u2019 Boko Haram\u2019s barbarous and implacable campaign to overthrow the Nigerian state and establish an Islamic caliphate in its stead is the source of Nigeria\u2019s present discontents. Every proposal to solve the Nigerian crisis that does not take seriously the need to radically degrade and ultimately eliminate Boko Haram as a fighting force is a non-starter.\u201d\n\nObadare also laid out an effective strategy to combat the terror groups, including pressuring the Nigerian government with incentives.\n\nObadare continued, \u201cAs recent events have shown, the Nigerian authorities are not impervious to incentives. Since the country\u2019s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation and President Trump\u2019s threat of unilateral military action against Boko Haram, President Tinubu has made several moves, including ordering air strikes against Boko Haram targets, the recruitment of an additional 30,000 policemen, and, most recently, declaring a national security emergency in the country. Washington must keep up the pressure. The policy goal should be two-fold: first, work with the Nigerian military to neutralize Boko Haram. Second, the United States should put pressure on President Tinubu to (1) make Sharia law unconstitutional in the twelve northern states where they have been adopted since 2000 and (2) disband the various Hisbah groups across northern states seeking to enforce and impose Islamic law on all citizens regardless of their religious identity.\u201d\n\nThe House Appropriations Committee continues to work closely with the Trump Administration to combat religious persecution around the world. Appropriators have been investigating the massacre of Christians in Nigeria, per the President\u2019s directive, and are preparing a comprehensive report to present to President Trump on ways Congress can support the White House\u2019s efforts.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415147", "Channels Television article on House Appropriations-Foreign Affairs joint briefing re: Nigeria'Insecurity: US Lawmakers Accuse Nigerian Govt Of Failing To Stop Killings'", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Emmanuel Egobiambu\n\nPublished December 2, 2025\n\nUS lawmakers have accused the Nigerian government of not doing enough to address the rising insecurity and killings in the country.\n\nThe lawmakers spoke on Tuesday during the United States House Appropriations Committee joint congressional briefing on the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\n\nAt the event, the lawmakers took turns to address the situation in the wake of President Donald Trump\u2019s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern and his threat of military action.\n\n\u201cThe Nigerian government has a fundamental, constitutional obligation to protect its citizens; however, the perpetrators of this persecution operate with complete impunity,\u201d Congressman Chris Smith told the gathering.\n\nAccording to the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, the US will hold the Nigerian government to account over the killings.\n\n\u201cThe Nigerian government is trying to run out the clock; we cannot allow this to happen. We must act quickly and decisively to save more lives,\u201d he said.\n\nThe lawmakers took turns to address the situation in the wake of President Donald Trump\u2019s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern and his threat of military action.\n\nRep. Brian Mast echoed a similar sentiment, backing President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern.\n\nHe said the US \u201cmust demand that the Nigerian government disarm these militias, return displaced families to their homes, and bring the perpetrators to justice.\u201d\n\nAt the event, Riley Moore, the House Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee Vice Chair and leading religious liberty advocate, doubled down on his allegation of persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\n\nThe Congressman alleged: \u201cThe world will no longer turn a blind eye to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\u201d\n\nLawmakers were not the only ones at the briefing. The Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Vicky Hartzler, said that despite early warnings, Nigerian authorities do little to forestall attacks.\n\nWhile calling for more support for Nigeria in the fight against insecurity, Hartzler said: \u201cResources could also be invested in using early warning systems to reduce community violence, and the U.S. government should insist that Nigerian government officials respond when there is an early warning.\n\n\u201cToo many times, local villagers learn of an impending attack and reach out for protection, only to have their cries for help ignored to their ultimate demise. Worse yet, there are stories of law enforcement being called during an attack, and yet no help is sent. This is unacceptable!\u201d\n\nA Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ebenezer Obadare, said Nigeria\u2019s insecurity can be traced to jihadist terror gangs, especially Boko Haram.\n\nHe said Trump\u2019s move has piled pressure on the Nigerian government, citing calls for the recruitment of more security operatives and the declaration of a national security emergency, among other measures, as dividends.\n\n\u201cWashington must keep up the pressure. The policy goal should be two-fold: first, work with the Nigerian military to neutralize Boko Haram,\u201d Obadare said.\n\n\u201cSecond, the United States should put pressure on President Tinubu to (1) make Sharia law unconstitutional in the twelve northern states where they has been adopted since 2000 and (2) disband the various Hisbah groups across northern states seeking to enforce and impose Islamic law on all citizens regardless of their religious identity.\u201d\n\nOn November 20, there was also a US Congressional hearing to examine the escalating violence in Nigeria and Trump\u2019s declaration of Nigeria as a CPC.\n\nTrump first designated Nigeria as a CPC in 2020, but it was removed from the list by his successor, President Joe Biden.\n\nHowever, the US president, on October 31, redesignated Nigeria as a CPC over religious freedom violations.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kean-joins-secretary-driscoll-latest-picatinny-arsenal-visit", "Congressman Kean Joins Secretary Driscoll at Latest Picatinny Arsenal Visit", "2025-12-01", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(December 1, 2025) PICATINNY ARSENAL, NJ \u2013 Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) accompanied U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll during his most recent visit to Picatinny Arsenal. While in Morris County, the two leaders received detailed briefings on the installation\u2019s contributions to Army modernization and discussed its growing role in strengthening America\u2019s warfighting capabilities.\n\nThroughout the visit, Secretary Driscoll and Congressman Kean observed Picatinny's latest advancements in counter-UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) technology and next-generation munitions. Members of the base demonstrated a range of emerging capabilities, including net-based drone capture, enhanced explosives, and electromagnetic tools synced to defense systems. Secretary Driscoll and Picatinny\u2019s top commander, Major General John Reim, also had a productive discussion on the Army\u2019s efforts to accelerate drone acquisition and production.\n\nSecretary Driscoll personally recognized the Arsenal's military and civilian workforce during the visit. Taking the time to praise their exemplary work, the Secretary presented challenge coins to numerous members at the Arsenal. He also discussed opportunities for continued Army investment at the installation.\n\n\u201cI want to thank Secretary Driscoll for his leadership and commitment to strengthening America\u2019s security,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cDuring our visit to Picatinny Arsenal, we met with the installation\u2019s exceptional workforce whose innovation ensures our military remains the envy of the world. Picatinny continues to step up, delivering groundbreaking technology that directly supports our servicemembers on the battlefield. The talent and expertise here cannot be overstated, and I will always support Picatinny, its workforce, and its mission.\"\n\nOn October 31, 2025, Congressman Kean and Representative Elise Stefanik (NY-21) sent a joint letter to Secretary Driscoll expressing their strong support of the U.S. Army\u2019s proposal to establish a Close Combat Innovation Cell (CCIC) in partnership with Picatinny Arsenal, NJ and the 10th Mountain Infantry Division out of Fort Drum, NY. The CCIC plans to develop new systems that \u201censure the technologies it develops are useful to the warfighter in complex battlefield environments.\u201d\n\nAs detailed in the letter, one of CCIC\u2019s first innovation projects, Project STARLING, seeks to produce up to 100 3D-printed small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for use within a light infantry brigade combat team. The initiative would empower Picatinny and Fort Drum to fabricate sUAS systems and develop both offensive and defensive swarm capabilities with integrated lethality.\n\nCongressman Kean and Congresswoman Stefanik also advocated for allocating $20 million of Congress\u2019s recent reconciliation package to support counter-UAS development. Counter-UAS remains one of Picatinny\u2019s core capabilities and is a central focus of its research & development mission.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415134", "LifeSiteNews article on Smith-Harshbarger letter to Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary'170+ Republican members of Congress urge Trump admin to immediately ban mailing abortion pills'", "2025-11-26", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Calvin Freiburger\n\nPublished Wednesday, November 26, 2025 at 3:25 PM EST\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) \u2014 More than 170 congressional Republicans have signed a new letter calling on the Trump administration to immediately restore the requirement that abortion pills be dispensed in-person and pick up the pace of its promised review of the data on the drugs\u2019 dangers.\n\nUnder the Biden administration, health officials eliminated the requirement that abortion pills be dispensed in person, and the Biden Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel declared that a provision of the 1873 Comstock Act making it illegal for the United States Postal Service to deliver any \u201carticle, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion,\u201d did not mean what it said, and abortion pills could be freely mailed, delivered, and received \u201cwhere the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully,\u201d with unlawful intent essentially declared unknowable.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to that decision on standing grounds, and the Trump campaign declared that President Donald Trump would not restore Comstock if elected. After returning to office, Trump took a number of pro-life actions that caused pro-lifers to relax, primarily in the area of taxpayer funding. Pro-lifers hoped that a strengthening of his abortion pill position would eventually follow, bolstered by promises from U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (another formerly pro-abortion figure who \u201cmoderated\u201d during his own presidential bid) promised in May a \u201ccomplete review\u201d of the medical risks of abortion pills, though no conclusions or timetable have yet been announced.\n\nThe November 20 letter, led by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Diana Harshbarger, (R-TN) and addressed to Kennedy and U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary, asks that the \u201cdeleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug mifepristone be aggressively investigated and decisive action taken to protect women from harm\u201d and urges \u201cimmediate action be taken to, at a minimum, reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.\u201d\n\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders have added their names to the letter.\n\nIt highlights an April analysis by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), which concluded that almost 11 percent of women suffer sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other major conditions after taking mifepristone, according to insurance data, plus similar findings by the Restoration of America Foundation, as part of a \u201cgrowing body of evidence indicating that the health risks associated with mifepristone abortions are severe, widespread, and significantly underreported.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe dangerous Biden mail-order scheme was designed to give abortion activists license to mail drugs everywhere, even into states like [abortion coercion victim Rosalie] Markezich\u2019s home state of Louisiana that have pro-life protections for pregnant mothers and their unborn babies,\u201d the letter says. \u201cThese drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will\u2014a clear indication that radical pro-abortion activists care more about protecting abortion access than about upholding women\u2019s health and safety.\u201d\n\nUltimately, it notes, almost two-thirds of all U.S. abortions are now done via drugs.\n\n\u201cUnder your leadership, HHS and FDA can reverse this wrong,\u201d the letter concludes. \u201cWe urge you to immediately reinstate the REMS requiring in-person dispensing of mifepristone and to expedite the promised review by the FDA into the dangers of abortion drugs.\u201d\n\nAbortion pills have become arguably the most important part of the abortion lobby\u2019s business, and the ability to mail them across state lines to be taken in complete privacy is nearly impossible for pro-life states to prevent, effectively undermining Trump\u2019s own stated desire for every state to decide abortion policy for itself.\n\nIn November 2022, Operation Rescue reported that a net decrease of 36 abortion facilities in 2022 led to the lowest number in almost 50 years, yet the chemical abortion business \u201csurged\u201d with 64 percent of new facilities built specializing in dispensing mifepristone and misoprostol. Citing data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, STAT says mifepristone \u201caccounts for roughly half of all abortions in the U.S.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415135", "Catholic Standard article on Smith-Harshbarger letter to Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary'175 lawmakers demand \"robust\" investigation on risks of abortion pill'", "2025-11-26", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Our Sunday Visitor\n\nPublished November 26, 2025\n\nCongressional Republicans are demanding a \u201crobust\u201d investigation of federal safety standards and health risks connected to mifepristone, a pill commonly, but not exclusively, used for early abortion.\n\nThe letter, dated Nov. 20 and co-signed by 175 Republican lawmakers, asks Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary to investigate the \u201cdeleterious and grossly underreported effects\u201d of mifepristone on women, prohibit mail shipment of the drug, and immediately \u201creinstate the in-person dispensing requirement.\u201d\n\nReleased Nov. 24, the letter also condemned the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cegregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs.\u201d In addition to urging an end to the mailing of the drugs, the letter objected to \u201cthe FDA\u2019s approval\u201d in September of a new generic form of mifepristone and urged the Trump administration to provide more information about that approval.\n\nA box containing a mifepristone tablet is pictured Feb. 28, 2023. In November 2025, more than 170 Republican lawmakers, including the entire House GOP leadership, released a new letter to the HHS secretary and FDA commissioner urging \u201crobust FDA investigation and review\u201d of the safety standards and health risks associated with mifepristone as used in chemical abortions. (OSV News photo/Callaghan O\u2019Hare, via Reuters)\n\nSigners of the letter include House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana; Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota; and Rep. Lisa C. McClain, R-Mich, Republican Conference chairwoman.\n\n\u201cThe Biden-Harris administration\u2019s blatant disregard for the innumerable health risks and complications caused by mifepristone \u2013 the baby poison pill \u2013 has been the status quo for far too long,\u201d Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said in a statement accompanying release of the letter. \u201cThe carelessness of Biden\u2019s FDA has taken and harmed thousands of lives, the unborn and their mothers alike.\u201d\n\n\u201cRecent findings raise real questions about the safety of chemical abortion pills like mifepristone, and Americans deserve straight answers about the risks involved,\u201d Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., said in a statement. A licensed pharmacist, she is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.\n\n\u201cNo medication with known complications should be handed out without proper medical oversight and follow-up care,\u201d she added.\n\nFirst approved by the FDA for early abortion in 2000, mifepristone \u2013 the first of two drugs used in a medication-based abortion \u2013 gained the moniker \u201cthe abortion pill.\u201d However, the same drug combination has become used sometimes in recent years for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has already died, a situation that Catholic teaching would hold as morally licit use.\n\nThe Catholic Church opposes direct abortion. It teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.\n\nThe lawmakers\u2019 Nov. 20 letter follows an Oct. 29 pledge by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America national to push the Trump administration for more information regarding the FDA approval of the new generic form of mifepristone.\n\nIn a related development regarding mifepristone, Students for Life Action hailed the introduction Nov. 24 of the Clean Water for All Life Act in the Wisconsin Legislature. Other states considering the same legislation include Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia and Wyoming.\n\nThe measure is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Lindee Brill and Nate Gustafson and Republican Sen. Andre Jacque.\n\nThe bill would require doctors who prescribe abortion pills to make patients collect and return their expelled fetus in medical waste bags for disposal. It\u2019s intended to keep abortion pill chemicals from entering public water supplies.\n\nPreviously, the FDA has rejected the idea, issuing a response to a Students for Life petition that the agency require prescribers to include a \u201cmedical waste bag and catch-kit\u201d with all mifepristone prescriptions.\n\nThe petition, the agency said, \u201coffers only conjecture that remnants of mifepristone in the nation\u2019s water system are \u2018causing unknown harm to citizens and animals alike,\u2019\u201d and that Students for Life \u201cprovides no evidence showing that bodily fluid from patients who have used mifepristone (a one-time, single-dose product) is causing harm to the nation\u2019s aquatic environment.\u201d\n\nWater treatment processes handle many forms of medications, including birth control pills, in trace amounts.\n\nIn a Nov. 21 statement, Student for Life president Kristan Hawkins called mifepristone \u201cthe abortion industry\u2019s dirty little secret. Hospitals and medical clinics can\u2019t legally flush chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains, but the Biden administration gave a de facto permit to pollute in allowing chemical abortion pill pushers to supersize their markets with \u2026 online sales and delivery by mail. It\u2019s up to the Trump administration to finally do the environmental testing that\u2019s been ignored and to go back to the drawing board on chemical abortion pills.\u201d\n\nThe Students for Life effort began in 2024, when, as part of a coalition of pro-life groups, it demanded that the EPA track the \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in mifepristone.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-introduces-bill-protect-children-online-adding-new-parental-controls", "Kean Introduces Bill to Protect Children Online, Adding New Parental Controls to Video Games", "2025-11-26", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 26, 2025) WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) announced the introduction of the Safer GAMING Act, legislation that would require online video game providers to embed safeguards that help parents better protect minors from harmful interactions on gaming platforms.\n\nThe Safer GAMING Act sets new requirements for interactive online video games, which are defined as games that connect to the internet and allow users to communicate with others across the platform. It requires video game creators to offer parents tools to disable communication between a minor and other users of the game. The bill applies to video games accessible through websites, mobile applications, or other online means, and tasks the Federal Trade Commission with carrying out enforcement.\n\n\u201cMany parents are highly cognizant of the fact that online video games can open the door to inappropriate content and malicious actors targeting children,\u201d said Congressman Kean. \"Without video game creators embedding protective tools, it can be challenging for families to manage these risks and safeguard their children. My new bill would add critical parental controls, giving parents the option to turn off chat functions and prevent unsafe interactions with adults and strangers.\u201d\n\nCongressman Tom Kean, Jr. serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.\n\nThe House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a hearing entitled \u201cLegislative Solutions to Protect Children and Teens Online\u201d on December 2, 2025. The hearing will examine several proposed measures, including the Safer GAMING Act, focused on improving online safety and reducing risk for adolescents interacting with social media, video games, chatbots, and more.\n\nA copy of the bill text is available HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415127", "CBN article on the religious persecution of Christians in Nigeria'\"They're Killing the Christians\": Trump Demands Nigeria End Atrocities, Hundreds of Kids Hostage'", "2025-11-25", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By George Thomas\n\nPublished November 25, 2025\n\nThe Trump Administration is promoting efforts to work with Nigeria's government to stop violence against Christians after the President had threatened to send in the U.S. military against Islamic militants.\n\nRight now, 253 children and 12 teachers are still being held after they were taken last week from a Catholic school in eastern Nigeria. A total of 303 students were initially abducted, but 50 managed to escape.\n\nEarlier in the week, another 25 children, most of them Muslim, were kidnapped in a separate attack in eastern Nigeria.\n\nNigeria remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians. Open Doors reports 69 percent of all Christians killed for their faith around the world last year were murdered in that country.\n\nThe dormitories where gunmen kidnapped schoolgirls is seen in Kebbi, Nigeria, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Deeni Jibo)\n\n\"Today we speak of blood,\" warned Mike Waltz, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. \"We speak of the blood that still cries from Nigerian soil.\"\n\nJust last week, Waltz joined recording artist Nicki Minaj and faith leaders to spotlight the escalating violence.\n\n\"In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes, and killed,\" said Minaj. \"Churches have been burned. Families have been torn apart. And entire communities live in fear constantly, simply because of how they pray.\"\n\nThe U.S. gives Nigeria about one billion dollars in aid each year. President Trump has threatened to cut that aid and impose sanctions, accusing the government of failing to stop \"horrible atrocities.\"\n\n\"They're killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We're not going to allow that to happen,\" Trump said during an interview on Air Force One earlier this month.\n\n\"The conditionality will say, 'You really make serious effort to mitigate and end this horrific slaughter, or you lose that aid,'\" said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415126", "Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) report found serious adverse events from mifepristone\u2014the abortion pill\u2014are approximately 22 times more frequent than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently recognizes175 members of Congress urge Trump administration to investigate underreported serious harm to women from abortion pill", "2025-11-24", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Diana Harshbarger, Pharm.D. (R-TN), and more than 170 Republican lawmakers, including the entirety of House GOP leadership, released a new letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, urging a robust FDA investigation and review of the safety standards and health risks associated with the popular chemical abortion pill, mifepristone.\n\nThe November 20th letter, co-signed by 175 Republican lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa C. McClain, requests that Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary aggressively investigate the \u201cdeleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug,\u201d as well as immediately \u201creinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.\u201d\n\nThe letter notes that President Trump \u201chas done more to advance a culture of life and the protection of women and children from the violence of abortion than any president before him\u201d and condemns the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s \u201cegregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs,\u201d including ending the in-person dispensing rule for mifepristone and implementing a no-contact, mail-in abortion process, as well as \u201cthe FDA\u2019s approval of a new abortion drug generic in September 2025.\u201d\n\nRep. Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said: \u201cThe Biden-Harris administration\u2019s blatant disregard for the innumerable health risks and complications caused by mifepristone\u2014the baby poison pill\u2014has been the status quo for far too long. The carelessness of Biden\u2019s FDA has taken and harmed thousands of lives, the unborn and their mothers alike. Now that President Trump\u2014the most pro-life president in U.S. history\u2014has taken the executive helm, we are confident that his effective and life-affirming administration will work to undo the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s dangerous and ill-conceived policies with reference to the increased accessibility and reduced medical oversight of chemical abortion drugs. I look forward to working with Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary to protect women and children from the violence of abortion by strengthening the safety standards of mifepristone and other chemical abortion pills.\u201d\n\nRep. Diana Harshbarger, Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, said: \u201cAs a pharmacist, I\u2019ve always believed women deserve the full truth when it comes to their health. Recent findings raise real questions about the safety of chemical abortion pills like mifepristone, and Americans deserve straight answers about the risks involved. No medication with known complications should be handed out without proper medical oversight and follow-up care. It\u2019s time for Congress and federal regulators to take a hard look at the latest evidence and update our laws and regulations to reflect what we now know.\u201d\n\nCiting shocking statistics from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), the authors of the letter report that \u201cserious adverse events from mifepristone are approximately 22 times more frequent than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently recognizes,\u201d and that approximately \u201c10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event\u201d following a mifepristone abortion.\n\nGiven the alarming volume of adverse reactions to the popular abortion drug, the Republican lawmakers argue that in addition to conducting a thorough investigation and extensive safety review into mifepristone and its concerning complications, the HHS and FDA must reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for the drug and end the option to request and receive abortion medications through the mail.\n\n\u201cThese [abortion] drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will\u2014a clear indication that radical pro-abortion activists care more about protecting abortion access than about upholding women\u2019s health and safety,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.\n\n\u201cToday, abortion drugs account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States; there are over six hundred thousand abortions committed using these drugs each year. The Biden FDA\u2019s reckless, no-contact, mail-order abortion scheme is to blame. Abortion providers are reaping increased profits, while women and their unborn children suffer irreparable harm.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415122", "Washington Examiner article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Portion of Catholic students kidnapped in Nigeria escape as country grapples with anti-Christian violence'", "2025-11-23", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Emily Hallas\n\nPublished November 23, 2025 at 5:41 PM\n\nA fraction of over 300 students who were recently abducted from a Catholic school by Nigerian militants have escaped to freedom, the Catholic Church and Christian Association of Nigeria announced on Sunday.\n\nGunmen kidnapped students and teachers from St. Mary\u2019s School in Papiri, Niger state, on Friday, marking the latest episode in a spate of attacks against Christians from radicalized Islamist terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen. The Trump administration has voiced increasing concern that the violence, which has been ongoing for years, amounts to a \u201cgenocide\u201d against Christians.\n\nThe latest mass kidnapping prompted the Nigerian government to close all schools in Niger state, and triggered pleas from Pope Leo for the \u201cimmediate release\u201d of those who had been taken hostage.\n\nAround 50 of those kidnapped have escaped thus far. But around 253 of the kidnapped children, along with 12 staff members and teachers, are still being held hostage, said CAN Chairman Bulus Yohanna, a Catholic Bishop who is also the proprietor of the school.\n\nThis photo released by the Christian Association of Nigeria shows the dormitories of St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Primary and Secondary School after gunmen abducted children and staff in Papiri community in Nigeria, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Christian Association of Nigeria via AP)\n\nDuring a congressional hearing on Nigeria last week, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) warned that \u201cshockingly brutal\u201d attacks against Christians are spreading from Muslim majority areas to locations where they had previously enjoyed a higher degree of safety.\n\n\u201cMore believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world \u2026 particularly men, while women are often kidnapped and targeted for what sexual violence, rape, and other abuse,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThese militants also destroy homes, churches, and livelihoods.\u201d\n\nAround 5 million Christians have been displaced and \u201cforced into internally displaced persons camps within Nigeria and refugee camps at regional and subregional borders\u201d in the country, Smith said, citing a European Union report. He added that around 19,000 churches have been attacked and an estimated 10,000 schools across the country have been closed due to the violence at the time of the hearing, which was held by the House Foreign Affairs Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Africa. Other lawmakers cited estimates stating nearly 17,000 Christians have been killed since 2019.\n\nSmith heads the committee, which held the hearing in the wake of the Trump administration\u2019s move to designate Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d under the International Religious Freedom Act \u2014 a status used to highlight \u201cparticularly severe\u201d religious freedom violations.\n\nThe New Jersey lawmaker said violence isn\u2019t limited to Christians. Many moderate Muslims are being targeted as well by extremist Islamists, he said.\n\n\u201cApproximately 34,000 moderate Muslims have been murdered as well since 2009. And you know that is less focused upon\u2014I raise it every time, and I hope we all will. They\u2019re killing those who don\u2019t conform to the radical Islamist view, and so they get killed too. I met with many Imams on trips to Nigeria as well as here, and they say, \u2018if we speak out, we\u2019ll be firebombed too,'\u201d Smith said.\n\nState Department official Jonathan Pratt voiced concern during his testimony in the House hearing that the Nigerian government has failed to meaningfully intervene in violence against residents. He highlighted militant attacks on Christian farming communities in Benue State in June that killed \u201cover 200,\u201d that \u201cset homes and food stores ablaze and locked families inside burning buildings.\u201d Another attack on Christians in the Plateau State in December 2023, \u201cresulted in hundreds of victims\u201d and destroyed \u201cat least eight churches,\u201d Pratt said.\n\nThe government\u2019s lack of action \u201cis tragic and unacceptable. It represents a serious failing on the part of the authorities,\u201d said Pratt, who leads the State Department\u2019s Bureau of African Affairs. \u201cCommunities are still reeling today from the overt religious-based violence of those attacks and their unanswered calls for help.\u201d\n\nA Nigerian Bishop with the Diocese of Benue delivered additional testimony, urging the U.S. to offer Christians in his country additional support, or else risk Christianity\u2019s \u201celimination\u201d in parts of Nigeria.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415128", "WATCH: 'CPC Tag On Nigeria Done In Good Faith, Tinubu Must Address Insecurity \u2014 US Congressman Chris Smith' - Channels Television", "2025-11-23", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, sat down with host Laolu Akande on Channels Television\u2019s \u201cInside Sources with Laolu Akande\u201d to discuss the U.S. foreign policy implications of President Trump\u2019s \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d redesignation of Nigeria.\n\nSmith also described the outcome of his meeting with a delegation of high-ranking Nigerian government officials, as well as the current state of religious persecution against Christians and moderate Muslims in Nigeria.\n\nRep. Smith\u2019s full interview with Laolu Akande can be viewed by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415116", "WATCH: Smith joins FOX's \"The Big Weekend Show\" to discuss religious persecution and violence in Nigeria, the Russia-Ukraine war, and more", "2025-11-22", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, joined Fox News Channel\u2019s \u201cThe Big Weekend Show\u201d on Saturday, November 22 to discuss the worsening religious persecution and violence against Christians and moderate Muslims in Nigeria.\n\nAlongside hosts David Webb, Tomi Lahren, Jason Chaffetz, and Taylor Riggs, Rep. Smith also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and prospects for peace, as well as congressional news of the day.\n\nCongressman Smith\u2019s full interview can be viewed by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415111", "The Southern Examiner article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Lawmakers sound alarm on \"deadliest place on earth to be a Christian\" as Nigeria violence escalates'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Godswill Udoh\n\nPublished Friday, November 21, 2025\n\nThe chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Representative Chris Smith, opened a hearing on Thursday with a stark warning about what he described as rapidly escalating, religion-driven violence in Nigeria, calling President Donald J. Trump\u2019s recent redesignation of the country as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d a necessary and overdue alarm bell.\n\nMr. Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has spent decades spotlighting abuses in Africa, framed the session as part of a long-running effort in Congress to draw attention to what he called the \u201cmost brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today.\u201d It was his 12th hearing focused exclusively on Nigeria.\n\n\u201cNigeria is ground zero,\u201d Mr. Smith said, arguing that extremist groups\u2014including Boko Haram, ISIS-West Africa and radicalized Fulani militants\u2014have waged a sustained campaign of killing, abduction and village destruction, often with religious motives. He added that moderate Muslims who refuse to align with extremist factions have also been targeted.\n\nRep. Smith", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415113", "Rep. Smith on the horrific attack and abduction of students and staff at St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Schools in Nigeria", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, issued the following statement in response to the gruesome attack on St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Niger state, Nigeria, wherein gunmen assaulted and abducted staff and approximately 52 students:\n\n\u201cMy wife, Marie, and I are absolutely appalled to hear of the monstrous attack on St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Schools in Nigeria, which took place early this morning. So far, this vicious assault has resulted in the injuries and kidnappings of numerous staff members and approximately 52 students.\n\n\u201cReligiously motivated violence against predominantly Christian communities, as well as moderate Muslims, in Nigeria is real\u2014and unfortunately, only getting worse.\n\n\u201cIt would be a gross understatement and a blatant denial to refer to serious and sustained attacks against religious communities in Nigeria of this magnitude as anything but acts of religious persecution.\n\n\u201cWhile we pray for the immediate release and safe return of the abducted staff and schoolchildren, we also demand that the Nigerian government use all the tools at its disposal to thoroughly investigate this crime, swiftly identify and punish the perpetrators, and steadfastly work towards preventing these types of religiously motivated attacks from occurring in the first place.\n\n\u201cI also strongly call upon Nigerian authorities to ensure that all threats made against those who speak out about the ongoing persecution of Christians and moderate Muslims in Nigeria\u2014including the witnesses and individuals associated with yesterday\u2019s hearing\u2014are taken seriously and appropriately addressed without delay.\n\n\u201cThe protection and safety of these courageous individuals must be paramount to both U.S. and Nigerian authorities\u2014acts of violence, such as this, disincentivize Nigerians from speaking out about these atrocities and terrify them into silence.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415115", "The Daily Wire article on Smith, Harshbarger-led letter'\"Reverse This Wrong\": Republicans Push RFK To Fix Biden's Abortion Drug Mistakes'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Mary Margaret Olohan\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014Republicans are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to take \u201cimmediate action\u201d to reinstate safety requirements on abortion drugs, highlighting a growing body of evidence showing that the drugs are causing severe and underreported harm to women.\n\nIn a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire, New Jersey Rep. Christopher Smith and Tennessee Rep. Diana Harshbarger call on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to \u201cat a minimum, reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.\u201d Until 2023, the FDA required abortion drugs to be administered to women under a doctor\u2019s supervision.\n\n\u201cThe need for urgent investigation and review of this drug comes in the wake of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s egregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs, and the FDA\u2019s approval of a new abortion drug generic in September 2025,\u201d write the 175 lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN).\n\n\u201cUnder your leadership, HHS and FDA can reverse this wrong,\u201d they conclude. \u201cWe urge you to immediately reinstate the REMS requiring in-person dispensing of mifepristone and to expedite the promised review by the FDA into the dangers of abortion drugs.\u201d\n\nThe move is significant since President Joe Biden\u2019s administration green-lit the removal of safety standards on the drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing women to easily obtain the drugs at home. Pro-life advocates have long argued that women are being put in danger simply from taking the abortion drugs, but they are even more anxious about women taking the drugs on their own.\n\nNew studies are showing that complications are \u201castonishingly higher than what is reported on the drug\u2019s label,\u201d the lawmakers say: \u201cEven the current Obama FDA-approved label for mifepristone \u2014 which the data show understates the dangers to women \u2014 says that roughly 1 in 25 women who use mifepristone as directed will end up in the emergency room.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, abortion proponents and legacy media insist the drugs are safer than Tylenol. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has weighed the issue carefully, cognizant of how electorally delicate abortion is. And in early October, the FDA approved a new abortion pill, shocking the president\u2019s pro-life supporters.\n\nAt the time, Kennedy put out a statement clarifying that he understood that the Biden administration had removed mifepristone\u2019s safety standards \u201cwithout studying the safety risks.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe are filling that gap,\u201d he promised, sharing that he and Makary wrote to state attorneys general and promised to \u201creview all the evidence \u2014 including real-world outcomes \u2014 on the safety of this drug.\u201d\n\n\u201cRecent studies already point to serious risks when mifepristone is used without proper medical oversight,\u201d he said, and he clarified of the new abortion pill that that the FDA just approved: \u201c[The FDA] only approved a second generic mifepristone tablet because federal law requires approval when an application proves the generic is identical to the brand-name drug.\u201d\n\nIn their appeal, the Republican lawmakers express gratitude to Kennedy and Makary for serving the most pro-life president in American history, saying that Trump has \u201cdone more to advance a culture of life and the protection of women and children from the violence of abortion than any president before him.\u201d But they also cite polling from McLaughlin and Associates that found that 7 in 10 voters agree that it \u201cmakes sense\u201d to bring the former FDA safety standards back, arguing that \u201cclear majorities of Americans recognize the extreme overreach of the previous administration\u2019s actions.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers also dive into how the abortion drugs affect mothers, citing an Ethics and Public Policy Center study showing the adverse events from mifepristone are about 22 times more frequent than the FDA recognizes. That study found that almost 11% of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other life-threatening events after aborting their unborn baby with mifepristone.\n\n\u201cWhile we have long known that mifepristone causes the death by starvation of children alive in the womb \u2014 it is baby poison \u2014 we now know with greater certitude that their mothers are also being seriously harmed. Despite the mainstream media and the Biden-Harris administration perpetuating the lie that these drugs are \u2018safer than taking a Tylenol,\u2019 science and women\u2019s lived experiences clearly say otherwise.\u201d\n\nAnd while the Biden administration claimed that the removal of safety standards was in response to the COVID pandemic, to help women receive \u201cmedically necessary\u201d care, the lawmakers argue that the former administration was really just using COVID as a \u201csmokescreen\u201d to \u201caccomplish its radical abortion agenda, which even now wreaks havoc across the nation.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven the current Obama FDA-approved label for mifepristone \u2014 which the data show understates the dangers to women \u2014 says that roughly 1 in 25 women who use mifepristone as directed will end up in the emergency room,\u201d they write.\n\nThey also say that the Biden FDA ignored warning signs from the studies on which it had already relied, including data showing that 3% of the women who took the drugs need to be hospitalized, \u201ca 330% increase over the rate on the approved drug label,\u201d data showing that 6% of participants had unplanned visits to emergency rooms, surgery was required to complete the abortions for 4.1% of the women, and, in the telemedicine group, 5.8% of women had emergency room visits.\n\n\u201cBeyond the studies, women tell us how they have suffered harm from mifepristone, and stories of coercion and abuse involving abortion drugs now run rampant,\u201d they continue. \u201cReal women like Rosalie Markezich \u2014 who is just one example of many \u2014 felt coerced by her boyfriend to take abortion drugs that he ordered from an out-of-state prescriber in her name and had delivered to her home through the U.S. Postal Service.\u201d\n\n\u201cRosalie did not want to have an abortion, but Biden\u2019s egregious weakening of mifepristone\u2019s safety standards let her boyfriend obtain abortion drugs and force her to take them,\u201d they argue. \u201cThe dangerous Biden mail-order scheme was designed to give abortion activists license to mail drugs everywhere, even into states like Markezich\u2019s home state of Louisiana that have pro-life protections for pregnant mothers and their unborn babies.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415117", "WATCH: Smith responds to horrific attack on St. Mary's Catholic Schools in Nigeria, details U.S. response to religious persecution - EWTN News Nightly", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "On Friday, November 21st, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, joined EWTN News Nightly to provide an overview of the ongoing religious persecution crisis in Nigeria and respond to the attack and abduction of students and staff at St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Schools.\n\nThe full interview can be viewed by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415118", "WATCH: '\"Sick And Perverted\": Rep. Smith Examines CCP's Human Rights Abuses' - NTD", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "From torture to mass incarcerations, to forced live organ harvesting\u2014over the last few decades, Congressman Chris Smith has helped shine a light on the deteriorating human rights conditions in mainland China.\n\nNTD's Steve Lance sat down with him to talk about the Chinese Communist Party's assault on religious freedom and why it's important to prioritize human rights in trade.\n\nThe full interview can be viewed by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415119", "AP article on Smith's CECC hearing on religious freedom in China'Christian pastor's daughter urges US lawmakers to help free her father in China'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Didi Tang\n\nPublished November 21, 2025 at 10:02 PM EST\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The daughter of a detained Chinese Christian pastor is urging U.S. lawmakers to help free her father at a time when President Donald Trump has vowed to \u201csave our Great Christian population\u201d worldwide.\n\nAppearing before a congressional panel Thursday, Grace Jin Drexel said her father, Ezra Jin Mingri, was formally charged this week along with 17 other leaders of the prominent underground Zion Church. They were detained in October in one of China\u2019s largest crackdowns on a single church in decades.\n\nIt is among the largest churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities, defying restrictions from the officially atheist Communist Party requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.\n\n\u201cMy father started Zion in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church, like many faithful Christians everywhere,\u201d said Jin Drexel, who lives in the United States. Yet, worshippers \u201cwere harassed, threatened and interrogated.\u201d\n\nAs she urged members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China \u201cto use the authority entrusted into your hands and to not forget us,\u201d another hearing was playing out on Capitol Hill where lawmakers praised the Trump administration\u2019s decision to designate Nigeria again as a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d over allegations of failing to rein in the persecution of Christians.\n\nPastor Ezra Jin Mingri leads a class on the basics of Christian beliefs at Zion Church in Beijing, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)\n\nTrump has focused on Nigeria\n\nTrump has said on social media that Christianity \u201cis facing an existential threat in Nigeria\u201d from \u201cradical Islamists.\u201d He threatened to go in \u201cguns-a-blazing\u201d to stop the killing of Christians and said he told the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action.\n\nNigeria, where ongoing violence affects both Christians and Muslims, has seen two mass abductions at schools this week. Students were kidnapped from a Catholic school Friday and others were taken days earlier from a school in a Muslim-majority town. In a separate attack this week, gunmen killed two people at a church and abducted several worshippers.\n\nWhile the U.S. already has dubbed China a country of particular concern over religious freedom, Rep. Chris Smith, who attended both hearings, suggested that Trump should also keep a focus on Christians in China.\n\n\u201cI think the president would be moved by a meeting with all of you,\u201d the New Jersey Republican told Jin Drexel before leaving to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Christians in Nigeria. \u201cGod hasn\u2019t forgotten, nor should we, nor should the president of the United States.\u201d\n\nLiu Pengyu, the spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Friday that the Chinese government \u201cmanages religious affairs in accordance and protects citizens\u2019 freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe firmly oppose the U.S. interfering in China\u2019s internal affairs under the pretext of so-called religious issues,\u201d Liu said.\n\nWhite House says it\u2019s aware of Christian leaders\u2019 detentions in China\n\nA White House official, who wasn\u2019t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the president is aware of the Zion Church leaders who were detained and that he \u201cwill always champion religious freedom around the world.\u201d\n\nShortly after Ezra Jin Mingri was taken away in October from his home in Beihai in China\u2019s southern Guangxi region, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Beijing to release him and other church leaders.\n\n\u201cThis crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches,\u201d Rubio said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its acronym.\n\nNow, the 18 church leaders have been formally arrested and charged with illegally using information networks and are being held in Beihai, according to CSW, a U.K.-based rights group for religious freedom. The charge likely stems from the church\u2019s use of the internet to share its faith. If convicted, each could be sentenced to up to three years in jail.\n\nChina\u2019s crackdown on Christianity and other religions\n\nIn China, authorities have long sought a tight grip on all religious groups and are particularly wary of religious beliefs in ethnic regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet. The government has cracked down on independent Christian congregations over the past decade, destroying crosses, burning Bibles, shuttering churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith.\n\nZion Church, founded in 2007 in Beijing, grew to have 1,500 members in a decade and was targeted in 2018 after church leaders refused to install facial recognition cameras in its sanctuary, Jin Drexel said. Authorities shuttered church buildings and seized its assets that year, she said. Her father was banned from leaving the country.\n\nZion Church developed a hybrid online-offline model to expand its audience in China, reaching as many as 10,000 people a day, she said. The group CSW says the church is estimated to serve at least 5,000 members and is one of the largest unregistered churches in China.\n\n\u201cChristians in China do not oppose authorities, and the church has always sought to enrich Chinese society,\u201d Jin Drexel said. \u201cThey merely ask to be free from the control of the Chinese Communist Party, a self-identified atheist organization.\u201d\n\nAt the hearing, Sam Brownback, a former U.S. lawmaker and Kansas governor who served as the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom in Trump\u2019s first term, said it\u2019s time to consider religious freedom as a national security imperative.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415120", "CatholicVote article on Smith's CECC hearing on religious freedom in China'Catholic congressman: Why China's war on religion matters'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., opened a Nov. 20 congressional hearing with a stark assessment of Beijing\u2019s campaign against faith: China\u2019s escalating assault on religious believers is both a moral crisis and a direct threat to U.S. national security.\n\nSmith began the hearing \u2014 titled \u201cChina\u2019s War on Religion: The Threat to Religious Freedom and Why It Matters to the United States\u201d \u2014 by underscoring the immediacy of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) repression.\n\n\u201cAs we speak, the Chinese Communist Party, directed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, is engaged in one of the most extensive crackdowns on a Protestant Christian house church in 40 years,\u201d he said, referencing the detention of dozens of Christian leaders of the underground Zion Church.\n\nIn October, the U.S. State Department condemned Beijing after agents detained roughly 30 Zion Church leaders, including prominent Beijing pastor Mingri \u201cEzra\u201d Jin. His family holds U.S. citizenship, and his daughter attended the congressional hearing.\n\nSmith pointed to several families in the room with \u201cloved ones languishing in Chinese prisons,\u201d adding that their suffering \u201cis pressing, and we must act and pray with urgency.\u201d\n\nOne of those imprisoned is Catholic Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai, who has spent roughly five years in a Hong Kong prison and now awaits sentencing.\n\nSmith, a Catholic, framed the conflict as a fundamental struggle over the \u201cright of conscience \u2014 what George Washington called \u2018that little spark of celestial fire\u2019 \u2014 which is the inviolable domain in the heart of every human being.\u201d\n\nReligious freedom is not a Western invention, he argued, but a universal right bestowed upon all men by God. He said it is \u201cguaranteed by a sovereign God who created human beings in His own Image and Likeness and imbued them with inalienable dignity and worth, whether they were born in Washington or Wuhan.\u201d\n\nWhy Beijing fears faith\n\nSmith argued that Xi \u2014 whom he labeled \u201cthe leader of the world\u2019s largest atheistic state\u201d \u2014 seeks to replace religion with loyalty to the Party.\n\n\u201c[Xi] would have the Chinese people believe that religious freedom is not for them, that religion itself is not for them, because he, and the Party he leads, are terrified of religious faith,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey fear any moral or spiritual authority outside the control of the Party, and they punish worship of anyone but Xi Jinping.\u201d\n\nThe CCP aims for \u201ctotal control over the heart, mind, and spirit of each citizen of China,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith pointed to the CCP\u2019s increasingly intrusive policing of private thought \u2014 including a recent \u201cClear and Bright\u201d campaign that treated online \u201cpessimism\u201d and \u201cnegative emotions\u201d as so-called \u201cthought crimes.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is totalitarianism, pure and simple,\u201d Smith said, \u201cand totalitarian governments cannot abide freedom of religion or belief. And yet \u2014 neither can they extinguish it.\u201d\n\nSmith highlighted small but potent acts of defiance against the regime: Christians continuing services online after Zion Church was shut down, Tibetans sharing a banned song honoring the Dalai Lama, and Hui Muslims protesting mosque demolitions.\n\nSmith praised the quiet heroism of underground Bishop Guo Xijin, who recently marked his 40th priestly anniversary by offering the Holy Eucharist to local Catholics and pilgrims \u201cthrough the bars of the chained gate outside his home.\u201d Authorities have kept Bishop Guo confined to his residence, targeting him for refusing to place his flock under the Communist-controlled Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA). As CatholicVote previously reported, the CCPA requires clergy to pledge \u201cindependence\u201d from the Vatican.\n\nWhy it matters to the U.S.\n\nSmith argued that defending global religious freedom in China is not only a moral duty but a national-security imperative for the U.S.\n\n\u201cRobust religious freedom diplomacy is critical for U.S. national security,\u201d he said, noting research that links religious freedom to economic growth, democratic stability, and trustworthy institutions.\n\nChina\u2019s systematic repression of believers, he warned, would destabilize the region and distort fair markets for American businesses.\n\nHe expanded on that point in a recent Washington Times op-ed, arguing that countries that suppress believers tend to become more brittle, corrupt, and prone to internal unrest. These dynamics, he said, spill across borders and give Beijing tools to pressure diaspora communities, police speech on U.S. universities, and coerce supply chains abroad.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415124", "Catholic News Agency article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Nigerian bishop calls for U.S. military intervention at congressional hearing'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Madalaine Elhabbal\n\nPublished November 21, 2025 at 14:40 PM\n\nA Nigerian Catholic bishop said U.S. military intervention is warranted at a Nov. 20 hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.\n\nThe hearing took place just days after an attack on a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria in which children were abducted from the school\u2019s hostel.\n\n\u201cNigeria is ground zero\u201d for religious persecution, said the subcommittee\u2019s chair, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, at the hearing. \u201cMake no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes.\u201d\n\nBishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria, told the panel via Zoom that the United States must follow Nigeria\u2019s addition on the watch list with concrete action.\n\nBishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Nigerian Diocese of Makurdi in Benue state at a breakfast at Capitol Hill organized by Aid to the Church in Need, Jan. 30, 2024. | Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA\n\n\u201cWithout quick intervention, Christianity risks elimination in parts of northern and Middle Belt Nigeria within a very short time,\u201d the bishop said, noting that while designation as a country of particular concern (CPC) has \u201cbrought immense joy, hope, and spiritual resilience to communities under siege in Nigeria,\u201d the Church cannot stop persecution alone.\n\n\u201cIt requires coordinated political, military, and humanitarian intervention,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cMr. Chairman and members, the blood of Nigerian Christians cries out to you. We cannot afford to wait any longer.\u201d\n\nThe hearing highlighted ongoing religious persecution of Christians in Nigeria by groups including Boko Haram and the Muslim extremist Fulani herdsmen, and examined how the U.S. State Department could apply pressure on the Nigerian government to tamp down religious persecution.\n\nPresident Donald Trump announced on Oct. 31 he would place Nigeria on the U.S. religious freedom violation watch list and designate it as a CPC.\n\nUnder the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, the U.S president must designate countries that engage in or tolerate \u201cparticularly severe violations of religious freedom\u201d as CPCs. Violations include torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearence, according to the State Department.\n\nThe bishop recounted ongoing attacks in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt states by Fulani militia as well as in his own village of Aondona in Gwer West LGA, which resulted in the deaths of several of his relatives on May 22.\n\nAgnabe urged the U.S. to use all of the tools at its disposal to aid Nigeria and to \u201cenact concrete actions,\u201d including the use of targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act and the expansion of humanitarian aid for internal displacement camps.\n\n\u201cWe all know that inaction emboldens the extremists even more,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith called for the U.S. government to place conditions on foreign aid and to provide humanitarian assistance to faith-based groups working to help displaced people in the Middle Belt region. He further called for the Trump administration to impose targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, including visa bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities \u201cresponsible for these gross human rights abuses.\u201d\n\nSmith cited statistics from Open Doors, which found that Nigeria has persecuted and slaughtered more Christians than anywhere in the world. Smith also said about 52,000 Christians have been targeted and killed, in addition to 34,000 moderate Muslims, since 2009.\n\nThe U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa hears testimony about Nigeria on Nov. 20, 2025. Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA\n\nRep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, whom Trump charged with reporting to him about Nigeria, at the hearing called for the disarmament of Fulani militants in Nigeria.\n\nDemocratic House members said at the hearing that persecution in Nigeria is not limited to Christians and agreed that the Nigerian government has failed to halt attacks.\n\nRep. Sara Jacobs, D-California, said she opposed Trump\u2019s pledge to employ military action in Nigeria and cautioned against viewing ongoing violence in Nigeria as \u201cmerely religious.\u201d She encouraged State Department officials to \u201cuse the [diplomatic] tools in our toolbox\u201d before resorting to controlled strikes in the region.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415125", "Breitbart article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Nigerian Bishop Thanks Trump, Details Bloody Christian Genocide to Congress'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Frances Martel\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nNigerian Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, of the diocese of Makurdi in Benue state, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday, detailing the \u201cgory\u201d violence Christians face regularly in the country and thanking President Donald Trump for designating Nigeria a religious freedom danger zone.\n\nPresident Trump announced on October 31 that he would return Nigeria to the State Department\u2019s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom list, where he had initially placed it in 2020. Former President Joe Biden removed the notorious label for unclear reasons in 2021. In his announcement, Trump described \u201cmass slaughter\u201d in the country by organized jihadists against Christian communities, urging the Nigerian government to act to protect vulnerable Christians.\n\n\u201cChristianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!\u201d\n\nNigerian President Bola Tinubu responded to the designation by denying the existence of any religious discrimination in the country and insisting that general \u201cinstability\u201d also affects Muslim Nigerians.\n\nLUIS TATO/AFP via Getty\n\nBishop Anagbe addressed Congress for a hearing on Christian persecution in Nigeria at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). He extensively listed individual attacks by jihadists, most of them organized Fulani jihadist gangs, in which the terrorists burned down churches, displaced millions of Christians, and killed and abducted large numbers of the local population in the Middle Belt.\n\nNigeria\u2019s population is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north, about 60 percent, and Christians in the south, about 40 percent. The Middle Belt, where the populations meet, has become the focal point of much of this jihadist violence as radical Muslims attempt to steal and destroy Christian farmland and replace the local population. Benue, where Bishop Anagbe is located, and Plateau are the states most often identified as being under jihadist siege despite high indigenous Christian populations.\n\nAnagbe, who also addressed Congress in March, noted that \u201cthousands more have been displaced, some abducted or subjected, churches destroyed\u201d since his last check-in with U.S. lawmakers. He described an attack displacing an entire Catholic convent, a \u201cwave of violence in the region during Holy Week targeting Christians as they prepared to celebrate one of the most holy important feasts in our church.\u201d The attackers regularly shout \u201callahu akbar,\u201d he noted, a clear sign of the motivation behind the slaughter.\n\nIn one attack in Benue in May, the bishop detailed, \u201cone of my priests \u2026 was shot and left to die in a pool of his blood \u2026 though he survived the attack, he is unable to walk freely because he has a broken bone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is the daily experience of many Christians in Nigeria. Violence is spreading southward, displacing millions and destroying farmland, creating a humanitarian crisis compounded by food insecurity,\u201d he narrated. \u201cAttacks by Fulani militants, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have intensified not only in the Middle Belt \u2026 spreading southward and targeting Christian communities with impunity.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe hoped the CPC designation by President Trump at the end of October might stabilize the situation, but instead it is deteriorating into one of the most lethal periods for Nigeria in recent memory,\u201d he observed.\n\nBishop Anagbe thanked President Trump, \u201con behalf of millions of Christians in Nigeria and the diaspora,\u201d for the designation, however, and Rep. Smith, who has consistently brought forth concerns about Nigerian Christians to Congress.\n\n\u201cIt is a vital step that must be backed by serious action,\u201d he asserted.\n\nThe increased violence, he argued, was not the result of just the designation but of the Nigerian government\u2019s behavior.\n\n\u201cLike it is now commonly acknowledged, Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian. More believers are killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined,\u201d he explained. \u201cYet \u2026 the Nigerian government\u2019s response to the CPC designation is to unleash vainglorious speakers and willing tools to spin the narrative and make false equivalences of Muslim deaths.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho is killing the Muslims up north? Is there any Christian militia displacing millions and occupying lands in Nigeria?\u201d he asked. \u201cThe government of Nigeria\u2019s silence and refusal to engage in the face of continued killings and displacements have deepened feelings of abandonment among the people.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe national leadership appears disengaged, treating a Christian genocide \u2026 as a non-issue instead of considering it a national emergency,\u201d the bishop continued. \u201cThis lack of political will undermines trust in political institutions and fuels perceptions of complicity or indifference.\u201d\n\nWhile describing President Trump\u2019s designation as bringing \u201cimmense joy, hope, and spiritual resilience to communities under siege,\u201d Bishop Anagbe offered recommendations for concrete actions to support the move, including the use of the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction individuals in power who fail to curtail the violence, pressuring Nigeria at the United Nations, and \u201cpolitical, military, and humanitarian intervention.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmerica has a unique role in defending religious freedom globally,\u201d he affirmed.\n\nAlso testifying before the committee on behalf of the executive branch was senior African Affairs official at the State Department Jonathan Pratt, who emphasized that Washington pursued a positive relationship with the government of Nigeria even while speaking out about its apathy towards Christian attacks.\n\n\u201cThe intent of the administration\u2019s approach is to raise the protection of Christians to the top of the government of Nigeria\u2019s priorities, especially in the Middle Belt,\u201d Pratt explained. \u201cNigeria is a key regional partner, Africa\u2019s largest democracy, and most populous nation \u2013 with whom we share economic and security interests. It in the United States\u2019 interest to work with the Nigerian government on a plan of action.\u201d\n\nAlso representing the State Department was Deputy Assistant Secretary Jacob McGee of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, who condemned Abuja not just for failure to act but for allowing the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, on non-Muslim communities.\n\n\u201cNigerian officials continue to prosecute individuals for alleged blasphemy, which stands in clear violation of Nigeria\u2019s obligation to safeguard free speech,\u201d he explained. \u201cUnder the sharia penal codes enforced in 12 of its states, Nigeria is one of only eight countries in the world that allows for penalties up to execution for blasphemy, along with Iran and Pakistan.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415153", "Breitbart article on Smith-Harshbarger letter to Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary'175 GOP Lawmakers Call on FDA to Reverse Biden Admin\u2019s \"Mail-Order Abortion Scheme\"'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Katherine Hamilton\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nU.S. Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) led 175 House Republicans in a letter demanding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) undo the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cmail-order abortion scheme\u201d and investigate the potential safety risks of abortion pills.\n\nIn 2021 under former President Joe Biden, the FDA removed the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills and allowed them to be sent via mail. That action, combined with shield laws in blue states, have allowed abortionists to mail abortion pills into red states with laws protecting the unborn. In their letter on Thursday, GOP lawmakers urged HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to reverse course, especially in light of the FDA\u2019s September approval of a generic version of mifepristone \u2014 the first drug used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen \u2014 and after a study was released in April suggesting abortion pill complications are 22 times higher than previously reported.\n\n\u201cAs Members of Congress who share in the President\u2019s vision for safeguarding life, protecting the health and wellbeing of American families, and ensuring that federal agencies act responsibly, we write to respectfully ask that the deleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug mifepristone be aggressively investigated and decisive action taken to protect women from harm,\u201d they wrote.\n\n\u201cWe also urge that immediate action be taken to, at a minimum, reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone,\u201d they continued.\n\nAP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades\n\nLawmakers said the Biden administration\u2019s actions created a \u201cno-contact, mail-order abortion scheme.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe need for urgent investigation and review of this drug comes in the wake of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s egregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs, and the FDA\u2019s approval of a new abortion drug generic in September 2025,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThe previous administration claimed that these changes were in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in reality, COVID served as a smokescreen to accomplish its radical abortion agenda, which even now wreaks havoc across the nation.\u201d\n\nLawmakers pointed to a study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) that found 10.93 percent of women who had mifepristone abortions experienced severe complications including sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following the abortion. The percentage is significantly higher than the less than 0.5 percent in clinical trials reported on the FDA-approved drug label. The study is based on analysis of data from an all-payer insurance claims database that includes 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023.\n\nThe study has led the FDA and HHS to conduct a safety review of the abortion pill, which the agencies said is ongoing.\n\n\u201cBeyond the studies, women tell us how they have suffered harm from mifepristone, and stories of coercion and abuse involving abortion drugs now run rampant,\u201d lawmakers wrote.\n\n\u201cThe dangerous Biden mail-order scheme was designed to give abortion activists license to mail drugs everywhere, even into states\u2026that have pro-life protections for pregnant mothers and their unborn babies,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThese drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will\u2014a clear indication that radical pro-abortion activists care more about protecting abortion access than about upholding women\u2019s health and safety.\u201d\n\nIn 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63 percent of all abortions within the formal U.S. healthcare system \u2014 meaning an estimated 642,700 unborn babies died in medication abortions, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The percentage was up from an estimated 53 percent in 2020 and 39 percent in 2017. The report did not account for abortion pills obtained through underground national and international networks, including those that send pills to women in states with abortion restrictions.\n\nIn a medication abortion, mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother\u2019s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother\u2019s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother\u2019s womb. The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother\u2019s uterus.\n\n\u201cToday, abortion drugs account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States; there are over six hundred thousand abortions committed using these drugs each year. The Biden FDA\u2019s reckless, no-contact, mail-order abortion scheme is to blame. Abortion providers are reaping increased profits, while women and their unborn children suffer irreparable harm,\u201d they wrote.\n\n\u201cUnder your leadership, HHS and FDA can reverse this wrong. We urge you to immediately reinstate the REMS requiring in-person dispensing of mifepristone and to expedite the promised review by the FDA into the dangers of abortion drugs,\u201d they concluded.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415096", "Opening statement of Chairman Smith at hearing on religious persecution in NigeriaPresident Trump\u2019s Redesignation of Nigeria as a \"Country of Particular Concern\": A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "The following are excerpts of Chairman Chris Smith\u2019s (R-NJ) opening statement at the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee\u2019s November 20th hearing, entitled \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s Redesignation of Nigeria as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019: A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call\u201d:\n\nWelcome to this critical hearing on the systematic and accelerating violence against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria.\n\nThis is my 12th hearing focused exclusively on Nigeria\u2014with scores of other hearings on human trafficking, religious freedom, food security and human rights, focused in part on Nigeria.\n\nI\u2019ve led three human rights trips to Nigeria.\n\nI want to thank our distinguished witnesses for being here today to bring light and scrutiny to this unfolding religious freedom catastrophe and ways to mitigate and end the violence and hate.\n\nNigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today. Moderate Muslims who speak out against the radical Islamists or refuse to conform with the serial killers are murdered as well.\n\nIn 2015, our former House colleague and Green Berets officer, and now U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, was deployed to Nigeria as part of a U.S. Special Forces unit to provide training and security assistance to Nigerian Navy SEALs in their fight against Boko Haram.\n\nDuring his time there, more than 300 girls were reported missing because of Boko Haram\u2019s extremist violence. Working alongside his team, Ambassador Waltz supported Nigerian SEAL operations that ultimately helped rescue many of these girls from the oppressive conditions imposed under Sharia law.\n\nYesterday, Ambassador Waltz said at a special seminar on Nigeria that the situation in Nigeria now has only grown more dire. Ambassador Waltz said, \u201cChurches burn; mothers bury their children for the \u2018crime\u2019 of singing Amazing Grace, pastors are beheaded for preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and entire villages awaken to gunfire simply for calling Jesus their Lord. This is not random violence, it is deliberate persecution, as northern militant groups enforce Sharia law and unleash targeted attacks on Christian communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cYesterday alone,\u201d he said, \u201c25 girls went missing, many of whom will be forced to renounce their faith and vanish into the dark underbelly of extremism and sex slavery.\u201d\n\nMake no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes.\n\nFifteen years ago\u2014in 2012\u2014I chaired a hearing focusing on the slaughter of Christians by Boko Haram, and the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson testified \u201cthat the phenomena of Boko Haram is one of discrediting the Central Government in power for its failure to deliver services to people.\u201d\n\nAre you kidding?\n\nI responded by asking why Boko Haram abducts and rapes Christian girls and uses force and coercion\u2014even death\u2014to convert Christians to Islam? Where are they getting their weapons? Are the IEDs coming from Iran? Not only should Nigeria be designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for failing to protect believers, why isn\u2019t Boko Haram designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)?\n\nAfter three years of appealing to President Obama and the State Department to designate Boko Haram a FTO, on the day of markup on my legislation\u2014the Boko Haram Terrorist Designation Act of 2013\u2014to put Congress on record demanding FTO designation, the Administration designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization.\n\nFor too long, the world has looked away\u2014a culture of denial\u2014as radical Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISIS/West Africa have waged a relentless campaign of terror, murder, and displacement across Nigeria, including the states of Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna.\n\nAccording to Open Doors, \u201cmore Christians are slaughtered in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world.\u201d\n\nOver 52,000 Christians in Nigeria have reportedly been targeted and killed by Islamist extremists while approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims have been murdered in Islamist attacks since 2009.\n\nMore than 7,000 have been murdered this year alone.\n\nSome 19,000 churches have been attacked.\n\nDuring my visit to Jos in 2013, I visited several churches that had been firebombed by Boko Haram and spent hours listening to survivors tell their stories.\n\nDespite their numbing loss and pain, I was absolutely amazed at the survivors\u2019 deep faith, courage and resilience.\n\nThey pleaded with their own government\u2014and the world\u2014to end the cruelty and violence.\n\nAbout 5 million Christians have been displaced and forced into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps within Nigeria and in refugee camps at regional and sub-regional borders, according to an Intersociety report.\n\nOpen Doors reports: \u201cWhile Christians used to be vulnerable only in the Muslim-majority northern states, this violence continues to spread into the Middle Belt and even further south. The attacks are shockingly brutal. Many believers are killed, particularly men, while women are often kidnapped and targeted for sexual violence. More believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. These militants also destroy homes, churches and livelihoods.\u201d\n\nThe Nigerian government has a fundamental, constitutional obligation to protect its citizens. Yet, the brutal reality is that the perpetrators of these mass atrocities operate with total impunity. As one of our distinguished witnesses, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, testified in March before this subcommittee:\n\n\u201cMilitant Fulani herdsman are terrorists. They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials. None of them have been arrested and brought to justice.\u201d\n\nThis lack of accountability sends a chilling message that the lives of Christian farmers and their families are expendable. This failure has rightfully been called out for what it is by President Trump.\n\nThe United States must not stand by idly. This is why I have repeatedly championed legislation calling for action.\n\nLast year, the House Foreign Affairs adopted my resolution, H. Res 82, urgently calling on the Biden Administration to redesignate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern. It passed on Feb 6, 2024 in committee, but never came to the floor.\n\nI applaud President Trump\u2019s recent decisive action to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in and tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. This was a critical step, reversing an inexplicable and unjustified previous decision by the Biden Administration that had only emboldened the purveyors of hate.\n\nBut the designation is only the first step. Now, we must rigorously utilize every tool embedded in the International Religious freedom Act of 1988, authored by Congressman Frank Wolf, and the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016, which I authored.\n\nI urge the State Department to seriously consider supporting human-rights vetted Nigerian forces to defend and protect Nigerian Christians and moderate Muslims.\n\nAnd H. Res. 860 suggests three immediate actions:\n\nFirst, we must condition U.S. foreign assistance. Aid must be tied to verifiable progress from the Nigerian government in preventing persecution, prosecuting perpetrators, and protecting all communities.\n\nSecond, we must provide direct humanitarian assistance to the faith-based groups working on the ground in the Middle Belt, who are best equipped to reach the internally displaced.\n\nThird, we must impose targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, using visa bans and asset freezes against individuals and entities responsible for these gross human rights abuses. The complicit must pay a price.\n\nAs President Trump said, \u201cChristianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria\u2026The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria\u2026\u201d\n\nThe systematic slaughter of Christians, including in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt, is one of the greatest moral crises of our time.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415097", "Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at hearing on religious freedom in ChinaChina\u2019s War on Religion: The Threat to Religious Freedom and Why it Matters to the United States", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith\u2019s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)\u2019s November 20th hearing, entitled \u201cChina\u2019s War on Religion: The Threat to Religious Freedom and Why it Matters to the United States\u201d:\n\nThank you, Senator Sullivan, and good morning, everyone.\n\nI\u2019m very glad the CECC is holding this hearing, and to be working with you on this critical\u2014and indeed, urgent\u2014issue that is so close to my heart.\n\nI say urgent because, as we speak, the Chinese Communist Party, directed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, is engaged in one of the most extensive crackdowns on a Protestant Christian house church in 40 years.\n\nI also say urgent because, as I look around in this room, I see friends of many faiths with loved ones languishing in Chinese prisons. Their plight is pressing, and we must act and pray with urgency.\n\nAt its core, religious freedom is about the right of conscience\u2014what George Washington called \u201cthat little spark of celestial fire\u201d\u2014which is the inviolable domain in the heart of every human being. I am proud to say that this is the 14th hearing I have chaired or co-chaired dedicated to religious freedom in China.\n\nWe say that religious freedom is a universal right, because it is guaranteed by a sovereign God who created human beings in His own Image and Likeness and imbued them with inalienable dignity and worth, whether they were born in Washington or Wuhan. It is thus not a \u201cWestern\u201d construct but a universal one.\n\nYet, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, leader of the world\u2019s largest atheistic state, would force his own people to think otherwise. He would have the Chinese people believe that religious freedom is not for them, that religion itself is not for them, because he, and the Party he leads, are terrified of religious faith. They fear any moral or spiritual authority outside the control of the Party; and they punish worship of anyone but Xi Jinping.\n\nInstead, the Chinese Communist Party wants total control over heart, mind, and spirit of each citizen of China. In one particularly ludicrous, yet equally insidious, example, in September, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a two-month \u201cClear and Bright\u201d campaign that polices pessimism and \u201cnegative emotions,\u201d among other thought crimes. This is totalitarianism, pure and simple, and totalitarian governments cannot abide freedom of religion or belief.\n\nAnd yet\u2014neither can they extinguish it.\n\nIn Tibet, as Communist authorities seek to stamp out any mention or memory of his Holiness the Dalai Lama, blanketing religious sites with surveillance and security forces in the lead up to his 90th birthday, a young singer performed a song celebrating the spiritual leader, and Tibetans inside and outside Tibet shared and re-shared it on social media.\n\nWhen authorities shut down Zion Church in Beijing, then one of the city\u2019s largest, Pastor Ezra Jin took the church nationwide by moving online, reaching more people than it ever could have before. (We are also proud to have as one of our witnesses, Pastor Jin\u2019s daughter, Grace, who used to work for the CECC.)\n\nIn Fujian province, authorities confined underground Catholic bishop Guo Xijin to his residence, so he joyfully celebrated the 40th anniversary of his priestly ordination by serving communion to pilgrims through the bars of the chained gate outside his home.\n\nAfter removing domes and minarets from thousands of mosques in China to excise foreign elements, authorities likely believed they could dismantle two of the remaining mosques targeted for demolition with impunity, yet whole communities of Hui Muslims in Yunnan province took to the streets in protest.\n\nAnd these are only a few examples out of the many we at the Commission have documented, to say nothing of the countless acts of quiet faith and steadfast devotion known only to individual believers and their God. I encourage you to read the statements we will be posting on the web page for this hearing, which will feature expert testimony and inspiring personal narratives from Uyghurs, Catholics, Falun Gong practitioners, and others.\n\nToday, we will hear directly from brave men and women, whose families and faith communities have suffered in China for their dogged belief that they, too, are entitled to freedom of religion, and that an illegitimate and atheistic regime cannot bind the conscience of its citizens.\n\nIn many cases, authorities have pursued these believers in an authority above the CCP and beyond China\u2019s borders, attempting to silence their advocacy.\n\nThus, we are especially grateful for their voices here today.\n\nAmong those voices is that of Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin\u2014and a former CECC researcher. I heard Grace address the CPAC Christian persecution summit, and I was deeply moved by her advocacy for her father. I know we are all eager to hear how we can support Pastor Ezra and all those detained in the crackdown on the Zion Church network.\n\nBut we are not only here to lament or to cry out for the \u201cleast of these\u201d who suffer persecution and injustice, or to call out evil rulers and bad actors. We speak up for Falun Gong practitioners, for Uyghur Muslims, for Tibetan Buddhists, and for underground Catholics because it is right, but also because robust religious freedom diplomacy is critical for U.S. national security, as Ambassador Brownback and I wrote in our recent op-ed for The Washington Times, \u201cWhy China\u2019s War on Religion Matters to the U.S.\u201d And Ambassador, I know this is the topic of the book you have coming out soon, and I really look forward to reading it.\n\nStudies show that religious freedom is strongly correlated with flourishing societies and nations\u2014it is a security stabilizer, making countries and regions safer. It is associated with economic growth and trustworthy institutions, ensuring fairer markets for American and international business.\n\nThis unalienable freedom is fundamental to peace and prosperity\u2014for China and for the United States\u2014and deserves our strong and unwavering support.\n\nI look forward to hearing from our witnesses.\n\nThank you.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415106", "Fox News article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Lawmakers sound alarm on \"deadliest place on earth to be a Christian\" as Nigeria violence escalates'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Efrat Lachter\n\nPublished November 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM EST\n\nThe U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa held a hearing Thursday on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria in what subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., described as the \"systematic and accelerating violence against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria.\"\n\nMembers from both parties questioned administration officials and outside experts as witness after witness described the collapse of security, mass killings, kidnappings and the impunity that has turned Africa\u2019s most populous country into what one lawmaker called \"the deadliest place on Earth to be a Christian.\"\n\nSmith, who has long been sounding the alarm about the persecution of Christians in the country, described the situation in vivid terms.\n\nChristians hold signs as they march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. - The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered faithfuls as well as other Christians and other people to pray for security and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)\n\n\"Nigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,\" he said.\n\nHe called the session \"a very critical hearing,\" noting it was his 12th such hearing and that he has led three human rights trips to the country.\n\nQuoting earlier testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Makurdi Diocese, Smith cited militants who \"kill and boast about it \u2026 kidnap and rape and enjoy total impunity from elected officials.\"\n\nHe highlighted a June 13 attack in Yola, saying reports showed \"278 people \u2014 men, women and children \u2014 were killed in a manner too gory to describe by people shouting \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 while slaughtering their victims.\"\n\n\"This is not random violence. It is deliberate persecution,\" Smith said. \"There may be other factors, but religion is driving this.\"\n\nSmith also noted that moderate Muslims who speak out against extremists are often murdered as well, underscoring the scope of Nigeria\u2019s \"culture of denial.\"\n\nAt least 51 Christians were killed in another attack in Nigeria's Plateau state. (Reuters)\n\nRep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., the panel\u2019s ranking member, agreed Nigeria faces devastating insecurity but warned against \"oversimplistic narratives.\"\n\nShe cited overlapping drivers \u2014 extremist insurgencies, farmer-herder conflict and organized banditry \u2014 and said the 25 girls recently kidnapped in Kebbi state were all Muslim.\n\n\"Violence affects everyone,\" she said. \"False narratives erase the real drivers of violence and make it harder to find solutions.\"\n\nShe condemned President Trump\u2019s remarks about \"going into Nigeria guns blazing,\" calling such rhetoric reckless and illegal and said unilateral U.S. military action would be \"counterproductive.\"\n\nJacobs claimed the Trump administration cut peace-building and conflict-prevention tools that once helped reduce violence, programs, she said, \"that proactively prevented and directly addressed the violence this administration is now concerned about.\"\n\nWomen and children held captive by Islamic extremists and rescued by the Nigerian army arrive in Maiduguri, Nigeria, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jossy Olatunji)\n\nRep. John James, R-Mich., described Nigeria\u2019s crisis in stark terms.\n\n\"This is one of the gravest religious freedom crises in the world,\" he said. \"The deadliest place on earth to be a Christian.\"\n\nHe cited estimates that nearly 17,000 Christians have been killed since 2019, calling the murders \"a sustained pattern of religiously motivated violence, often ignored or even enabled by the Nigerian government.\"\n\nAppearing on video from Benue state, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe detailed church burnings, mass displacement and priests targeted for abduction.\n\n\"Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian,\" Anagbe said. \"More believers are killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined.\"\n\nHe thanked the administration for putting Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations but urged that it be backed with sanctions and greater humanitarian support for displaced civilians.\n\nTwo senior state department officials, Jonathan Pratt and Jacob McGee, defended the administration\u2019s approach while acknowledging the horror of the attacks.\n\nPratt called the situation \"a very serious security problem,\" saying the U.S. seeks to \"raise the protection of Christians to the top of the Nigerian government\u2019s priorities.\"\n\nMcGee added, \"The levels of violence and atrocities committed against Christians are appalling. \u2026 Nigerians are being attacked and killed because of their faith.\"\n\nHe pointed to blasphemy laws in 12 northern states that can carry the death penalty, calling them \"unacceptable in a free and democratic society.\"\n\nOnlookers gather around a car destroyed in a blast next to St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria, Dec. 25, 2011, after an explosion ripped through a Catholic Church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital. (Associated Press)\n\nBoth officials said the U.S. is developing a plan to \"incentivize and compel\" the Nigerian government to protect religious communities.\n\nIn one exchange between Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and an expert on Nigeria, he asked bluntly, \"Ma\u2019am, are we frenemies? Are we \u2014 what are we?\"\n\nOge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, replied, \"We\u2019re friends.\"\n\nShe added that U.S.\u2013Nigeria engagement must be \"from a place of honesty\" and that Nigerians \"acknowledge something must be done quickly about the levels of insecurity.\"\n\nOnubogu warned, however, that a \"narrow narrative that reduces Nigeria\u2019s security situation to a single story\" could deepen divisions.\n\nStutzman pressed her further, noting, \"If Nigeria\u2019s government cannot stop the violence, they should be willing to ask the international community for help.\"\n\nPeople gather July 2, 2014, where a car bomb exploded at the central market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, the birthplace of terror group Boko Haram. (AP Photo/Jossy Ola)", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415107", "The Washington Times article on Smith's CECC hearing on religious freedom in China'Congress warned that China\u2019s crackdown on religious freedom is a national security threat to U.S.'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jeff Mordock and Mike Glenn\n\nPublished Thursday, November 20, 2025\n\nChina\u2019s crackdown on religious freedom, including recent arrests of Christian church members, represents a national security threat to the U.S. and must be met with a powerful response, a coalition of experts told lawmakers Thursday on Capitol Hill.\n\nFormer Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-large for religious freedom in the first Trump administration, urged lawmakers to shift from viewing Beijing\u2019s religious crackdown as a human rights issue and start treating it as a national security issue.\n\nCalling it a \u201cnational security imperative,\u201d he said the atheist Chinese Communist Party\u2019s efforts to eliminate faith are part of its larger ambition to wipe out its enemies.\n\n\u201cChina is at war with faith, and it is at war with us. We should unequivocally and clearly be on the side of their opponents. China fears religious freedom more than they fear our aircraft carriers or our nuclear weapons,\u201d Mr. Brownback said at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a joint House-Senate commission.\n\n\u201cIf the world\u2019s largest authoritarian state can eradicate religious freedom without consequences, it undermines the authority of America\u2019s founding values and global leadership,\u201d he said.\n\nIn this photo released by Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, Oct 23, 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)\n\nIn recent weeks, China launched its largest religion eradication effort in nearly seven years.\n\nOn Tuesday, Chinese authorities arrested 18 leaders of an underground church, the first step toward prosecuting them and potentially sending them to prison for three years.\n\nThe 18 were members of the Zion Church, an unofficial Christian \u201chouse church\u201d not sanctioned by the Chinese government. Last month, Chinese authorities detained nearly 30 staff members and pastors belonging to the Zion Church as part of the biggest crackdown on Chinese Christians since 2018.\n\nThe Trump administration has denounced the detention of the Zion Church members. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in October that the move demonstrates China\u2019s hostility toward Christians.\n\nChina has an estimated 96 million Christians, according to Open Doors, an international organization that mobilizes against attacks on Christianity. More than 44 million Christians are registered with state-sanctioned churches, the majority of whom are Protestant, according to official figures. Tens of millions more are estimated to belong to illegal \u201chouse churches\u201d that operate outside the control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.\n\nZion Church has about 5,000 worshippers in nearly 50 cities. It expanded its reach through Zoom sermons after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was founded in 2007 after its pastor, Ezra Jin, quit as a pastor for a state-controlled Protestant church. Chinese authorities arrested church members in 10 cities.\n\nHe was among those detained Tuesday.\n\nEzra Jin\u2019s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said Beijing\u2019s harassment of Zion members followed her in the United States, underscoring for the joint committee how China\u2019s efforts can spread into America.\n\nShe said her mother received a phone call from someone impersonating a U.S. agent, and she has been watched and followed as she moves through Washington.\n\nBob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, an international nonprofit promoting religious freedom, said the persecution of Chinese churches extends around the globe and includes pressure on Chinese Christian churches in the U.S. and Canada to raise the Communist Chinese Party flag.\n\nHe said more than 100 CCP agents surrounded his home and threatened his family in an effort to silence him.\n\n\u201cThe CCP persecution actually does not stop at China\u2019s border. It has already extended its long arm to overseas, especially in the free world,\u201d Mr. Fu said.\n\nChina\u2019s actions are part of a crackdown on Christianity around the globe. On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee held a hearing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\n\nA Catholic prelate from Nigeria, Bishop Wilfred C. Anagbe, told lawmakers that Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth for Christians. President Trump has designated it \u201ca country of particular concern\u201d over its human rights record, particularly because of what Bishop Anagbe described as genocide.\n\nA recent report from the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law says jihadis are destroying at least 100 churches monthly. At least 7,000 Christians in Nigeria have been killed so far this year, according to their study.\n\nOn Tuesday, only days after 25 girls were abducted from a boarding school, gunmen attacked a church in central Nigeria, killing at least two people and kidnapping the pastor and some church members. The assault is under investigation.\n\n\u201cNigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,\u201d said Rep. Christopher Smith, New Jersey Republican and chairman of the Africa subcommittee. \u201cModerate Muslims who speak out against the radical Islamists or refuse to conform with the serial killers are murdered as well.\u201d\n\nIn China, churches across all faiths have been impacted by Beijing\u2019s tightening control over religious groups. Church buildings have been destroyed, crosses have been removed from public view, religious material has been restricted, and some Christian apps are banned.\n\nIn 2005 and again in 2018, the government adopted more stringent regulations on religious groups. The 2018 rules required churches to obtain government approval for public worship. The Chinese Communist Party was stringent in issuing approvals, forcing many churches to stop public activities and shut down.\n\nIn 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the \u201cSinicization\u201d of religion.\n\nSigns in recent months indicate that Chinese authorities are again clamping down on religion, especially Christianity.\n\nPastor Gao Quanfu of the Light of Zion Church in Xi\u2019an was detained in May and accused of \u201cusing superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of law.\u201d A month later, several members of the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi were sentenced to years in prison for fraud, which religious groups have denounced as politically motivated charges.\n\nIn September, the Chinese Communist Party announced a new code of conduct for religious leaders, allowing only online sermons conducted by licensed groups. The rules have been widely condemned as an attempt to curtail the online services of underground churches.\n\n\u201cThey are afraid of losing control,\u201d Mr. Brownback said. \u201cThey\u2019re not acting like a confident country.\u201d\n\nMr. Brownback and lawmakers on the commission called for U.S. officials to adopt a national security strategy that supports religious freedom within China. He suggested imposing stronger economic sanctions on China to ramp up pressure.\n\nSeveral commission members agreed that the U.S. needs to do more.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415108", "The Washington Times article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Christians face escalating existential threats from extremist violence, Nigerian bishop warns'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Mike Glenn\n\nPublished Thursday, November 20, 2025\n\nNigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a practising Christian. More believers are killed there every year than in the rest of the world combined, a Catholic prelate from Nigeria told lawmakers in Congress on Thursday.\n\nBishop Wilfred C. Anagbe said violence against Christians in the West African country is rampant, particularly from Islamist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province. A recent report from the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law says jihadists are destroying at least 100 churches every month. At least 7,000 Christians in Nigeria have been killed so far this year, according to their study.\n\nOn Tuesday, gunmen attacked a church in central Nigeria, killing at least two people and kidnapping the pastor and some church members. The assault, which remains under investigation, comes only days after 25 girls were abducted from a boarding school.\n\nA police officer stands guard inside the St. Francis Catholic Church, a day after an attack that targeted worshipers in Owo, Nigeria, on June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)\n\nBishop Anagbe said several of his own relatives were killed in May 2025 when jihadists attacked his home village. The attackers sacked the local Catholic parish and a nearby convent, displacing the nuns there. They shot one of his priests and left him to die in a pool of blood while abducting people who were travelling with him.\n\n\u201cAlthough he survived the attack, he is unable to walk freely,\u201d Bishop Anagbe testified during a hearing of the Africa subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. \u201cThis is the daily experience of many Christians in Nigeria. Violence is spreading southward, displacing millions and destroying farmland, creating a humanitarian crisis compounded by food insecurity.\u201d\n\nAlthough some describe the situation in Nigeria as a genocide or a campaign of ethnic cleansing, officials in the capital city of Abuja view it as a complex crisis affecting people of all faiths. They said violence in Nigeria can be triggered by resource disputes, political power struggles, and banditry.\n\nThursday\u2019s congressional hearing followed President Trump\u2019s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d over its human rights record, particularly because of what Bishop Anagbe and others say is a genocide being committed against Christians.\n\nNigeria\u2019s population of about 220 million is split almost evenly between Muslims, who live predominantly in the north, and Christians in the south.\n\nRep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the Africa subcommittee, said he applauded President Trump\u2019s decision to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern for tolerating and even engaging in severe violations of religious freedom.\n\n\u201cNigeria is Ground Zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,\u201d he said. \u201cModerate Muslims who speak out against the radical Islamists or refuse to conform with the serial killers are murdered as well.\u201d\n\nMany of the attacks against Christians in Nigeria are blamed on the mostly-Muslim Fulani militia, Mr. Smith said.\n\n\u201cThey kill and boast about it. They kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total immunity from elected officials,\u201d he said. \u201cNone of them have been arrested and brought to justice.\u201d\n\nAmbassador Jonathan Pratt, Washington\u2019s former envoy to Djibouti, said jihadists in June attacked a Christian village in north-central Nigeria armed with guns and machetes.\n\n\u201cThey set homes and food stores ablaze and locked families inside burning buildings, killing over 200 Christians,\u201d he said. \u201cWitnesses reported assailants shouting \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 as they assaulted St. Joseph\u2019s Church.\u201d\n\nRep. Sara Jacobs of California, the top Democrat on the Africa subcommittee, said several factors impact the violence and instability in Nigeria, rather than solely the persecution of Christians.\n\n\u201cYes, ethnicity and religion play a role in some cases, but other dynamics like poor governance, resource competition, climate change, and population pressures are important drivers that need to be addressed,\u201d Ms. Jacobs said. \u201cThe violence impacting both Christian and Muslim communities is real, and the Nigerian government can and should do more to address it.\u201d\n\nNina Shea, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told lawmakers that she agreed with President Trump\u2019s decision to name Nigeria a \u201ccountry of particular concern.\u201d She said the Fulani militia targeting Christians is operating with complete government impunity.\n\n\u201cBy contrast, the government is fighting the terror groups in the north, whose victims include many Muslims,\u201d Ms. Shea said.\n\nShe said officials in Washington were appalled when they learned that Bishop Anagbe\u2019s home village was attacked by Fulani militants. It occurred soon after his previous testimony to Congress about the rise of sectarian violence in his homeland.\n\n\u201cIt also raised the concern that the \u2026 attack could have been in reprisal for his testimony to Congress - one organized not simply by nomadic herders but by those in Nigeria who are close observers of Washington,\u201d Ms. Shea said.\n\nDeputy Assistant Secretary of State Jake McGee said the level of violence and atrocities committed against Christians in Nigeria is appalling.\n\n\u201cThese attacks directly target Christian populations. Ample witness testimonies have confirmed that attackers used religious language during their attacks and specifically identified Christians for killing, abduction and rape,\u201d Mr. McGee testified. \u201cIt is clear that Nigerians are being attacked and killed because of their faith, and the Nigerian government must uphold its duty to protect them.\u201d\n\nBishop Anagbe said millions of displaced people remain in camps in Nigeria, unable to return to their ancestral homes. He said it threatens cultural continuity as well as religious and economic survival. Survivors of attacks continue to face ongoing threats from Islamist forces inside Nigeria, including further cases of sexual violence against girls and women.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415109", "Save Jersey Op-Ed by Rep. Smith'Op-Ed: Christianity faces an existential threat in Nigeria'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Chris Smith\n\nPublished November 20, 2025\n\nThe following are Congressman Chris Smith\u2019s remarks from Thursday\u2019s congressional hearing.\n\n_\n\nWelcome to this critical hearing on the systematic and accelerating violence against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria.\n\nThis is my 12th hearing focused exclusively on Nigeria\u2014with scores of other hearings on human trafficking, religious freedom, food security and human rights focused in part on Nigeria.\n\nI\u2019ve led three human rights trips to Nigeria.\n\nI want to thank our distinguished witnesses for being here today to bring light and scrutiny to this unfolding religious freedom catastrophe and ways to mitigate and end the violence and hate.\n\nNigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today. Moderate Muslims who speak out against the radical Islamists or refuse to conform with the serial killers are murdered as well.\n\nI applaud President Trump\u2019s recent decisive action to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in and tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.\n\nOne of our distinguished witnesses today, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, testified in March before this subcommittee: \u201cMilitant Fulani herdsman are terrorists. They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials. None of them have been arrested and brought to justice.\u201d\n\nToday, Bishop Anagbe will say: \u201con 13th March 2025, when I last appeared before this committee, I warned that the situation was dire and demanded urgent attention. Tragically, the past half-year has proven those warnings understated the continued attacks on vulnerable Christian villages by the Fulani ethnic millitia and their counterparts, both in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and elsewhere in the country. In my own diocese of Makurdi, you are all familiar with the massacres of Saturday 13th June in Yelwata, where 278 persons, men, women and children were killed in a manner too gory to describe here by people shouting \u201cAllahu akbar\u201d while slaughtering their victims. It took the prayer of the Holy Father, the Pope, on Sunday 14th June, for the Government in Nigeria to even acknowledge this evil. Even so, the federal government still seeks to downplay the numbers and has yet to properly care for the survivors, even as I speak\u2026Abductions of clergy and laity remain rampant; priests and pastors are prime targets for elimination\u2026\u201d\n\nIn 2015, our former House colleague and Green Berets officer and now U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, was deployed to Nigeria as part of a U.S. Special Forces unit to provide training and security assistance to Nigerian Navy SEALs in their fight against Boko Haram.\n\nDuring his time there, more than 300 girls were reported missing because of Bolko Haram\u2019s extremist violence. Working alongside his team, Ambassador Waltz supported Nigerian SEAL operations that ultimately helped rescue many of these girls from the oppressive conditions imposed under Sharia law.\n\nThis past Tuesday, Ambassador Waltz said at a special seminar on Nigeria that the situation in Nigeria now has only grown more dire. Ambassador Waltz said, \u201cchurches burn; mothers bury their children for the \u2018crime\u2019 of singing Amazing Grace, pastors are beheaded for preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and entire villages awaken to gunfire simply for calling Jesus their Lord. This is not random violence, it is deliberate persecution, as northern militant groups enforce sharia law and unleash targeted attacks on Christian communities. Yesterday alone,\u201d he said, \u201c25 girls went missing\u2026and vanish into the dark underbelly of extremism and sex slavery.\u201d\n\nMake no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes.\n\nThirteen years ago\u2014in 2012\u2014I chaired a hearing focusing on the slaughter of Christians by Boko Haram, and the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson testified \u201cthat the phenomena of Boko Haram is one of discrediting the Central Government in power for its failure to deliver services to people.\u201d\n\nAre you kidding?\n\nI responded by asking why Boko Haram abducts and rapes Christian girls and uses force and coercion\u2014even death\u2014to convert Christians to Islam? Where are they getting their weapons? Are the IEDs coming from Iran? Not only should Nigeria be designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for failing to protect believers, why isn\u2019t Boko Haram designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)?\n\nAfter three years of appealing to President Obama and the State Department to designate Boko Haram an FTO, on the day of markup on my legislation\u2014the Boko Haram Terrorist Designation Act of 2013\u2014to put Congress on record demanding FTO designation, the Administration designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization.\n\nFor too long, the world has looked away\u2014a culture of denial\u2014as radical Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISIS/West Africa have waged a relentless campaign of terror, murder, and displacement across Nigeria, including the states of Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna.\n\nAccording to Open Doors, \u201cmore Christians are slaughtered in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world.\u201d\n\nOver 52,000 Christians in Nigeria have reportedly been targeted and killed by Islamist extremist while approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims have been murdered in Islamist attacks, since 2009.\n\nSome 19,000 churches have been attacked.\n\nMore than 7,000 have been murdered this year alone.\n\nDuring my visit to Jos in 2013, I visited several churches that had been firebombed by Boko Haram and spent hours listening to survivors tell their stories.\n\nDespite their numbing loss and pain, I was absolutely amazed at the survivors\u2019 deep faith, courage and resilience.\n\nThey pleaded with their own government\u2014and the world\u2014to end the cruelty and violence.\n\nAbout 5 million Christians have been displaced and forced into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps within Nigeria and in refugee camps at regional and sub-regional borders, according to an Intersociety report.\n\nOpen Doors reports: \u201cWhile Christians used to be vulnerable only in the Muslim-majority northern states, this violence continues to spread into the Middle Belt and even further south. The attacks are shockingly brutal. Many believers are killed, particularly men, while women are often kidnapped and targeted for sexual violence. More believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. These militants also destroy homes, churches and livelihoods.\u201d\n\nThe Nigerian government has a fundamental, constitutional obligation to protect its citizens. Yet, the brutal reality is that the perpetrators of these mass atrocities operate with total impunity.\n\nThis lack of accountability sends a chilling message that the lives of Christian farmers and their families are expendable. This failure has rightfully been called out for what it is by President Trump.\n\nThe United States must not stand by idly. This is why I have repeatedly championed legislation calling for action.\n\nLast year the House Foreign Affairs adopted my resolution H. Res 82 urgently calling on the Biden Administration to redesignate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern. It passed on Feb 6, 2024, in committee but never came to the floor.\n\nBut the designation is only the first step. Now, we must rigorously utilize every tool embedded in the International Religious freedom Act of 1988 authored by Congressman Frank Wolf and the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 which I authored.\n\nI urge the State Department to seriously consider supporting human-rights vetted Nigerian forces to defend and protect Nigerian Christians and moderate Muslims.\n\nAnd H. Res. 860, suggests three immediate actions:\n\nFirst, we must condition U.S. foreign assistance. Aid must be tied to verifiable progress from the Nigerian government in preventing persecution, prosecuting perpetrators, and protecting all communities.\n\nSecond, we must provide direct humanitarian assistance to the faith-based groups working on the ground in the Middle Belt, who are best equipped to reach the internally displaced.\n\nThird, we must impose targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, using visa bans and asset freezes against individuals and entities responsible for these gross human rights abuses. The complicit must pay a price.\n\nAs President Trump said, \u201cChristianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria\u2026The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria\u2026\u201d\n\n_", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415092", "Rep. Smith statement in support of the Epstein Files Transparency Act", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the author of the United States\u2019 landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) used to arrest Jeffrey Epstein and convict Ghislaine Maxwell, issued the following statement in support of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (HR 4405):\n\n\u201cAmong the despicable 4,803 human trafficking predators who have been convicted under my federal anti-human trafficking law is Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the crime of sex trafficking.\n\n\u201cJeffrey Epstein was also arrested and charged under my law\u2014and likely would have been convicted, had he not died before his case went to trial.\n\n\u201cFor their pervasive mental and physical abuses of underaged girls, both Epstein and Maxwell were charged with two counts under the statute\u2014sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors (18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1591).\n\n\u201cTo date, $365 million in settlements have been paid out to Epstein\u2019s victims\u2014trafficking survivors\u2014who, under the TVPA, filed for damages against financial institutions who participated in, financially benefited from, or were complicit in Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking operations.\n\n\u201cThe United States has long been the leading force in defending victims in the global fight against human trafficking\u2014and our indefatigable commitment to advocating for the vulnerable and holding perpetrators accountable cannot and should not be undermined by any real or perceived lack of transparency.\n\n\u201cOur whole-of-government approach to fighting trafficking must be open to public scrutiny. The release of records relevant to Epstein\u2019s criminal network will only help us to gain even greater insight to the abusive, exploitive nature of human trafficking enterprises, gaps in our ability to identify and fight trafficking, and what additional steps need to be taken to stop future predators and copy-cat networks from entrapping and trafficking victims.\n\n\u201cI have met with hundreds of trafficking survivors\u2014including those abused by Epstein and Maxwell\u2014whose stories are both devastating and heartbreaking. Many are making significant strides in rebuilding their lives, and all want justice for survivors, accountability for perpetrators, and strong laws that are fully and faithfully executed to protect the vulnerable.\n\n\u201cThe original TVPA and my four additional anti-human trafficking laws have created the comprehensive framework for trafficking prevention, protection, and prosecution both in the United States and around the world.\n\n\u201cAs we mark the 25th anniversary of the original TVPA, we recommit ourselves to the promise we made in 2000: that all persons shall live free from coercion, exploitation, and modern-day slavery.\n\n\u201cWe must act with courage, compassion, resolve and transparency to ensure that freedom is more than a word\u2014it is a lived reality for every human being.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415094", "CatholicVote article on Smith's upcoming CECC hearing'Rep. Smith to co-chair hearing over China\u2019s war on religion'", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 18, 2025\n\nRepublican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a Catholic, will co-chair a Nov. 20 congressional hearing examining what lawmakers call the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) escalating \u201cwar\u201d on religious believers.\n\nIn a press release, Smith\u2019s office said the CCP has \u201cintensified its drive for absolute control over religion, insisting that believers subordinate conscience and conviction to the Party and to General Secretary Xi Jinping.\u201d\n\nThe statement described religious persecution as \u201ca core feature of Party rule,\u201d pointing to sweeping regulations, detentions, surveillance, and harassment targeting Christians and other faith communities.\n\nThe hearing will focus on four areas: the CCP\u2019s coercive control over religion, its repression of Chinese believers abroad, the national-security implications of Beijing exporting its model of religious persecution, and policy recommendations for a stronger U.S. response.\n\nThe review comes weeks after the U.S. State Department condemned the CCP after reports emerged that authorities had detained roughly 30 Christian leaders across several major cities.\n\nIn its latest annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said several regimes, including China, have systematically targeted religious believers. The review found that the CCP has imprisoned Christians, imposed forced indoctrination, and restricted worship across the country. One of those imprisoned is Catholic Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai, who has been held in a Hong Kong prison for about five years and now awaits sentencing.\n\nThe CCP has also continued to justify religious repression through official messaging. As CatholicVote previously reported, an official Chinese outlet said Xi delivered a Sept. 29 speech calling for new steps to force religions in China to \u201cadapt to a socialist society.\u201d\n\nThis article was published on November 18, 2025 and can be found online at: https://catholicvote.org/rep-smith-to-co-chair-hearing-over-chinas-war-on-religion/", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415090", "Sunday, Nov. 16th at 8:00 PM ESTWATCH: Rep. Chris Smith joins Mark Levin on FOX\u2019s \u201cLife, Liberty and Levin\u201d to discuss religious persecution of Christians throughout the globe and President Trump\u2019s CPC redesignation of Nigeria", "2025-11-17", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "On Sunday, November 16th, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee and renowned religious freedom advocate, joined Mark Levin on FOX\u2019s \u201cLife, Liberty and Levin\u201d to discuss the ongoing religious persecution of Christians throughout the globe, especially in Nigeria.\n\nThe internationally recognized human rights lawmaker detailed the worsening religious persecution crisis in Nigeria, including his upcoming hearing on the matter; President Trump\u2019s timely and welcomed redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern; and the need to immobilize and punish radical Islamist groups, such as Boko Haram, Hamas, and Fulani terrorists, for their violence against Christians, Jews, and moderate Muslims.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415091", "Hearing set for Thursday, November 20Rep. Chris Smith to co-chair Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing, \u201cChina\u2019s War on Religion: The Threat to Religious Freedom and Why it Matters to the United States\u201d", "2025-11-17", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "On Thursday, November 20th, the co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) will hold a public hearing on the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) ongoing assault against religious freedom and its national security implications for the United States.\n\nWHAT: Congressional hearing on the CCP\u2019s efforts to quash religious freedom and oppress diverse religious communities through the means of coercion, intimidation, and transnational repression; and the subsequent implications for U.S. national security and foreign policy priorities.\n\nWHEN: Thursday, November 20, 2025 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM\n\nWITNESSES:\n\nAmbassador Sam Brownback, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom (2018-2021), Governor of Kansas (2011-2018), U.S. Senator (1996-2011)\n\nIsmail \u201cMa Ju\u201d Juma, Hui Muslim human rights advocate\n\nBhuchung Tsering, Leader, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Research and Monitoring Unit\n\nBob Fu, Founder and President, ChinaAid\n\nGrace Jin, Daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin\n\nWHERE: Senate Dirksen 106\n\nWHO: Co-chair Chris Smith, Chairman Dan Sullivan, other members of the CECC, and witnesses\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified its drive for absolute control over religion, insisting that believers subordinate conscience and conviction to the Party and to General Secretary Xi Jinping. This is not incidental to the PRC\u2019s domestic agenda or international influence; it is a core feature of Party rule, reflected in sweeping regulations on religion and detentions, surveillance, and harassment targeting believers and groups operating outside official bounds. The hearing will spotlight escalating repression targeting all of China\u2019s diverse religious communities and examine why the CCP\u2019s assault on freedom of religion matters for the United States.\n\nThe hearing will focus on: (1) CCP policies and tactics for coercive control of religion and their impact on individuals and communities; (2) Transnational repression used to censor and punish diaspora religious communities and individual believers abroad; (3) the nexus between religious freedom and national security, and the strategic importance of religious freedom diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific; and (4) policy recommendations for a robust U.S. response.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-joins-bipartisan-effort-urging-senate-leaders-partner-house-address", "Kean Joins Bipartisan Effort Urging Senate Leaders to Partner with House to Address Rising Health Care Costs", "2025-11-17", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 17, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) joined more than 30 House Republicans and Democrats in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging them to include House members in negotiations ahead of next month's Senate vote on the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits. The lawmakers called for a bicameral approach in order to quickly advance a bipartisan solution to protect families from significant premium increases.\n\n\u201cBipartisan engagement across both chambers will be essential to crafting a health care proposal that can pass and be signed into law,\u201d the Members wrote.\n\nIn the letter, the bipartisan group of lawmakers underscore that families nationwide who rely on the expiring ACA premium tax credits are facing drastic spikes to their health insurance costs.\n\nCongressman Kean has consistently advocated for healthcare affordability in New Jersey in recent months. In September 2025, he joined as an original cosponsor of the Bipartisan Premium Tax Credit Extension Act (H.R.5145), legislation that would extend the ACA premium tax credits to protect New Jersey families and small businesses from steep healthcare premium increases.\n\nFurther, in October 2025, Congressman Kean joined 12 Republican lawmakers in sending a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson urging the House of Representatives to take immediate action on the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits as soon as the government reopened.\n\nRead the full letter sent to Senate leadership HERE.\n\nThe bipartisan letter, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Jen Kiggans (VA-2), is also signed by Adam Gray (CA-13), Juan Ciscomani (AZ-6), Maggie Goodlander (NH-2), Jeff Van Drew (NJ-2), Susie Lee (NV-3), Don Bacon (NE-2), Ed Case (HI-1), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Greg Landsman (OH-1), Jeff Hurd (CO-3), Darren Soto (FL-9), Rob Bresnahan, Jr. (PA-8), Tom Barrett (MI-7), Debbie Dingell (MI-6), Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-7), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Ryan Mackenzie (PA-7), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Monica De La Cruz (TX-15), George Whitesides (CA-27), Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Donald Davis (NC-1), Scott Peters (CA-50), Jared Moskowitz (FL-23), Josh Riley (NY-19), Laura Gillen (NY-4), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), and Carlos Gimenez (FL-28).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415089", "Thurs., Nov. 20: Rep. Chris Smith to chair Foreign Affairs hearing\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s Redesignation of Nigeria as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019: A Serious, Well-Founded Wake-Up Call\u201d", "2025-11-14", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "On Thursday, November 20th, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, will chair his twelfth congressional hearing on the religious persecution of Christians by radical Islamist groups in Nigeria. This hearing follows President Trump\u2019s historic redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d on October 31st.\n\nWHAT: Congressional hearing on the ongoing religious persecution of Christians by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists, in Nigeria; the wide-reaching implications of President Trump\u2019s redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCPC\u201d; and the course of action the U.S. Department of State should follow in response to the Nigerian government\u2019s complicity in these crimes.\n\nWHEN: Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM\n\nWITNESSES: (Partial list)\n\nPANEL 1:\n\noThe Honorable Jonathan Pratt, Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State\n\noMr. Jacob McGee, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State\n\nPANEL 2:\n\noMs. Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Religious Freedom\n\noBishop Wilfred Anagbe, Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Nigeria, Roman Catholic Church\n\noMs. Oge Onubogu, Director and Senior Fellow, Africa Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies\n\nWHERE: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building\n\nWHO: Chairman Chris Smith, other members of the HFAC Africa Subcommittee, and witnesses\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415087", "SNAP benefits fully funded; Jt. Base receives fed $ for critical updatesRep. Smith statement on last night's budget vote to reopen the government", "2025-11-13", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), former Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs and author of more than a dozen laws to help veterans, issued the following statement on the passage of HR 5371, the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act of 2026:\n\n\u201cLast night, I voted for\u2014and the House passed\u2014critical legislation to reopen the federal government after the longest shutdown in our nation\u2019s history, caused by Democrats seeking to score political points at the expense of the American people.\n\n\u201cCritically, this legislation immediately reopens the government and provides $133.2 billion in full-year funding to the Veterans Administration\u2014including $53 billion to provide healthcare, benefits, and research for veterans exposed to toxins while deployed.\n\n\u201cI find it astonishing and deeply disappointing that so many Democrats today voted against fully funding veterans\u2019 healthcare\u2014only one day after Veterans Day.\n\n\u201cThis bill also fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the remainder of the fiscal year at the level of $107.5 billion, as well as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at $8.2 billion, an increase of $603 million compared to last year.\n\n\u201cThis is extremely welcome news, as just last month, I cosponsored legislation\u2014the Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 (HR 5822)\u2014to appropriate unallocated federal funds to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of benefits under SNAP during the shutdown.\n\n\u201cAdditionally, this legislation includes critical funds to upgrade and establish new missions at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the Naval Secure Test Aviation Research Hangar and the Lakehurst Air Traffic Control Tower\u2014projects that I have spearheaded. The Lakehurst portion of the base\u2014one of the largest employers in Ocean County\u2014performs unique missions that provide substantial value and expertise to critical national security missions.\n\n\u201cNew project funding\u2014$5.6 million in design funding for a new state-of-the-art hangar and $3.2 million in design funding for a new air traffic control tower\u2014demonstrate the continued value of the Navy\u2019s presence in Ocean County and will support new naval aviation missions well into the future.\n\n\u201cI will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that these projects receive the proper attention and requisite funding to fully bring them to completion.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-secures-37-million-support-local-police-departments", "Kean Secures $3.7 Million to Support Local Police Departments", "2025-11-13", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 13, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) announced that he secured $3.7 million in federal funding to support police departments in New Jersey\u2019s Seventh Congressional District. The funding will provide critical facility upgrades and renovations for police departments in Byram Township, Readington Township, and Holland Township.\n\nThis funding was made possible through Congressman Kean\u2019s support for the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 (H.R.5371), which passed the House on November 12, 2025. The legislation was immediately signed into law later that evening.\n\n\u201cAs communities grow and demands on local law enforcement increase, it is essential that our police officers have modern, safe, and functional facilities,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cAt a time when others are trying to cut funding for law enforcement, I fought to ensure our officers had the resources they need to protect and serve effectively. I will always stand with the men and women in blue who put themselves in harm\u2019s way to protect our families, neighborhoods, and communities.\"\n\nCongressman Kean submitted the following projects to the FY2026 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which was enacted as part of H.R. 5371:\n\nByram Township: $1,237,500 to provide renovations and new facilities to the Byram Township Police Department. The Township is in dire need of a new police department headquarters, as they are currently operating out of a set of mobile construction trailers from the 1970s. This funding will allow the police department to move into an existing 4,500 square foot office building and renovate it to be suitable to house their police headquarters.\n\nReadington Township: $1,932,287 to provide the expansion and modernization of the Readington Township Police Department. The initiative aims to enhance the operational capacity, efficiency, and community engagement of the department through strategic upgrades and expansion efforts. The department seeks funding specifically for additional offices, holding cells, briefing rooms, and training areas with the addition of a modern security system and technology infrastructure for data sharing, communication, and improved response.\n\nHolland Township: $555,000 to provide funds to modernize and renovate the Holland Township Police Department. The Police Department Headquarters was first constructed in 1976 when the department was comprised of only four officers and handled a limited number of service calls. Today, the department has 14 officers and handled 5,648 service calls in 2023. The current space lacks sufficient office space, locker facilities, and processing areas, hindering officers' ability to work effectively, coordinate resources, and serve the community. Both the interior and exterior need to be brought up to modern standards.\n\nAs part of the FY2026 Community Project Funding (CPF) process, Congressman Kean advocated for local priorities identified by community leaders and local officials. In May 2025, he submitted 15 Community Project Funding requests to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration in the FY2026 appropriations bills. Three of these projects \u2014 the police department renovations in Byram, Readington, and Holland Townships \u2014 were included in the final FY2026 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which was signed into law.\n\nThe remaining CPF requests are still under consideration in additional appropriations bills pending in the House. To view the full list of Congressman Kean\u2019s FY2026 Community Project Funding requests, please click HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415088", "\u201cElectoral fraud or manipulation would be disastrous for the people of Honduras, as well as for American interests\u201dSmith urges Sec. Rubio, Sec. Hegseth to support democracy and rule of law in Honduras", "2025-11-12", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Earlier this week, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in response to widespread concerns about potential electoral fraud or manipulation in Honduras\u2019 upcoming presidential election.\n\nIn the letter dated November 10th, Smith urged the top U.S. officials to publicly communicate that a productive and beneficial U.S.\u2014Honduran diplomatic relationship depends upon free and fair elections\u2014and that \u201cany effort to subvert the will of the Honduran people will carry serious consequences for bilateral relations and regional stability.\u201d\n\nSmith noted that Sec. Rubio and many others in the Trump administration have made it clear that the ruling party in Honduras\u2014the Liberty and Refoundation party (LIBRE)\u2014has an extremely poor record on democracy and the rule of law:\n\n\u201cMany Hondurans are concerned about the upcoming election\u2014and they have reason to be,\u201d said Smith, a renowned human rights lawmaker.\n\n\u201cThe Trump administration, more than any other administration in U.S. history, has a more complete understanding of the numerous challenges facing Latin America\u2014and we really must thank Secretary Rubio for providing a renewed focus on Latin America in U.S. policy, as well as his savvy, principled commitment to human rights.\n\n\u201cI am confident that\u2014publicly or privately\u2014the administration will take appropriate action to express U.S. support for free and fair elections in Honduras, and I hope that my proposals can contribute to that effort,\u201d remarked Smith.\n\nSmith\u2019s letter proposes the following initiatives for the United States to better support and promote democracy in Honduras:\n\nThe deployment of an official U.S. delegation to Honduras to observe the election;\n\nConstructive engagement with the Honduran Armed Forces, emphasizing their responsibility to uphold the democratic process; and\n\nThe issuance of public statements in support of free and fair elections, strengthening independent election observation, the mobilization of diplomatic resources, and holding accountable any attempts to undermine the democratic process.\n\nSmith has extensive, internationally recognized experience\u2014spanning more than four and a half decades\u2014in legislating and advocating on behalf of issues relating to free and fair elections and the rule law, largely through his leadership and involvement with the Human Rights Subcommittee, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and the Helsinki Commission.\n\nThe presidential election in Honduras is scheduled for November 30th. On November 11th, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a statement on the fraught election process in Honduras.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-introduces-legislation-protect-americans-undisclosed-foreign-influence", "Kean Introduces Legislation to Protect Americans from Undisclosed Foreign Influence", "2025-11-12", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 12, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) introduced the Defending Against Foreign Propaganda Act, legislation that requires clear disclosure on any advertisement paid for by a foreign government or foreign entity that runs in the United States. The bill ensures that Americans know when a message they see or hear is being funded by a foreign government \u2014 protecting transparency, national integrity, and trust in U.S. institutions.\n\n\u201cIn recent months, we have seen foreign governments, including allies like Canada, run ads in the United States aimed at influencing public opinion and policy debates,\u201d said Congressman Kean. \u201cAmericans deserve to know when they are being targeted by messaging that originates from a foreign government. It is the American people who are the decision-makers in our policy debates, so we must ensure foreign governments can never hide their attempts to influence them.\"\n\nUnder the Defending Against Foreign Propaganda Act, advertisements paid for by a foreign government or foreign person must clearly disclose that sponsorship. The disclosure must appear in both written and audio form, where applicable, ensuring viewers and listeners can easily identify the source of the message. The legislation tasks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with enforcing these requirements and treating violations as deceptive advertising practices.\n\nCongressman Kean serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.\n\nA copy of the bill text is available HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-votes-house-bill-end-government-shutdown", "Kean Votes for House Bill to End Government Shutdown", "2025-11-12", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 12, 2025) WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) issued the following statement after voting for legislation to end the current government shutdown:\n\n\u201cDC Democrats made a foolish decision to shut down our government and inflict tremendous harm on our country. I have never supported a government shutdown in any form, and the same has remained true this time. There is no leverage to gain, there is no policy battle to win \u2014 there was only damage done to institutions and public services that millions of Americans rely on.\n\n\"Today, I once again voted to keep the federal government open and get back to doing the people\u2019s business. Every step of the way, Republicans stood on the principles of good government, fiscal discipline, and common-sense. We fought to ensure that critical services from air traffic control to SNAP benefits were maintained. This shutdown was a reckless political ploy by Democrats that achieved nothing but unnecessary hardship for American families. The American people deserve a government that works for them \u2014 not one held hostage by partisan games.\n\n\"Now, it\u2019s time to move forward and focus on what matters: lowering costs, strengthening our economy, and securing America\u2019s future. That is the work the American people sent us here to do, and that is exactly what I will continue to fight for,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr.\n\nBackground: The funding measure includes a continuing resolution to reopen the federal government through January 30, 2026, and provides full-year funding for three annual appropriations bills: Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and the Legislative Branch. This legislation will provide certainty to our veterans, farmers, and SNAP recipients and allow Congress to continue working on full-year FY2026 appropriation bills for the remaining federal agencies. The measure now heads to the President\u2019s desk to be signed into law.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415085", "Rep. Smith statement on Veterans DayHonoring America's veterans", "2025-11-11", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "\"On this Veterans Day, we honor and pay tribute to the extraordinarily brave men and women\u2014and their families\u2014who have made immense sacrifices to ensure that liberty and freedom endure.\n\n\"It is because of these heroes that America continues to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.\n\n\"Words are inadequate to convey our deep and profound appreciation to America\u2019s veterans, and we ask that God continue to bless, protect, strengthen\u2014and, when needed, heal\u2014each and every veteran.\"\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/kean-honors-local-seniors-annual-seniors-distinction-event", "Kean Honors Local Seniors with Annual Seniors of Distinction Event", "2025-11-10", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 10, 2025) BRIDGEWATER, NJ \u2013 Today, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) hosted his third annual Seniors of Distinction event at the Bridgewater Township Senior Center to honor outstanding seniors in the community.\n\nThis year, Congressman Kean recognized 33 seniors representing all six counties within New Jersey\u2019s Seventh Congressional District. Each honoree was nominated by their friends, families, or local officials in recognition of their exceptional service and dedication to others. The Seniors of Distinction were selected for their long history of giving back to their communities and for their ongoing commitment to philanthropic, charitable, and spiritual activities locally and even, statewide.\n\n\u201cOur 2025 Seniors of Distinction represent the very best of our communities,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. \u201cEach honoree has dedicated their time, talents, and compassion to uplifting New Jersey's Seventh Congressional District. Whether through leadership, volunteerism, or simple acts of kindness, they all share the same spirit of generosity and an unwavering commitment to serve others. I am honored to recognize these remarkable individuals and thank them for all they do to keep our communities strong, connected, and vibrant.\u201d\n\n\u201cBridgewater was proud to host Congressman Tom Kean\u2019s \u2018Seniors of Distinction\u2019 event right here at our Senior Center,\u201d said Bridgewater Mayor Matthew Moench. \u201cIt was an honor to welcome so many inspiring residents from across the district and to celebrate the remarkable contributions our seniors continue to make in their communities every day.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you, Congressman Kean, for the honor of being considered as a Senior of Distinction,\u201d said Paul Corcoran of Sparta. \u201cIt is an honor to be able to represent all the other seniors that are of distinction as well in our communities. I love the program, and I hope it continues and that others are inspired by the respective seniors that are here.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am honored that the Borough thought I was a Senior of Distinction,\u201d said Patricia Serrano of Mendham Borough. \u201cI have enjoyed everything I have done for the past 60 years living there. Today, I would like to thank Representative Kean for having this ceremony and honoring the seniors.\u201d\n\nThe 2025 Seniors of Distinction Honorees:\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415081", "Military.com article on Smith's legislation to address religious persecution in Nigeria'New Bill Calls For Stronger US Response to Religious Persecution in Nigeria'", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Nick Mordowanec\n\nPublished November 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM ET\n\nA Washington lawmaker has sponsored legislation calling on the U.S. State Department to advance religious freedom and protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria, telling Military.com that the situation has \u201cgotten significantly worse within the past year.\u201d\n\nPresident Donald Trump threatened this week to \"do things to Nigeria that Nigeria is not going to be happy about\" and \"go into that now-disgraced country guns-a-blazing\u201d to counter what he and the administration have described as the targeting of Christians by Islamic militants in Africa\u2019s most populous nation.\n\nTrump has called Nigeria a \"disgraced country\u201d with a government that \"continues to allow the killing of Christians.\u201d On Thursday, the State Department said in a post on X that 80,000 visas belonging to Nigerians and other foreign nationals have been revoked since January.\n\nA man sells tomatoes and peppers at the market in Kaduna, Nigeria, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced H.R. 860, which he said updates and expands H.R. 220\u2014legislation he introduced earlier this year to under law provide congressional guidance \u201cthat the State Department can and must take to advance religious freedom and protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria.\u201d\n\nNo action was taken with the previous resolution introduced in March and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.\n\nA vendor sells local newspapers with headlines referring to US President Donald Trump's comments about Nigeria, on the street of Lagos, Nigeria, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)\n\n\"The legislation supports President Trump\u2019s initiative in combating Christian persecution overseas and provides congressional input for the State Department\u2019s legally authorized actions, such as sanctions, to be used to persuade the Nigerian government to do the right thing,\u201d Smith told Military.com.\n\n\u201cIt also puts Nigeria on watch, sending a forceful message that the United States will not tolerate or enable the religious persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in that country, or anywhere else in the world,\u201d he added.\n\nSmith's legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL).\n\nMilitary.com reached out to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria for comment.\n\nA State Department official told Military.com that they do not comment on pending legislation or legislative proposals.\n\n\"The level of violence against Christians in Nigeria is appalling,\" the official said. \"The government of Nigeria must provide safety, security and rule of law for Christians and protect religious freedom across the country.\n\n\"Authorities must address the threats posed by terrorist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa in northern Nigeria and targeted violence perpetrated by Fulani ethnic militia and other violent groups.\"\n\nThe department looks forward to continuing to engage with the Nigerian government to address shared security priorities and advance regional peace and stability, the official added, which in turn \"will strengthen Nigeria\u2019s international reputation, attract foreign investment, and build trust among communities.\"\n\nSteps State Department Can Take\n\nSmith and bill co-sponsors highlight some of the actions the State Department can take to mitigate violence in Nigeria, including:\n\nProviding immediate humanitarian assistance to faith-based groups in Nigeria.\n\nConditioning U.S. foreign assistance, including global health programs, to address religious freedom violations and develop strategies for long-term peace and stability.\n\nCollaborating with the U.S. Department of the Treasury to impose targeted sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes, and other restrictive measures under the Global Magnitsky framework on individuals and entities responsible for egregious religious freedom violations in Nigeria, such as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore.\n\nAdding Fulani-Ethnic militias operating in Benue and Plateau States to the Entities of Particular Concern list.\n\nReaffirming the United States\u2019 commitment to promoting and protecting religious freedom and human rights worldwide.\n\n\u201cThe slaughter of innocent Christians in Nigeria demands a strong response from the United States. \u2026 This measure calls for setting verifiable conditions on any U.S. aid going to Nigeria. Nigeria must do more to protect all innocent individuals, including Christians, within its borders,\u201d said Rep. Huizenga in a statement.\n\nConcerns Since 2009\n\nOn Nov. 3 the president designated Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC).\n\nThe designation mirrors actions during Trump\u2019s first term. In 2019, the State Department designated Nigeria as a Special Watch List Country. One year later, it was designated as a \u201cCPC\u201d country as government officials say that violent attacks against religious communities in Nigeria \u201chave become tragically commonplace.\u201d\n\nHouse Foreign Affairs, Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations subcommittee and Western Hemisphere subcommittee Chairman Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, during a joint hearing on, 'The Global Zika Epidemic.' (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)\n\nThe United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended such a designation since 2009, due to what they call the Nigerian \u201cgovernment\u2019s engaging and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations.\u201d\n\n\u201cUSCIRF applauds President Trump for speaking out on the religious freedom crisis in Nigeria and making Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern,\u201d USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said in a statement. \u201cThe U.S. government can now develop a tough plan with Nigeria to ensure that perpetrators of violence are held to account, people of faith are protected, and those held hostage are rescued.\u201d\n\nNigerian Violence and Remedies\n\nSmith cited various reports about religious violence in Nigeria as impetus for him to elaborate upon his previous legislation.\n\nFigures compiled and published in August by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) claimed that roughly 19,100 churches have been attacked, looted, or shuttered since 2009.\n\nThey also suggested that in the first 220 days of 2025, more than 7,000 Christians (an average of 32 per day) were killed across the nation. That adds onto a death toll since 2009 that has reportedly eclipsed 185,000 dating back to 2009\u2014including some 125,000 Christians and 60,000 Muslims accused of being \u201cliberal\u201d or insufficiently radical.\n\nAnother 8,000 Christians have also been kidnapped by jihadist groups since approximately 16 years ago.\n\nSmith said he is \u201coptimistic\u201d that H.R. 860 will receive its due consideration in Congress.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415082", "CatholicVote article on Smith's legislation to address religious persecution in Nigeria'Rep. Chris Smith unveils plan to defend persecuted Christians in Nigeria'", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 7, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., introduced new legislation detailing how the U.S. should respond to the ongoing persecution of Christians in Nigeria, following President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).\n\nIn a Nov. 5 press release, Smith, a Catholic, said that Christians in Nigeria live \u201cunder the constant threat of murder, kidnapping, rape, and torture by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists.\u201d\n\nThe resolution, H. Res. 860, commends Trump\u2019s actions and directs the U.S. State Department to adopt a series of measures \u2014 including sanctions and new conditions on foreign aid \u2014 to pressure Nigeria\u2019s government to protect Christians.\n\nIt calls for immediate humanitarian aid to faith-based groups in Nigeria, coordination with the Treasury Department to impose sanctions and visa bans on perpetrators, and conditions on U.S. assistance tied to religious freedom protections. The resolution also reaffirms America\u2019s commitment to defending human rights worldwide.\n\n\u201cIt is well past time that the United States holds the Nigerian government responsible for its inability \u2014 or unwillingness \u2014 to fully confront and combat the unchecked, widespread religious persecution occurring within its borders,\u201d Smith said.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415084", "SSBCrack News article on Smith's legislation to address religious persecution in Nigeria'Lawmaker Pushes for U.S. Action to Protect Persecuted Christians in Nigeria Amid Growing Concerns'", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By News Desk\n\nPublished November 7, 2025\n\nA Washington lawmaker is pushing for new legislation that urges the U.S. State Department to take stronger actions to promote religious freedom and protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria. This comes amid growing concerns about escalating violence against Christians in the country, which the lawmaker describes as having \u201cgotten significantly worse within the past year.\u201d\n\nPresident Donald Trump recently made headlines with remarks stating that the U.S. might take severe measures against Nigeria, whom he labeled a \u201cdisgraced country\u201d for allowing what his administration has characterized as systematic targeting of Christians by Islamic militants. Trump has expressed discontent over the Nigerian government\u2019s handling of religious violence, specifically calling out the killing of Christians.\n\nIn response to these issues, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced H.R. 860, legislation intended to build upon a previous bill aimed at providing congressional support for State Department actions related to religious freedom. Smith emphasized that the new legislation aims to send a strong message to Nigeria, reinforcing that the U.S. will not condone or facilitate the persecution of Christians or other religious minorities.\n\nThe new bill has garnered bipartisan support with co-sponsorship from Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL). Smith explained that the legislation would reinforce President Trump\u2019s initiative against the persecution of Christians abroad and provide actionable congressional input for the State Department, including the possibility of imposing sanctions.\n\nWith threats of sanctions looming, Smith and his co-sponsors highlighted potential actions the State Department could take. These include providing humanitarian aid to faith-based organizations in Nigeria, conditioning U.S. foreign assistance on compliance with religious freedom standards, and collaborating with the Treasury Department on targeted sanctions against those responsible for severe violations of religious rights in Nigeria.\n\nThe State Department recently reported revoking around 80,000 visas for Nigerians and other foreign nationals since January, a move that underscores the tense diplomatic relationship. Additionally, the Federal government has previously designated Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC), a classification that indicates significant issues regarding religious freedom and human rights violations.\n\nThe situation has drawn scrutiny from various organizations, including the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which has recommended the CPC designation since 2009. USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler expressed approval of Trump\u2019s recent comments, underscoring the need for a coordinated plan to hold violators accountable and safeguard those facing persecution.\n\nReports indicate that religious violence in Nigeria is rampant, with an alarming estimate of over 19,100 churches attacked since 2009 and a rising death toll, including more than 7,000 Christians killed within just the first few months of 2025. The ongoing violence has resulted in the displacement and targeting of both Christians and other religious minorities, stoking fears and calls for government intervention.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kean-advances-veterans-access-care-launch-new-lyons-va-shuttle", "Congressman Kean Advances Veterans\u2019 Access to Care with Launch of New Lyons VA Shuttle Service and Legislative Action", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Thomas H. Kean, Jr.", "K000398", "kean.house.gov", "kean", "https://kean.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(November 7, 2025) BERNARDS TOWNSHIP, NJ \u2013 Yesterday, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) participated in the Lyons VA Shuttle kick-off ceremony at the Lyons Train Station. Hosted by Somerset County, the ceremony celebrated the launch of a new, fare-free shuttle service connecting veterans to the Lyons VA Medical Center from the Lyons Train Station.\n\nAfter hearing from constituents and local veteran advocates about accessibility barriers to the Lyons VA Medical Center, Congressman Kean met with NJ TRANSIT CEO Kris Kolluri in April 2025 and advocated for a dedicated shuttle to bridge the train station with the medical center. The shuttle service relies on federal funds administered through the State of New Jersey and was made possible through a cooperative partnership between Somerset County, the Lyons VA Medical Center, NJ TRANSIT, and the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA).\n\n\u201cFor too long, New Jersey veterans with disabilities have faced challenges accessing reliable transportation to the Lyons VA Medical Center. That changes with the launch of the Lyons VA Shuttle Service,\u201d said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07). \"This milestone demonstrates what we can achieve when we work together across all levels of government. On the federal level, I am also pleased to build on this progress by introducing legislation to ensure this service remains a sustained, long-term solution. With Veterans Day just around the corner, this launch could not be more timely \u2014 it will improve lives, ease burdens, and honor those who have served our nation.\u201d\n\nDuring the ceremony, Congressman Kean announced his new bill to unlock federal funds and ensure the Lyons VA Shuttle Service remains a lasting solution. The Connecting Veterans to Care Act of 2025 would provide greater flexibility in using federal funds to support the operation of public transportation services that serve Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. The proposed legislation would be a key step towards providing the Lyons VA Shuttle with the resources needed to thrive long-term. A copy of the bill text is available HERE.\n\nStarting on November 7, 2025, veterans traveling to the Lyons VA Medical Center in Bernards Township will have access to this new, fare-free shuttle from the Lyons Train Station. Operating weekdays from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, the Lyons shuttle will make approximately eight round trips daily between the train station and the medical center, aligning with NJ TRANSIT's preexisting Morris & Essex Line rail schedule to ensure smooth connections.\n\nThe ADA accessible vehicle accommodates 16 passengers and includes 2 wheelchair securement spaces. Somerset County will operate the shuttle, as well as maintain the vehicle for use. While designed with veterans in mind, the service will also be open to Lyons VA employees, as well as friends and family members, offering an easier way to reach and navigate the Lyons VA campus.\n\nCongressman Kean joined the Somerset County Board of Commissioners, representatives from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, NJ TRANSIT, the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA), Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (LD-25), as well as local elected officials, veterans, their family members, and VA hospital staff at the event.\n\nPictured in photo at top:\n\nCongressman Tom Kean, Jr.\n\nFran O\u2019Connor, Commissioner, NJ Department of Transportation\n\nJustin Davis, Senior Vice President, NJ Transit\n\nAssemblywoman Aura Dunn\n\nBrigadier General Yvonne L. Mays, The Adjutant General\n\nVincent Solomeno, Commissioner-Designate, NJ Department of Veterans Affairs\n\nSomerset County Commissioner Director Shanel Y. Robinson\n\nSomerset County Commissioner Deputy Director Melonie Marano\n\nSomerset County Commissioner Sara Sooy\n\nSomerset County Commissioner Paul Drake\n\nSomerset County Commissioner Elizabeth Graner\n\nBernards Township Mayor Janice Fields\n\nBernards Committeewoman Ana Duarte McCarthy\n\nJason Ingle, Field Representative for Senator Andy Kim\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415076", "Smith, who called for \u2018CPC\u2019 designation, pushes for sanctions on perpetrators and humanitarian aid to victimsNew legislation commends President Trump for Nigeria \u2018CPC\u2019 designation and paves a path forward for religious freedom in Nigeria", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, introduced new legislation commending President Donald Trump\u2019s recent redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d and outlining the course of action the U.S. Department of State should follow in response to the Nigerian government\u2019s complicity in the religious persecution of Christians.\n\nSmith\u2019s new bill, H.Res.860, is cosponsored by Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL). The bill updates and expands legislation (H.Res.220) Smith introduced earlier this year, which all current cosponsors supported.\n\nSmith\u2019s previous bill urged the President to designate Nigeria a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d and called for a robust State Department response to Nigerian officials who have failed to address the mass murders, torture, religious freedom violations, and human rights abuses perpetrated against Christians\u2014and Muslims\u2014in their country.\n\nSmith, for more than a decade, has consistently introduced legislation and chaired congressional hearings on the crisis in Nigeria\u2014the most recent of which was held in March.\n\n\u201cTo be a Christian living in Nigeria means to be living under the constant threat of murder, kidnapping, rape, and torture by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists,\u201d stated Smith, who has led numerous human rights trips to Nigeria.\n\n\u201cMy new legislation commends President Trump\u2019s decisive action to redesignate Nigeria a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019\u2014reversing an incredibly ill-advised decision by the Biden Administration\u2014and lays out a detailed roadmap for the State Department\u2019s future diplomatic dealings with the Nigerian government\u2014urging sanctions and new conditions on U.S. foreign assistance.\u201d\n\nRep. Huizenga, a cosponsor of H.Res.860 and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee, said, \u201cThe slaughter of innocent Christians in Nigeria demands a strong response from the United States. Congressman Chris Smith and I are leading the charge in Congress to stop these heinous killings.\n\n\u201cH.Res.860 commends the Trump Administration for designating Nigeria as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern,\u2019 while calling for the Administration to enact sanctions against individuals and entities in Nigeria who are supporting this horrific violence. Additionally, this measure calls for setting verifiable conditions on any US Aid going to Nigeria. Nigeria must do more to protect all innocent individuals, including Christians, within its borders,\u201d added Rep. Huizenga.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s \u2018CPC\u2019 designation of Nigeria is a critical first step towards achieving lasting peace, stability, and religious freedom in Nigeria,\u201d said Smith, an internationally recognized human rights lawmaker.\n\n\u201cCongress has a job to do as well\u2014to support President Trump\u2019s initiative and oversee the State Department\u2019s actions as it implements the goals of a \u2018CPC\u2019 designation, using all appropriate and available tools to advance religious freedom and protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, Smith\u2019s bill lays out the tools the State Department can utilize, including those created through his previous law, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, to:\n\nProvide immediate humanitarian assistance to faith-based groups in Nigeria;\n\nCondition U.S. foreign assistance, including global health programs, upon the Nigerian government\u2019s actions to address religious freedom violations and develop strategies for long-term peace and stability;\n\nCollaborate with the U.S. Department of the Treasury to impose targeted sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes, and other restrictive measures under the Global Magnitsky framework on individuals and entities responsible for egregious religious freedom violations in Nigeria, such as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore;\n\nAdd Fulani-Ethnic Militias operating in Benue and Plateau States to the Entities of Particular Concern list; and\n\nReaffirm the United States\u2019 commitment to promoting and protecting religious freedom and human rights throughout the globe.\n\n\u201cIt is well past time that the United States holds the Nigerian government responsible for its inability\u2014or unwillingness\u2014to fully confront and combat the unchecked, widespread religious persecution occurring within its borders,\u201d concluded Smith.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415077", "CatholicVote article on Smith's work to advance religious freedom throughout the globe'Harrowing stories of persecution turned Congressman Smith into a religious freedom champion'", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 5, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., recently recalled what sparked his lifelong mission to defend religious freedom: reading \u201cTortured for Christ,\u201d Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand\u2019s account of underground Christians tortured under dictator Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu.\n\n\u201cI was moved to tears. And challenged to act,\u201d he said during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference\u2019s (CPAC) Christian Persecution Summit Oct. 30.\n\nA Catholic and longtime human rights advocate, Smith said the encounter 45 years ago shaped his decades-long focus on defending the persecuted and advancing religious freedom worldwide.\n\n\u201cReligious persecution is festering and exploding around the world. What has been unconscionable for decades, centuries, has gotten worse,\u201d he warned.\n\nHe later added, \u201cWe must act. In Nigeria. In China. In scores of nations where the believer is unwelcome.\u201d\n\nCiting data from the Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, Smith noted that more than 380 million Christians around the world \u201csuffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.\u201d\n\nThe Catholic congressman recounted meeting persecuted Christians across the world \u2014 from underground pastors in Moscow to survivors of terrorist attacks in Nigeria.\n\nHe described his 1982 visit with the \u201cSiberian Seven,\u201d Pentecostal Christians who lived inside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for five years, and his later encounter with Habila Adamu, a Nigerian Christian who survived a Boko Haram execution attempt.\n\n\u201cDragged from his home by Boko Haram terrorists, [Habila] was ordered to renounce his faith,\u201d Smith recalled. \u201cWith an AK-47 pressed to his face, he was asked, \u2018Are you ready to die as a Christian?\u2019 With amazing courage, Habila answered, \u2018Yes, I am ready to die as a Christian.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cThe terrorist pulled the trigger. A bullet ripped through Habila\u2019s face. He crumpled to the ground, left for dead,\u201d Smith continued. \u201cBy some miracle, he survived.\u201d\n\nSmith said Habila later traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify at a congressional hearing, urging lawmakers to \u201cdo everything you can to end this ruthless religious persecution,\u201d but first, to \u201cknow Christ.\u201d\n\n\u201cDelay is denial \u2014 and a death sentence to many,\u201d Smith said, calling for swift U.S. action to confront religious persecution, particularly in Nigeria and China.\n\nHe condemned the Biden administration\u2019s 2021 decision to remove Nigeria from the U.S. list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), a designation the Trump administration restored this week to spotlight rampant anti-Christian violence by Islamist terrorists.\n\n\u201cThe systematic slaughter and abuse of Nigerian believers must stop,\u201d Smith said.\n\nHe cited testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi, Nigeria, who told Congress in March that \u201cMilitant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists. They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials.\u201d\n\nTurning to China, Smith condemned President Xi Jinping\u2019s campaign against religious minorities, pointing to the disappearance of Catholic Bishop Su Zhimin and the recent arrest of Zion Church pastor Jin \u201cEzra\u201d Mingri and several others.\n\nSmith met Bishop Su, a leader of the underground Catholic Church, during a 1994 visit to China.\n\n\u201cHe was beaten, starved, and tortured for his faith and spent some 40 years in prison,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYet, he prayed not just for the persecuted church, but for the conversion of those who hate, torture, and kill.\u201d\n\nBishop Su was later arrested again and has not been heard from since, Smith said.\n\n\u201cIn Xi Jinping\u2019s China, devotion that isn\u2019t Communist Party-approved is treated as a political problem to be solved by police,\u201d he said.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415078", "Ocean County Leader article on Smith's legislation to address religious persecution in Nigeria'Smith introduces resolution urging stronger US response on religious persecution in Nigeria'", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Ocean County Leader\n\nPublished November 5, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, has introduced new legislation commending President Donald Trump\u2019s recent redesignation of Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern\u201d (CPC) and detailing steps for the U.S. State Department in response to religious persecution in Nigeria.\n\nThe bill, H.Res.860, is cosponsored by Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL). It updates earlier legislation, H.Res.220, which also addressed religious freedom violations in Nigeria.\n\nSmith has previously called for Nigeria to be designated as a CPC and urged action against Nigerian officials over human rights abuses affecting Christians and Muslims. He has worked on this issue for more than a decade, introducing related legislation and leading congressional hearings, most recently in March.\n\n\u201cTo be a Christian living in Nigeria means to be living under the constant threat of murder, kidnapping, rape, and torture by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists,\u201d said Smith.\n\n\u201cMy new legislation commends President Trump\u2019s decisive action to redesignate Nigeria a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019\u2014reversing an incredibly ill-advised decision by the Biden Administration\u2014and lays out a detailed roadmap for the State Department\u2019s future diplomatic dealings with the Nigerian government\u2014urging sanctions and new conditions on U.S. foreign assistance.\u201d\n\nRep. Huizenga commented on his support for H.Res.860: \u201cThe slaughter of innocent Christians in Nigeria demands a strong response from the United States. Congressman Chris Smith and I are leading the charge in Congress to stop these heinous killings.\n\n\u201cH.Res.860 commends the Trump Administration for designating Nigeria as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern,\u2019 while calling for the Administration to enact sanctions against individuals and entities in Nigeria who are supporting this horrific violence. Additionally, this measure calls for setting verifiable conditions on any US Aid going to Nigeria. Nigeria must do more to protect all innocent individuals, including Christians, within its borders,\u201d he added.\n\nSmith further stated: \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s \u2018CPC\u2019 designation of Nigeria is a critical first step towards achieving lasting peace, stability, and religious freedom in Nigeria.\u201d\n\nHe continued: \u201cCongress has a job to do as well\u2014to support President Trump\u2019s initiative and oversee the State Department\u2019s actions as it implements the goals of a \u2018CPC\u2019 designation, using all appropriate and available tools to advance religious freedom and protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria.\u201d\n\nThe bill proposes that the State Department use tools established through previous laws such as the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act to provide humanitarian aid to faith-based groups; condition U.S. foreign assistance on progress toward religious freedom; work with Treasury on targeted sanctions; add certain militias operating in Benue and Plateau States to lists of concern; and reaffirm U.S. commitment to global human rights.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415072", "TAPinto Gold Coast article on the 25th anniversary of Smith's TVPA'From Washington to Monmouth County, Leaders Are Taking Action to Fight Human Trafficking'", "2025-11-03", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jim Lonergan\n\nPublished November 3, 2025 at 11:10 AM\n\nFREEHOLD, N.J. \u2014 As the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) \u2014 landmark federal legislation authored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) \u2014 Monmouth County officials are joining the fight locally by backing a New Jersey bill that would require rideshare drivers to complete anti-human trafficking training.\n\n\u201cSince becoming New Jersey\u2019s statewide provider for human trafficking victim services in October 2020, Covenant House New Jersey has provided comprehensive care to more than 450 identified victims of human trafficking \u2014 including survivors from right here in Monmouth County,\u201d said CEO Julia Einbond. \u201cHuman trafficking continues to be one of the most hidden crimes in our state. Strengthening our ability to recognize victims and connect them with critical services is essential to breaking the cycle of exploitation.\u201d\n\nTogether, these initiatives reflect a growing push to close gaps in transportation safety, improve victim identification, and strengthen both prevention and prosecution efforts against what experts call one of the most hidden crimes in modern society.\n\nFederal Momentum: Smith Marks 25 years of the TVPA: Rep. Smith \u2014 long recognized as a global leader in anti-human trafficking policy \u2014 is urging Congress to pass his new Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPA) of 2025 (H.R. 1144).\n\nSmith\u2019s original TVPA, enacted in 2000, established the framework for the \u201cthree Ps\u201d approach: prevention, protection, and prosecution. Over the past 25 years, it has helped convict more than 2,200 traffickers, created victim-assistance programs, and inspired over 180 countries to adopt similar anti-trafficking laws. \u201cWhen I first introduced the TVPA, people thought trafficking meant drugs or weapons, not human beings,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut with bipartisan support, we changed that. The TVPA built a whole-of-government strategy to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and prevent exploitation before it happens.\u201d\n\nSmith\u2019s new bill would reauthorize and expand anti-trafficking programs across the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. It would also continue funding for the Angel Watch Center, which notifies foreign governments when convicted child sex offenders attempt to travel abroad \u2014 a key safeguard under Smith\u2019s International Megan\u2019s Law (2016).\n\nIn addition, the bill would launch a Frederick Douglass Survivors Employment and Education Program, helping trafficking survivors reintegrate into society through education and job support.\n\nLocal Action: Monmouth County Commissioners Back State Bill S1990: The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners is advancing its own anti-trafficking efforts by proposing a resolution in support of New Jersey Senate Bill 1990 (S1990) \u2014 legislation that would require transportation-network company (TNC) drivers, such as Uber and Lyft operators, to complete state-approved anti-human trafficking training.\n\nUnder the bill, every TNC driver and new applicant would be required to complete a training course approved by the New Jersey Attorney General that covers:\n\nWhat human trafficking is and how it\u2019s defined.\n\nThe role of rideshare drivers in recognizing and reporting suspected trafficking.\n\nClear instructions on how to report suspected cases to law enforcement.\n\nCurrent drivers would have 90 days from the bill\u2019s effective date to complete certification. Failure to comply would result in suspension from operating on the TNC\u2019s digital platform.\n\nWhy Bill S1990 Has Stalled: Despite broad support, S1990 has remained in the Senate Transportation Committee since being introduced in January 2024.\n\nKey factors contributing to the delay include:\n\nCommittee bottlenecks \u2014 the bill has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.\n\nFiscal note delays \u2014 a cost analysis from the Office of Legislative Services has not been certified, often a prerequisite for floor action.\n\nIndustry concerns \u2014 rideshare companies have raised logistical and cost-related questions about monitoring compliance statewide.\n\nCompeting priorities \u2014 with many bills awaiting review, committee time has been limited for non-appropriation measures.\n\nStill, Monmouth County\u2019s support aims to apply pressure and elevate public awareness.\n\nCommissioners Call for Action: Commissioner Dominick \u201cNick\u201d DiRocco said the local resolution is about proactive prevention: \u201cMonmouth County is not immune to the dangers posed by these criminal acts, and our residents are at risk of exploitation,\u201d DiRocco said. \u201cThis training gives local drivers the tools to recognize and report warning signs before a crime occurs.\u201d\n\nCommissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone emphasized the county\u2019s year-round tourism and commuter base: \u201cMonmouth County welcomes thousands of people every day who rely on rideshare services,\u201d Arnone said. \u201cThis bill represents a vital step toward protecting our community and those who visit it.\u201d\n\nThe Board\u2019s resolution in support of S1990 is expected to be introduced at its next meeting, with Commissioners also exploring additional safeguards for local transportation services.\n\nLinking Local, National, and State efforts: Rep. Smith praised the county\u2019s support of the rideshare training bill, noting that local action complements federal strategy. \u201cThis legislation is critical to preventing, identifying, and combating human trafficking on the state level,\u201d Smith said. \u201cRideshare drivers are often unwitting participants in trafficking transport \u2014 giving them awareness training could save lives.\u201d\n\nAs the TVPA marks its silver anniversary, Smith said it\u2019s time to recommit to the promise made in 2000: \u201cWe must act with courage, compassion, and resolve to ensure that freedom is not just a word \u2014 but a lived reality for every human being.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 421, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select url, title, date, year, month, party, chamber, state, member_name, bioguide_id, domain, scraper, source, date_source, text, has_text, collected_at, updated_at from releases where \"party\" = :p0 and \"state\" = :p1 and \"year\" = :p2 order by date desc limit 101", "params": {"p0": "Republican", "p1": "NJ", "p2": "2025"}}, "facet_results": {"party": {"name": "party", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "Republican", "label": "Republican", "count": 421, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=NJ&year=2025", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "chamber": {"name": "chamber", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "House", "label": "House", "count": 421, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025&chamber=House", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "state": {"name": "state", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "NJ", "label": "NJ", "count": 421, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&year=2025", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "year": {"name": "year", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "2025", "label": "2025", "count": 421, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}}, "suggested_facets": [], "next": "2025-11-03,https~3A~2F~2Fchrissmith~2Ehouse~2Egov~2Fnews~2Fdocumentsingle~2Easpx~3FDocumentID~3D415072", "next_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=NJ&year=2025&_next=2025-11-03%2Chttps~3A~2F~2Fchrissmith~2Ehouse~2Egov~2Fnews~2Fdocumentsingle~2Easpx~3FDocumentID~3D415072&_sort_desc=date", "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 276.4390599913895, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}