{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases/salazar-introduces-verdad-reauthorization-act", "Salazar Introduces the VERDAD Reauthorization Act", "2023-12-14", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Maria Elvira Salazar", "S000168", "salazar.house.gov", "salazar", "https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairwoman Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) introduced the VERDAD Reauthorization Act, a bill that would reauthorize the anti-Maduro Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance, and Development (VERDAD) Act passed into law in 2019. Original cosponsors include Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Mike Waltz (R-FL), Carlos Gim\u00e9nez (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA).\n\nThe Maduro regime is employing every possible illegal tactic to distract from the momentum of his leading political opponent Mar\u00eda Corina Machado\u2019s campaign. It is imperative that the United States stand by the Venezuelan people\u2019s best chance to end more than two decades of socialist dictatorship.\n\n\u201cThe dictator Maduro and his lackeys are doing everything in their power to ensure Chavismo\u2019s primary opponent, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, never reaches Miraflores,\u201d said Chairwoman Salazar. \u201cMaduro is a tyrant who needs to go. My bill reauthorizing the VERDAD Act will show the Venezuelan people that America is still on their side in the fight against socialism.\u201d\n\nFirst passed in 2019, the VERDAD Act was introduced to support efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela by sanctioning key regime officials while safeguarding the rights and liberties of those escaping socialist persecution.\n\nReauthorization of the VERDAD Act is critically important as Maduro has stepped up his attacks on Venezuelan institutions and the opposition. The regime broke a promise with the United States by nullifying the opposition\u2019s primary results after Mar\u00eda Corina Machado \u2013 his main competitor \u2013 won over 90% of the vote. Not long after Maduro established a distraction referendum to take over the Essequibo region of Guyana, he had his Attorney General arrest several of Mar\u00eda Corina\u2019s closest political advisors.\n\nThese attacks on Mar\u00eda Corina\u2019s candidacy indicate that the United States must keep up the pressure on the Maduro regime.\n\nSenators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Bill Haggerty (R-TN) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.\n\nTo read the text of the bill, click here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "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"], "primary_key_values": ["https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases/salazar-introduces-verdad-reauthorization-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7709527164697647, "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"}