ICYMI: Sens. Coons, Rubio op-ed in WSJ: “Every Senator Agrees the U.N. Must Change”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on the United Nations (U.N.) to take concrete steps to fight anti-Semitism and combat the prevalence of an anti-Israel bias among U.N. member states and agencies. The Senators’ column follows a letter they sent last week to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, which was signed by all 100 Senators.

Wall Street Journal: Every Senator Agrees the U.N. Must Change

By Chris Coons and Marco Rubio

It’s rare, especially these days, for all 100 U.S. Senators—from Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz, from Elizabeth Warren to Mitch McConnell—to agree on something. But the scourge of anti-Israel bias at the United Nations is such an issue. Last week, every senator signed our letter to Secretary-General António Guterres, urging him to improve the U.N.’s treatment of Israel and eliminate anti-Semitism in all its forms.

While the U.N. has achieved some important successes since its founding 70 years ago, too many of its member states and agencies use the world body as a vehicle for targeting Israel rather than as a forum committed to advancing peace and human rights. This encourages and supports the broader scourge of anti-Semitism, and distracts key U.N. entities from their original missions. …

Click here to read the full column.

###

Sen. Coons’ statement on Pres. Trump’s White House invitation to Rodrigo Duterte

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after President Trump invited President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to the White House.

“President Trump weakens American values when he fails to stand up for human rights.  President Duterte has overseen the illegal killing of thousands of his own people in the Philippines.  By welcoming Duterte to meet with him in the White House, Trump risks giving Duterte’s actions – and his brutal human rights violations – an American stamp of approval.” 

###

Sen. Coons’ statement on reports that Trump administration will cut thousands of U.S. diplomats

WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement in response to reports that the Trump administration is proposing the elimination of thousands of jobs as part of a cut to the State Department’s budget for the next fiscal year.

“Now is the wrong time for deep cuts to funding for the State Department and USAID, for cuts to our diplomats and development professionals around the world.  As President Trump and Secretary Tillerson are learning, it takes capable diplomats and effective development efforts in order to complement our military and to secure peace and stability,” said Senator Coons. “We can’t solve problems such as confronting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, containing Russian aggression or ending Syria’s civil war with military efforts alone.  I have seen in person the work of our diplomats and developments professionals in tough circumstances in many countries, and I respect what they do to keep us safe and promote peace.”  

###

RUBIO, COONS LEAD ENTIRE SENATE IN URGING U.N. TO ELIMINATE ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Christopher Coons (D-DE) led all 100 U.S. senators in urging United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General António Guterres to counter anti-Israel bias at the United Nations.

“Although, as Republicans and Democrats, we disagree on many issues, we are united in our desire to see the United Nations improve its treatment of Israel and to eliminate anti-Semitism in all its forms,” states the senators’ letter. “Through words and actions, we urge you to ensure that Israel is treated neither better nor worse than any other U.N. member in good standing.” 

The full text of the letter is below.

April 27, 2017

Dear Mr. Secretary-General:

The United States co-founded the United Nations with the intention of saving future generations from war and reaffirming fundamental human rights.  While much good is being done and has been done by the body, many of its member states and agencies are using the U.N.’s privileged platform to advance an anti-Israel agenda.  Too often, the U.N. is exploited as a vehicle for targeting Israel rather than as a forum committed to advancing the lofty goals of its founders. These actions have at times reinforced the broader scourge of anti-Semitism, and distracted certain U.N. entities from their original missions.

Although, as Republicans and Democrats, we disagree on many issues, we are united in our desire to see the United Nations improve its treatment of Israel and to eliminate anti-Semitism in all its forms. Through words and actions, we urge you to ensure that Israel is treated neither better nor worse than any other U.N. member in good standing.  To that end, we commend the words of our nation’s Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, who recently stated, “It is the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias that is long overdue for change.”

We praise you for disavowing the recent anti-Israel report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and demanding that it be withdrawn.  Going forward, we urge you to pursue a comprehensive effort to improve the U.N.’s treatment of Israel along the following lines. 

• The U.N. funds and maintains a number of standing committees, which far too often serve no purpose other than to attack Israel and inspire the anti-Israel boycott, sanctions, and divestment (BDS) movement.  These committees must be eliminated or reformed.

• While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) does some important work on Holocaust education, its member states continue to advance measures that target Israel and deny the Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem.  UNESCO member states must be made to realize that these actions only undermine the credibility of the organization.

• The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) downplays its role in perpetuating troubling anti-Israel bias and activities.  UNRWA must pursue reforms or risk significant consequences.

• Most troubling is the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC).  Charged with shining a light on gross human rights violations, the UNHRC—whose membership currently includes some of the world’s worst human rights violators—instead devotes time to unwarranted attacks against Israel.  UNHRC even maintains a permanent item on its agenda—“Agenda Item VII”—to assess Israel even as numerous other countries, including some represented on the Council, commit egregious human rights abuses against their citizens on a daily basis.  Speaking recently at the UNHRC in Geneva, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Erin Barclay criticized the UNHRC’s anti-Israel focus as “unfair and unbalanced,” noting that the body’s “obsession with Israel…is the largest threat to the Council’s credibility” and “limits the good we can accomplish by making a mockery of this Council.”

The UNHRC should be the premier international body addressing the many pressing human rights challenges of our time in countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and South Sudan.  It is currently not living up to this mission.  We urge you to seek specific reforms to end the Council’s imbalanced focus on Israel, including through removal of Agenda Item VII and requiring competition among states seeking membership on the Council.

As both the U.N.’s principal founding member and its largest contributor, the United States should insist on reform.  As duly elected representatives of the American people, we take seriously our responsibility to conduct rigorous oversight of U.S. engagement at the United Nations.  We are deeply committed to international leadership and to advancing respect for human rights.  But continued targeting of Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N. entities is unacceptable.  This situation must change.  We urge you to engage member states in a comprehensive effort to directly confront and root out this bias.

If you continue to build on your recent action, we stand ready to work with you to eliminate the organization’s anti-Israel bias, and to fight anti-Semitism in all its forms.

Sincerely,

###

Sen. Coons named one of the most bipartisan members of the Senate by the Lugar Center & McCourt School of Public Policy

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) was scored the 11^th most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate in the newly released Senate Bipartisan Index from Former Sen. Richard Lugar’s Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

View the entire Senate Bipartisan Index here.

Learn more about the Bipartisan Index here.

###

[VIDEO] Senator Coons: “I can’t believe the Trump administration let [Flynn] get anywhere near the Situation Room”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC to discuss recent news regarding Michael Flynn.

“The more we learn about General Flynn and his role as National Security Advisor in the Trump White House, the more shocked I am. I can’t believe the Trump administration let him get anywhere near the Situation Room,” said Senator Coons. “My concern now is whether the Trump administration knew about his conflicts of interest—his very real conflicts of interest—and simply failed to investigate them or address them, or that they just didn’t care.”

Full audio and video available here.

###

Sen. Coons statement on Fallen Delaware State Trooper

“This situation is a heartbreaking reminder of the risks our police and first responders face when they take an oath to keep our communities safe,” said Sen. Coons. “My thoughts and prayers are with the trooper’s family, the Delaware State Police and the state’s entire law enforcement family.”

Booker, Brown, Durbin to SEC: “No Legal Basis” for Halting Bipartisan Conflict Minerals Rule

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Richard Durbin (D-IL) led a letter signed by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to keep in place key parts of the bipartisan Conflict Minerals Rule, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that ensures that businesses who source products from conflict areas take steps to ensure their supply chain isn’t funding armed groups in those regions.

Earlier this month, SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar instructed the agency to halt the enforcement of this key bipartisan safeguard, a decision the Senators say has no legal basis.

In a letter sent today to Piwowar, the lawmakers urged him to rescind his directive, emphasizing the critical need for the Conflicts Mineral Rule in order to “stem the flow of financial support that illicit mining has provided to armed groups operating in an area plagued by violence.”

“We see no legal basis for your unilateral move to halt [the rule’s] enforcement,” the lawmakers wrote. “Any steps to repeal or modify the rule require a transparent, formal review and opportunity to comment by all stakeholders.”

“Further, we note the dangerous precedent set when an Acting Chairman decides which laws the SEC should enforce, and we are concerned about your intention to direct the agency to ignore other laws.”

Since the mid-1990s, a series of conflicts involving multiple armed groups in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have displaced communities and resulted in extensive human rights abuses. This deep-rooted conflict is funded, in part, through illicit mineral extraction which the Conflict Minerals Rule seeks to address.

The Conflict Minerals Rule has prompted companies to improve their supply chains, and the letter notes how the Rule enjoys the public support of several leading American businesses, including Intel, Apple, and Tiffany & Co.

Today’s letter follows a hearing held earlier this month in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, which outlined how the Conflict Minerals Rule has improved stability, safety, and quality of life for communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Full text of the letter is below:

April 26, 2017

Dear Commissioner Piwowar:

We write to express our deep concern about your recent instruction to halt enforcement of key parts of the Conflict Minerals rule (Rule 13p-1 of the Securities Exchange Act) required by  Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub. L. 111-203).  As you know, this law required companies using conflict minerals in their products — including gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten (3T) obtained from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other “Covered Countries” in the region — to conduct a due diligence review to ensure their supply chain is not funding armed groups in the region.  The bipartisan law was enacted to help stem the flow of financial support that illicit mining has provided to armed groups operating in an area plagued by violence, in which the use of rape as an instrument of war has become so commonplace that it has become known as the “rape capital of the world.” We see no legal basis for your unilateral move to halt its enforcement.

Any steps to repeal or modify the requirements of the law require action by Congress.  Any attempt to modify the rule requires a transparent, formal review and opportunity to comment by all stakeholders.  An irregular, ad hoc process inviting comment on an Acting Chairman’s statement is no substitute for this formal process.  As Acting Chairman, you do not have the authority to direct a halt to enforcement.  And yet, you have repeatedly taken aim at this bipartisan measure.  As described in a March 29, 2017, Senate letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Inspector General, we are concerned that your ongoing actions with regard to the conflict minerals rule lack adequate justification, undermine the mission of the SEC, exceed your authority as Acting Chairman, and raise questions about whether you may have violated other procedural requirements.  Further, we note the dangerous precedent set when an Acting Chairman decides which laws the SEC should enforce, and we are concerned about your intention to direct the agency to ignore other laws.

Since the mid-1990s, a series of inter-related armed conflicts involving multiple armed rebel groups, local militias, and armed criminal groups in the eastern provinces of the DRC have displaced communities, created humanitarian emergencies, and resulted in extensive human rights abuses.  This deep-rooted conflict is funded, in part, through illicit mineral extraction.

The congressionally mandated directive requiring supply chain due diligence has had important positive effects for the security for the people of Eastern Congo and has bolstered the confidence of investors in companies using minerals from the region. North Kivu province, the most 3T minerals-rich province in Congo, reported record-high, conflict-free exports for both tin and tantalum in 2016, and 220 mines have now been certified as conflict-free.  In addition, as of April 2017, 77 percent of smelters worldwide (249 out of 323 total) for the four conflict minerals have passed audits.

We believe your April 7, 2017, statement, as well as the recommendation by the Division of Corporation Finance questioning enforcement of due diligence requirements, conflates distinct elements of the requirements and process under the statute and the rule and incorrectly interprets the 2015 court ruling.  While your statement effectively suspends enforcement of all due diligence requirements under Section 1502, the court’s decision invalidated only one specific, severable component of the Conflict Minerals rule. The inquiry and due diligence measures on source and chain of custody are separate and distinct, and they must each be enforced.  In fact, when the National Association of Manufacturers requested a stay of the law, the court explicitly denied the request to affirm that the rest of the rule’s requirements were not severable from the requirement found to be unconstitutional. The conflict minerals report is a central part of the law, even if companies are ultimately not required to describe the status of their products, and there is no  question about  whether the due diligence disclosure requirements must be enforced.

Supply chain due diligence under the Conflict Minerals rule has allowed companies to better understand and create efficiencies in their own supply chain, while choking off revenue for violent militia groups.  Several companies, including Intel, Apple, Richline, and Tiffany & Co. have publicly expressed support for the conflict minerals rule.  These companies and others like them have embraced the law and its underlying objectives.   Enforcing the Conflict Minerals rule is required by law.  A failure to do so could place these companies at a competitive disadvantage and is beyond the scope of your authority.

We urge you immediately to rescind your directive, and allow full enforcement of the Conflict Minerals law and rule.

Sincerely,

USA TODAY: Senators call for reform of foreign aid programs

WASHINGTON — Two key senators are calling on the U.S. government to continue to fund a program that provides food assistance for hunger-ravaged areas of Africa but say reforms are needed to make the program more efficient.

“We deal with a lot of issues that involve conflict,” said Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But, “from my standpoint, the place where I feel like we sometimes make the most difference is on issues like this,” Corker said.

Corker and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to Uganda during Congress’ Easter recess and visited the Bidi Bidi refugee camp, where more than 270,000 people live after fleeing war-torn South Sudan.

There, the senators saw the suffering caused by the current global food crisis that has effected 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

“The people we met face severe, life-threatening hunger, and their government is not helping,” Coons said.

The U.S. government spent $2.8 billion on foreign food assistance last year. But President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would cut 28 percent of funding for diplomacy and foreign aid. The $1.5 billion budget for the Food for Peace Program, which provides a majority of U.S. foreign food assistance, would be sharply slashed.

Corker called such cuts “shortsighted” and suggested Congress would be unlikely to go along with them.

Foreign aid makes up just 1 percent of the federal budget, he said, and “if we spend it wisely, it is what keeps our men and women out of harm’s way, keeps them from being in a hot war.”

Corker and Coons are pushing for reforms that they say will make the food-assistance program more efficient, allowing it to feed millions more people at a lower cost.

One of the changes they want to see would lift the current requirement that all food-aid commodities be produced in the United States. Their proposal would allow both U.S. and locally or regionally produced commodities, vouchers and credit cards to be used — whichever is the most effective option.

The senators also want to reverse a provision in current law that requires 50 percent of donated food aid to be shipped on American-flagged vessels, which can increase the cost of shipping the food. Removing that provision would save $50 million a year and speed the delivery of food to a larger population, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies.

The senators also want to eliminate a requirement that 15 percent of all U.S. food donated must be sold first by aid organizations, which produces cash that then funds those projects. The process is known as “monetization,” and government accountability groups say getting rid of it could free up another $30 million per year.

Corker and Coons filed a bill two years ago that called for those reforms, but the legislation went nowhere. After their recent trip to Africa, they pledged to resume their campaign for the reforms, which could be enacted in a number of ways. One possibility would be to include the reforms in the federal farm bill that is due to be reauthorized next year.

© 2017 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC.

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons: ‘To look in the eyes of refugees is a very powerful experience’

Senators Coons, Corker discuss their recent trip to the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda

Sen. Coons on Putin: “He’s only going to stop when we stop him”

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Morning Joe with Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) to discuss their recent visit to the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda, where more than 270,000 people reside after fleeing violence and famine in South Sudan.

“To actually hold a child whose mother has just come out of weeks of fleeing violence in South Sudan and to see them get to a safe place, to help feed them for the first time, and to look in the eyes of refugees is a very powerful experience. This was on Good Friday, and one of the main reasons we continue to feed the world is because it’s the right thing to do, but the more important thing is it actually helps keep us safer by preventing fragile states from becoming failed states, and by teaching the world about our values, and I’m grateful that Chairman Corker and I have a bill that would help taxpayer dollars to go farther in more efficiently delivering our food aid to the world.”

Audio and video available here.

Additional excerpts from the interview:

Senator Coons on Russia: “Putin’s Russia is an aggressor, an adversary and across all these different areas, I think he’s only going to stop when we stop him. And I think the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Ben Cardin, has put together strong bipartisan legislation. We’ve also had great hearings and have stepped up to some of the other challenges facing our security like Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East. I think you’ll see a number of bills come through our committee. In the last Congress, we were productive legislatively on improving foreign assistance, on improving health security and food security in the developing world. In this Congress, I think you’ll see us step up and really confront the challenges of an aggressive Russia and Iran.”

Senator Coons on how helpful he thinks China will be with North Korea: “This really is in President XI’s interest and China is the sole lifeline for North Korea. They are critically dependent on Chinese support.  So our continuing to strengthen and bring closer our long and enduring ties with South Korea and Japan and engaging with China and making this more their problem than our problem is the only path forward that I see in the short term. We have to have a credible military plan, but frankly, pulling together our allies in the region, with China, to impose significant sanctions on North Korea, to make them an international pariah and to circle the pressure on them is the most likely next step. I think that’s what we’ll hear at the White House tomorrow from the Trump administration.”

Senator Coons on President Trump’s calls with foreign leaders: “I think that President Trump should be relying more on the career professionals in the State Department who often have deep knowledge of particular countries. Our NATO ally Turkey that is a key player in the region and is essential to our strategy in Syria, but where Erdo?an is increasingly tilting toward an authoritarian streak, I’m not sure I would have had the president congratulate him, and given the conduct of his government internally. I do think he’ll do a better job the more he relies on not just his immediate inner circle but also the nonpartisan career professionals of the Foreign Service.”