Foreign Aid Bill Urges Attention To Iraq's Minority Christians

On July 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, H.R. 2601 (full text). The Associated Baptist Press on Friday reported on the Sense of Congress provisions added in Sec. 1056 of the Bill that ask the Bush administration to work with the United States Agency for International Development to use funding for welfare, education and resettlement of Iraq’s Christian minority. The provision was introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the only Chaldo-Assyrian Christian in Congress. The bill also urges "all relevant departments and agencies ...[to] pay special attention to the welfare of ChaldoAssyrians and other indigenous Christians in Iraq in order to prevent a mass exodus that would detrimentally affect the preservation of diversity in the Middle East and the promotion of general tolerance for others."