Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Sept 29 2004

Schiff continues Genocide battle

Rep. organizes group asking House leaders to stop opposition to bill
that references Armenian Genocide.

By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Adam Schiff and 62 other representatives
asked Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to back off his opposition
to an amendment to the Foreign Operations bill that refers to the
Armenian Genocide.

The amendment, proposed by Schiff (D-Glendale) and approved by the
House in July, prohibits Turkey from using U.S. foreign aid to lobby
against a House resolution that would recognize the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide. The amendment is
largely symbolic, because foreign governments are prohibited from
using U.S. foreign aid to lobby Congress.

After the House passed Schiff’s amendment in July, Hastert and other
Republican leaders vowed to prevent the bill from becoming law,
arguing that it did nothing and could harm America’s relationship
with Turkey. Because the Senate did not include similar language in
its version of the Foreign Operations bill, the amendment must
survive a conference committee.

On Tuesday, Schiff sent Hastert (R-Ill.) a letter signed by 62 other
members of the House urging Hastert to back off of his opposition.

Hastert’s office did not return messages seeking comment.

“The underlying issue is very important, that we recognize the facts
of the Armenian Genocide,” Schiff said. “To fail to recognize the
Armenian Genocide that was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians sends a terribly conflicted message, that the United States
Congress will recognize genocide only if political opposition is not
too great.”

The political opposition comes from Turkey, a strategic military ally
to America. Turkish officials claim the number of deaths is
overstated, and that the deaths were not the result of genocide.
Turkey hired a high-powered lobbyist, former House Appropriations
Committee chairman Bob Livingston, to take up its cause.

Schiff’s letter includes signatures from 54 Democrats and eight
Republicans in the House, along with the nonvoting member of the
House from Washington, D.C.

Despite those signatures and strong opposition from the Republican
leadership, the issue does not seem to be partisan. In 2000, Hastert
promised to bring a genocide resolution bill to the floor in a
meeting in Glendale, but backed off at the request of President Bill
Clinton, a Democrat.

“I don’t see it in [partisan] terms,” said Justin Stoner, spokesman
for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), one of the eight Republicans to sign
the letter. “There’s other considerations. This comes up year after
year. Every year, there’s reluctance.”

Schiff expects the conference committee, a committee made up of
members of both the House and the Senate, to determine the fate of
his amendment within the next few months.

“I’d say it’s very much an uphill [battle],” Schiff said.