Rep Gutierrez Praises $15 Million Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Pledge Authorized in "CROmnibus" Spending Measure

Statement

Buried in the "Cromnibus" budget bill (HR 83), Congressman Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) scored a legislative victory by securing language to authorize payment of $15 million the Department of State pledged to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation almost five years ago.

At the urging of Rep. Gutiérrez and dozens of other Congressional Representatives, the United States made a pledge to support the endowment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, preserving the site of the Nazi death camp in Poland as a reminder to the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded in 2010 by pledging $15 million to the international effort and that money was appropriated by Congress and given to the State Department starting in 2010, but it was never transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation endowment because State did not feel it had the necessary authorization from Congress to make a grant to an endowment that would then fund preservation for future generations.

"This month marks 70 years since the beginning of World War II," Rep. Gutiérrez said in September 2009, when he first started urging Congress and the State Department to fund Auschwitz-Birkenau preservation. "And while time is taking its toll on this rapidly deteriorating historic site, it has not diminished violent ideologies of anti-Semitism and racism that still run rampant today."

Rep. Gutiérrez was part of a delegation that visited the Auschwitz camp in August 2009 and wrote the President and Secretary of State urging them to prioritize funding for the international remembrance effort.

"The only way we can work toward the eradication of these painful and dangerous mentalities is to preserve, remember and teach others about the atrocities of the past. The United States must be a leader in the fight against hatred and bigotry by safeguarding an honest record of history, so that future generations may learn from it," Gutiérrez said at the September 17, 2009, Capitol Hill press conference he called to release the letter to Secretary Clinton signed by 45 of his colleagues.

Twenty-eight nations pledged $160 million to the effort, but as of this year, the United States was the only country not to have actually made good on its pledge. Until now.

Quietly and mostly behind the scenes, Rep. Gutiérrez met with Members of Congress in leadership and with the committees of jurisdiction, asking them to insert the necessary language to authorize the funds and therefore empower the State Department to transfer the money. This included a sign-on letter to the House Appropriations Committee in 2014 signed 44 Republicans and Democrats and an appeal was made directly to then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, also in 2014.

"There was never any ill-will or resistance to fully fund Secretary Clinton's 2010 pledge," Rep. Gutiérrez said. "But there were bureaucratic and political roadblocks that delayed the process. Congress has been funding the government from emergency to emergency to emergency with these short-term Continuing Resolutions to avoid government shutdowns, not budgeting to enact sensible or forward-looking policies-- or addressing bureaucratic blockages like the $15 million pledge to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. It is a byproduct of the partisan bickering and the hardline approach of the conservatives who run this place. So good policies -- even funding that everyone agrees is a good idea -- gets sidetracked."

The "Cromnibus" bill that passed the House on December 11, 2014, was called a "Cromnibus" because it combined an "Omnibus" bill funding almost all of the government through the end of the Fiscal Year (September 30, 2015) with a "Continuing Resolution" or "CR," to fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels only through February 27, 2015. The Republican majority, prodded by the contingent that strongly opposes immigration -- and especially the President's recently announced executive actions on immigration -- insisted that Homeland Security be treated separately and temporarily. It was for this reason -- along with a few other last minute policy changes -- that Rep. Gutiérrez opposed the "Cromnibus" bill and voted against its passage.

"I don't think Republicans should play games with national security just to make the anti-immigration wing of the GOP happy, but Members of Congress face these challenges all the time," Rep. Gutiérrez said. "I had to vote against the bill even though it finally fixed the Auschwitz-Birkenau preservation funding issue and I am relieved that the money will finally reach its destination. It should have happened a long time ago, but I am pleased it is happening now."

The U.S. funds pledged to the endowment for Auschwitz-Birkenau are expected to be transferred in early 2015, hopefully in time for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp that will be commemorated on January 27, 2015.

"When I visited Poland and the Auschwitz-Birkenau site in 2009, I was deeply moved and it was clear that this location, where so much brutal history and inhumanity took place, must be preserved for everyone to see and feel," Rep. Gutiérrez said. "The site cannot be allowed to disappear because it should be seared into the consciousness and conscience of every generation. It is more than a memorial to millions of innocent lives. It is a touchstone for avoiding genocide, injustice, and war. Remembering is the only way to "never forget.'"

Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and is the Chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He has temporarily given up his seniority on the House Committee on Financial Services in order to serve on Judiciary.

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