The following is the text of Amendment 134, Section 1266 that passed the US House of Representatives’ military appropriations bill on 21 May 2014, as recorded in the Congressional Report (background and more coverage here).
134. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Shimkus of Illinois
or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes
At the end of subtitle F of title XII insert the following
new section:
SEC. 1266. RECOGNITION OF VICTIMS OF SOVIET COMMUNIST AND NAZI REGIMES.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) On August 13, 1941, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a
joint declaration ``of certain common principles in the
national policies of their respective countries on
which they based their hopes for a better future for
the world'' and ``the right of all peoples to choose
the form of government under which they will live and
self government restored to those who have been
forcibly deprived of them'' and that the people of
countries may live in freedom.
(2) The United States Government has actively
advocated for and continues to support the principles
of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the United Nations General Assembly
resolution 260 (III) of December 9, 1948.
(3) Captive Nations Week, signed into law by
President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959, raised public
awareness of the oppression of nations under the
control of Communist and other nondemocratic
governments.
(4) The European Parliament resolution on European
conscience and totalitarianism of April 2, 2009, and
the ``Black Ribbon Day'' resolution adopted by the
Parliament of Canada on November 30, 2009, establish a
day of remembrance for victims of Communist and Nazi
regimes to remember and commemorate their victims.
(5) The extreme forms of totalitarian rule practiced
by the Soviet Communist and Nazi regimes led to
premeditated and vast crimes committed against millions
of human beings and their basic and inalienable rights
on a scale unseen before in history.
(6) Fleeing the Nazi and Soviet Communist crimes,
hundreds of thousands of people sought and found refuge
in the United States.
(7) August 23 would be an appropriate date to
designate as ``Black Ribbon Day'' to remember and never
forget the terror millions of citizens in Central and
Eastern Europe experienced for more than 40 years by
ruthless military, economic, and political repression
of the people through arbitrary executions, mass
arrests, deportations, the suppression of free speech,
confiscation of private property, and the destruction
of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all
of which deprived the vast majority of the peoples of
Central and Eastern Europe of their basic human rights
and dignity, separating them from the democratic world
by means of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.
(8) The memories of Europe's tragic past cannot be
forgotten in order to honor the victims, condemn the
perpetrators, and lay the foundation for reconciliation
based on truth and remembrance.
(b) Recognition.--Congress supports the designation of
``Black Ribbon Day'' to recognize the victims of Soviet
Communist and Nazi regimes.
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