During my 25 years on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I have advocated for a just and effective foreign policy that utilizes America’s unique international influence to help the world’s most vulnerable populations

Below are just some of the recent issues I have been working on to help shine a light on some of the darkest regions of the world

For decades, U.S. foreign aid has contributed to economic development, helped build democracy, and provided a lifeline to the world’s most vulnerable populations. As the world continues to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, I have worked to ensure that critical Covid relief is a focus of U.S. foreign aid.

The House passed my resolution, H.Res.496, calling on President Biden to deliver urgently needed medical supplies to India and neighboring countries during the height of the Delta wave that tragically took a quarter million Indian lives.

I also helped introduce H.Res.245, which calls on the U.S. government and all G-20 members to further invest in vaccine distribution across Africa.

I will continue to advocate for more robust U.S. foreign aid to the populations most in need, particularly in light of the devastation created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 1953, the parties to the Korean War – the United States, North Korea, and South Korea – signed an Armistice Agreement.

While the conflict ended in 1953, nearly 70 years later we technically remain in a state of war with North Korea. This is why I introduced the Peace On the Korean Peninsula Act.

My legislation, which has been championed by the American Friends Service Committee and Women Cross DMZ, would create an end of war declaration and start serious, urgent diplomatic engagement with North Korea to lower tensions and avoid confrontation.

It also addresses the urgent need to reunite the 100,000 Korean American families with their loved ones after decades of separation following the war.

I led 22 of my colleagues in sending a companion letter to President Biden urging him to pursue a diplomatic solution.

My efforts affirm the sense of the No Unconstitutional Strike against North Korea Act, which I helped introduce to ensure no strike would be launched against North Korea without congressional authorization.

Due to a blockade of humanitarian aid by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, Ethiopia’s Tigray region is facing the worst global famine in decades.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died, 2 million have been displaced, and 35,000 ethnic Tigrayans have been rounded up in concentration camps.

This crisis gets overshadowed by a number of other events, including of course the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian threats to Ukraine, but it remains one of the most dire humanitarian crises in the world.

We must get humanitarian aid into Tigray. I cosponsored and helped pass through the House Foreign Affairs Committee H.Res. 445, which condemns atrocities in Ethiopia and calls for an immediate ceasefire.

I also helped introduce H.Res. 842, which condemns the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Tigray.

I cosponsored the Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act, which authorizes sanctions on individuals committing these atrocities. The bill passed out of the Foreign Affairs Committee with my amendment conditioning the suspension of sanctions on the end of ethnically motivated mass detention of civilians.

Since 2014, the Chinese government has engaged in brutal, oppressive campaign against the Uyghur Muslims. The Chinese government has imprisoned over a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang and has subjected them to forced labor and torture while the Chinese Communist Party derogatorily calls Islam “an illness”.

As a vocal opponent of these crimes, I cosponsored and helped pass through the House H.Res.317, which condemned the ongoing crimes against humanity committed against Uyghurs by China.

I also cosponsored and helped to pass through the House the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to ban the import of goods from the Xinjiang region that were made with Uyghur forced labor. I cosponsored the Uyghur Policy Act, which expands resources at the State Department to advocate for the Uyghur community.

Lastly, I cosponsored and helped pass through the House the Combatting International Islamophobia Act, which will create an office at the State Department to monitor and combat Islamophobic violence abroad - such as that committed against the Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar.