Speaker of the House Paul Ryan intends to suspend the usual Congressional procedures and allow voting on the Bill S.447. Voting can take place on Tuesday (April 24, 2018) in the U.S. House of Representatives. This will happen under “suspension of the rules”, and the debate will be limited to 40 minutes and Members of Congress will not be able to offer any amendments, BUT THEY CAN OBJECT on behalf of Polish Americans. In order for the bill to be approved, a 2/3 majority of votes will be required.
Please promptly deliver by telephone the message below to your Member of the United States House of Representatives.
As a POLISH AMERICAN and constituent of Congressman/ Congresswoman ______________, I request that on April 24 he/she should vote against S. 447, because Congress is not asking important questions, which as a result is unfair to Poland. Poland is an important and dependable U.S. NATO ally, which was a victim of Nazi Germany, and not a criminal.
The S.447 bill contains vague language that could lead to unjust claims against Poland, for so called “the restitution of heirless property”. The basic details of the claims, method of calculation and their application to Poland’s pre-war population are undisclosed. These types of claims would also potentially come from organizations that are not legally related to the Holocaust victims who perished as a result of Nazi German war crimes during the German occupation of Poland in the Second World War.
The “suspension of the rules” suggests that the U.S. Congress is trying to avoid asking questions about the details of Holocaust claims that could be made against Poland as a result of this legislation.
Please inform Congressman/Congresswoman_______________ that S. 447 is a controversial and complex piece of legislation which is of grave concern to Polish Americans because important questions about its implications are not being considered.
The bill should be proceed under regular legislative procedures that would include Congressional hearings in which questions that are not being asked may be posed to our U.S. Congress.
Request that on April 24 your Congressman/ Congresswoman ________ should vote against S. 447- “Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act of 2017”.
Clearly, further investigation of facts, or hearings, should occur before action is taken. The S. 447 should be stopped on Tuesday April 24.
Find Your Congress Representative by Zip Code:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Attached is a December 2017 Letter of The Coalition of Polish Americans, to
The Honorable Ed Royce
Chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
