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FEDERALhearing transcript

High Impact

Senate Hearing on International Religious Freedom and Persecution

Original title: STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2016

January 1, 2015

religious freedom foreign policy human rights Middle East ISIL refugees appropriations

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The Frame

What this does

This hearing serves as a formal inquiry into how the U.S. government allocates foreign aid and resources to address religious persecution and humanitarian crises in Iraq and Syria.

Who is mentioned in the record

Potentially affected actors named in the source documents. Mention is not a position.

Religious minorities in the Middle East

These groups are experiencing systematic persecution, displacement, and violence by extremist organizations.

U.S. taxpayers

Taxpayer funds are allocated through the State and Foreign Operations appropriations process to address international humanitarian crises.

What changed

Last recorded activity January 1, 2015.

What's next

Next step not available in the current record.

Summary

The Senate Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a hearing to examine the systematic persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East by extremist groups like ISIL. The session featured testimony from religious leaders and experts regarding the humanitarian crisis and the role of U.S. foreign policy in addressing these human rights violations.

Key Facts

The hearing was held on March 11, 2015, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The United Nations reported 2.5 million internally displaced persons in Iraq as of February 2015.
The United Nations reported over 7.5 million internally displaced persons and 4 million refugees in Syria.
There were over 11,000 civilian deaths in Iraq in 2014.
The subcommittee is investigating the impact of ISIL on religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis.
The hearing serves as a platform to discuss the 'Leahy amendment,' a provision regarding human rights in U.S. law.

Why It Matters

This hearing serves as a formal inquiry into how the U.S. government allocates foreign aid and resources to address religious persecution and humanitarian crises in Iraq and Syria.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of this hearing?

The hearing is intended to shed light on the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East and to discuss potential U.S. government responses.

Who testified at this hearing?

The panel included Ambassador David Saperstein, Tony Perkins, Jay Sekulow, and Bishop Oscar Cantu.

News Coverage

No news coverage found yet. Articles are indexed twice daily.

Discoveries

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.

policy shift90% confidence

Focus on Religious Persecution

The hearing marks a specific effort by the subcommittee to frame the Middle East crisis through the lens of religious freedom and the protection of minorities.

Lindsey Graham ISIL

Connected Entities

personPatrick Leahy“Ranking Member of the subcommittee”Map →

organizationISIL“Extremist group identified as the primary perpetrator of religious persecution i”Map →

personDavid Saperstein“Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom”Map →

personLindsey Graham“Chairman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs”Map →

personJay Sekulow“Chief Counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice”Map →

personTony Perkins“President of the Family Research Council”Map →

personOscar Cantu“Bishop of Las Cruces and Chairman of the Committee on International Justice and ”Map →

organizationU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops“Organization providing testimony on the humanitarian crisis”Map →

Sources

Open source document

www.govinfo.gov

Analysis Score

0–100

Significance75
How much this matters to a regular citizen
Controversy40
Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
Entertainment10
Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
Buzz20
Current news / social attention level

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