madam chairman , i rise today in strong support of the foreign relations authorization act . 
chairman hyde along with ranking member lantos crafted a bipartisan bill that was strongly supported by the house international relations committee . 
i would also like to give my sincerest thanks to all the staff of the committee who have worked so hard to make sure that all the members of this committee had an opportunity to way in on the bill to make improvements that were important to us . 
the committee has worked with me and my staff to make sure that language was included , which expresses the sense of congress that the president of the united states and the secretary of state should engage in an open dialogue with the government of poland to achieve a final and complete settlement for individuals and groups who had their private property seized by the nazis during world war ii or by the communist polish government after the war . 
this clause simply calls on the government of poland to develop a final and complete settlement for private property that was seized or confiscated by the nazis during ww ii or by the communist government of poland after the war . 
the president of poland alexsander kwanieski met with congressional leaders from the united states helsinki commission and said that he intended to draft a new law intended to provide compensation that would not discriminate based on residency or citizenship of an individual and it would be ready to take effect by the beginning of 2003 . 
this clause calls on the president of the united states and the secretary of state to engage in an open dialogue with the government of poland and work with them to ensure that restitution legislation is implemented . 
we are now in june of 2005 and limited action has been taken to resolve this situation . 
these reparations need to be made immediately if they are to be of any benefit to many of the holocaust survivors . 
another initiative that was included was regarding language to create a report on what the united states is doing to assist our friend and ally israel in their efforts to establish diplomatic relations . 
as i 'm sure many of my colleagues in this committee are aware that a number of nations have not established full diplomatic relations with the state of israel . 
israel currently maintains diplomatic relations with 160 countries . 
thirty-three countries do not have any diplomatic relations with israel at all and one country has only limited relations . 
the violence that has consumed israel , gaza and the west bank has only exacerbated this problem . 
in order for israel to be a full member of the world community , it must establish diplomatic relations . 
the israeli embassy tells me that israel is actively seeking to establish and upgrade their relations with several countries . 
this has proven difficult with many of the islamic nations . 
i believe the u.s. should be doing everything possible to help israel establish these relations and that is why i have authored this language . 
another issue i worked on was the inclusion of a sense of congress on the need for an additional consular post in southern india . 
with bangalore and hyderabad becoming booming high technology centers the need for the united states to have a close center to these areas is imperative . 
i have also worked to include an authorization of funding to two well deserving groups , project children and cooperation ireland . 
many of my colleagues will be familiar with this because you have taken summer interns from this program . 
these two organizations have a long history of successfully developing people-to-people exchanges that encourage reconciliation and conflict resolution in northern ireland . 
for over a decade , there has been a sustained bipartisan national policy to support ongoing efforts to end the civil conflict in the north of ireland . 
this policy has included the direct involvement of both president clinton and president bush . 
while the latest efforts to restore power sharing have fallen short and the political process is at a standstill , i believe that the united states must remain engaged in northern ireland at all levels to encourage peace and reconciliation . 
with the assistance of the committee , i was able to include report language supporting the asian university for women . 
the goal of this university is to prepare these women for positions of political , financial , cultural and social leadership across the globe . 
by convening a new class of 500 women each year in a supportive , non-sectarian , intellectually rich and rigorous academic environment , the university eventually will generate a network of women professionals who will drive the development and enrichment of their countries and the region . 
war is not the only way to fight terrorism , the education of women is one way of stopping the breeding of hate in the children around the world . 
finally , on the issue of iraq , i was able to include by a bipartisan vote language calling on the president to put forth a plan for success in iraq . 
this clause requests a plan from this administration on how we will be providing for a stable and secure iraqi government , military and police force that will allow the united states presence to be diminished . 
by accomplishing these tasks , the united states would be taking a realistic and viable approach to longer term success in iraq . 
i would like to thank the chairman and ranking members as well as their staffs for crafting a bill we should all be proud to support . 
