madam chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
first of all , i want to say as one of the new members of congress and serving on the international relations committee , i appreciate the example that the chairman of the committee and ranking member set for all members of the international relations committee on how both sides of the committee can work together to achieve goals that are best for the united states . 
it would be my hope that other committees would work so well in getting the job done . 
a brutal campaign of village burnings , destruction of rice supplies and killings by burma 's military regime has resulted in the forcible displacement of between 500 , 000 and 1 million innocent civilians in eastern burma . 
hundreds of thousands of these internal refugees that are called internally displaced peoples , or idps , they are persecuted for their strong commitment to democracy and their fervent belief in human rights . 
regardless of what their religion may be , all of the idp victims are being systematically hunted down by the evil military regime . 
the burmese freedom and democracy act of 2003 , which passed the united states congress overwhelmingly , found that these acts add up to ethnic cleansing . 
secretary of state rice has rightfully called burma one of the six outposts of tyranny in the world . 
my fellow colleagues on both sides of the aisle have echoed this sentiment . 
with all this said , virtually no humanitarian aid reaches those who have been driven from their homes in eastern burma . 
the burmese military regime blocks all assistance . 
shockingly , as a result of attacks and blocking this aid , child mortality and malnutrition rates are comparable to those recorded among the internally displaced population in the horn of africa . 
even worse , maternal mortality rates are well above emergency levels . 
acute respiratory infections , diarrhea , malaria , anemia are serious problems in this region . 
this is a bona fide humanitarian crisis which we in the united states need to address . 
i would like to thank the chairman and the ranking member of the international relations committee for their strong and bipartisan support of this amendment . 
madam chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
