Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Stu Loeser mailto:sloeser@pcha.gov
(202) 371-6400, ext. 456
November 21, 1999
Congress Boosts Funds for Holocaust Commission
FINAL REPORT DUE BY DECEMBER 2000
$2.7 MILLION PROVIDED
Washington, DC - Washington, DC - The United States
Senate unanimously approved legislation this afternoon that will extend and significantly
strengthen the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States.
In a separate action, the Senate included $1.7
million for the Commission in the Omnibus FY2000 Appropriations Act approved today.
Combined with FY 2000 funds for the Commission already passed into law, $2.7 million was
provided to support the Commission's work. The House passed the Omnibus bill Thursday
night.
"I am delighted that the Senate - like the
House - has endorsed the Commission unamimously," said Commission Chair Edgar M.
Bronfman . "The Commission's work demonstrates irrefutably that we in the United
States are willing to hold ourselves to the same high standard of truth to which we have
held other nations. Congress' actions prove its commitment to this work and America's
commitment to achieving justice for Holocaust victims and their families."
The U.S. Holocaust Assets Commission Extension Act of 1999 moves the date by which the
Commission's final report is due by 12 months to December 2000. The House unanimously
approved an identical bill on October 4.
Created last year to examine -- and advise the President on -- the fate of Holocaust
victims' assets that came into the control of the Federal government, the Commission has
been working to locate and review more than 45 million pages of relevant documents. This
number grows weekly as additional documents are declassified in a coordinated effort
between the Commission and a working group comprised of the CIA, FBI, NSC, Justice
Department, State Department, Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies.
These records are located in depositories across the country. The Commission's work is
further complicated by the fact that victims' financial assets frozen by Federal law may
now be sitting in state capitals across the country.
On October 14, the Commission released a progress report on its troubling findings
related to US handling of Nazi-looted art on the "Hungarian Gold Train." For
additional information about this report or the Commission, please visit www.pcha.gov . |
