Despite best efforts of Polish Americans, the US House of Representatives voted today in favor of Act S.447. On motion to suspend the rules, and in an almost empty Chamber, a handful of representatives agreed to S. 447 by highly controversial voice vote. There was no quorum and there was no 2/3 votes “for” S. 447. The only significant opposition to the bill came from Flordia’s Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who actually demanded a much more restrictive legislation. Act S. 447 will be passed on to the US President for signature now.

The House initially intended to deal with Act H.R. 1226, a sister bill of S. 447, but Paul Ryan, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, decided last Friday to suspend the normally applicable procedure and allow the vote not on its own Act H.R.1226, but on the Senate Act S.447. Rep. Ed Royce from California admitted during today’s session that numerous Jewish organizations like WJRO and ADL exerted enormous pressure on representatives to pass Act S. 447 in favor of claims organizations. If signed by the president, Act S. 447 will oblige the Secretary of State to prepare regular reports assessing “the nature and extent of national laws and enforceable policies of covered countries regarding the identification and the return of or restitution for wrongfully seized or transferred Holocaust-era assets.”

The most controversial article 3 of S. 447 postulates: “in the case of heirless property, the provision of property or compensation to assist needy Holocaust survivors, to support Holocaust education, and for other purposes”. In fact, the concept of so-called “heirless property” carries a clear contradiction in terms, as heirless property refers to properties of the Polish citizens that legally and orderly escheated to the Polish state. The organizations making such extralegal claims on heirless property have according to the Polish law and international legal standards absolutely no legal standing.

In addition, Jewish property claims have been handled and settled by numerous post-war compensation schemes, most notably by the Luxemburg Agreement between Israel and Germany. On the basis of this Agreement the State of Israel, Jewish claims organizations and individuals obtained a compensation from Germany amounting to 100 billion 2018 US dollars. The compensation served as a settlement for all the human and material losses suffered by European Jews as the result of genocidal German policies and destruction of Jewish property.

Act S. 447 is based on the Terezin Declaration, a legally non-binding document that openly discriminates against non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, in particular, it discriminates against the ethnic Polish Holocaust Survivors.

Today, the rules were “suspended” by Paul Ryan along with fair play, transparency, and decency, and perhaps a little more than three Congressional representatives passed a supposedly “non-controversial” Senate bill, that is to the contrary HIGHLY controversial! This was indeed a disgrace and an offense to Polish Americans.

The pseudo-voting showed once again that the US Congress is strongly influenced by Jewish lobby groups and claims organizations which usurp a monopoly for the World War Two narrative. The democratic rules do not play any role and the voting system in the US Congress can be adjusted as the need arises. We Poles have a lot of work ahead of us to show the congressmen the unbiased World War Two history. But we know too, the US Congress should not learn us the rules of democracy.

The debate in the House on S. 447 is available on YouTube.

www.house.gov/