Walt Minnick

Minnick speech on resolution supporting Chinese dissident

2009-09-30T22:08:03Z

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for their leadership and for bringing this important issue to the floor. On May 16th, I delivered the commencement address to the 2009 graduates of the University of Idaho. During my speech, I challenged those college graduates to take up the cause of Liu Xiaobo, an intellectual and literary critic who has spent much of his adult life imprisoned or under house arrest by the Chinese authorities because he has had the courage to speak and write that China should allow its citizens freedom of speech and urge that it should allow its citizens to select their government by free and open elections.

Today, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Liu’s trial is set to begin any day on charges which could lead him to be sentenced for up to 15 years in prison.

Mr. Liu has been held since officials took him into custody on December 8, 2008, a day before the release of Charter 08, a declaration he co-authored that calls for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China.

Mr. Liu was formally arrested on June 23, 2009 by the Beijing Public Security Bureau and charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” He has since been held under criminal detention while Chinese authorities continue to investigate his case.

In the months after taking Mr. Liu into custody, officials kept Liu in residential surveillance under conditions that violated Chinese laws, including denying Mr. Liu access to counsel and keeping him at an undisclosed location beyond the legal time limit.

I urge that the Chinese government, as a much admired global power and important partner of my country on many issues important to the future of mankind, grant Mr. Liu a free and fair trial. It should be open to the public, including representatives of international news agencies, where the charges against him will be fairly decided by a judge free from political pressure and instructed to consider only the law and facts of his case. I further urge that Mr. Liu be allowed to be represented by qualified counsel of his own choosing, have the right to face and cross examine his accusers and present witnesses and evidence to prove his innocence. If he is allowed to do so, I anticipate he will be cleared of all charges and urge that he then be immediately set free and allowed to resume his peaceful pursuit of civil rights and a fully democratic government.

Mr. Liu’s leadership has been an inspiration to me and to an untold number of people in China and around the world for his courage to stand up for civil liberties and to demand that his great and proud nation allow free elections at all levels of its government. His courage embodies the emerging global consensus that all people should be allowed to speak freely and have the right to demand that their country be governed by a true representative democracy.

By passing this resolution, the House of Representatives will be sending a strong message that the American people do not condone suppression of freedom of thought and expression.

I thank my colleagues and ask for their support. I reserve the balance of my time.”

Minnick speech in favor of amendment to higher-ed bill

2009-09-17T22:14:58Z

Madam Chair:

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

No group better exemplifies the power of what college education can accomplish in building on practical life experience than that of our nation’s servicemen and women.

So many of my state’s and our nation’s leaders grew into adulthood through the military and then, with the benefit of a quality college education, went on to serve their communities and country in positions of significant leadership in all walks of life.

It is critical that members of the Armed Forces who thirst for further formal education and show the extra initiative of earning college credit while in service have the opportunity later to count these credits toward an advanced degree.

I’m proud to say my amendment to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act will enhance that opportunity by allowing servicemen and women to transfer academic credits earned while serving in the Armed forces between institutions of higher education so as to benefit not only themselves, but their families and their country.

My amendment has been endorsed by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran’s of America, the Idaho Division of Veterans Services and the Idaho American Legion.

I’d like to thank Chairman Miller and members of the Education and Labor Committee for their hard work on this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support the Minnick amendment and reserve the balance of my time.

Minnick speech welcoming Pastor Tri Robinson to the House

2009-09-16T22:16:19Z

Madame speaker

I rise this morning to welcome to this august chamber the Reveredn Tri Robinson, the founder and leader of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, one of the largest and most rapidly growing churches in my hometown of Boise, Idaho.

Tri leads a Christian fellowship proud of its natural, Bible-based worship, devotion to prayer, and generous service to all in need.

Tri and his parishoners feed the hungry, house the homeless, engage and educate our youth, and work hard to protect the places we love in the West.

He is an educator, author and Idaho cowboy who has become a pioneer of environmental stewardship for evangelical churches all over America.

As his representative in Congress, I welcome Tri Robinson to this House, and I thank him for his moving spiritual guidance.