PAWTUCKET – Last month, the U.S. House approved an amendment blocking funding for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s so-called “Commission on Unalienable Rights” in the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. DPCC Chair David N. Cicilline (RI-01), who authored the House amendment, issued the following statement today after Pompeo unveiled his plans for the Commission:

“After decades of progress, this administration is trying to return our human rights policies to the dark ages. Secretary Pompeo’s announcement today is just a thinly-veiled attempt to re-write longstanding human rights principles to promote discrimination against the LGBTI community and women around the world. Secretary Pompeo has access to dozens of experts who have devoted their careers to human rights within the State Department, yet he insists on going outside of the existing framework, in order to affirm his own political agenda.”

“I’m pleased that the appropriations bill approved by the House last month blocks funding for this sham commission, and I urge the Senate to adopt my amendment in their own spending bill. It’s ironic that an administration that has made it a practice to cozy up to the worst dictators and rights abusers thinks it can fool the American people into believing this is an effort to protect human rights.”