House Committee Passes Holocaust Insurance Bill 
Two Wexler Bills Pass Foreign Affairs Committee

(Washington, DC)  Today, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) lauded the passage of the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2007. Congressman Wexler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, held a hearing on October 3 regarding America’s role in addressing unresolved Holocaust issues. The legislation, H.R. 1746, introduced by Congressman Wexler and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, would require insurance companies doing business in the United States to publicly disclose all Holocaust-era insurance policies and allows Holocaust victims and descendents to bring action in U.S. courts to settle unresolved insurance claims.   
 
“It is unconscionable that 60 years after the end of World War II and the devastation of the Holocaust, survivors are still met with rejection, delays, bureaucratic red tape and policies that totally fail to meet the minimum requirements of justice or fairness,” Wexler said. “It is totally unacceptable that out of 870,000 life insurance policies covering Jews prior to the outbreak of World War II, only 17,000 of those policies have been paid. This bill, by requiring insurance companies to disclose information about policies held during this dark period, will give survivors and their families for the first time proof of their policy’s existence and a system for recourse.”
 
 
Congressman Wexler strongly believes that the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) process, which began in 1998 and ended in March 2007, failed to adequately identify potential policy holders and failed to administer the repayment of tens of thousands of them. As of the latest report by the ICHEIC on February 20, 2007, fewer than 5 percent of the policies estimated to have been sold to Jews at the beginning of World War II have been paid through ICHEIC. 
 
 
A second bill by Congressman Wexler authorizing funding to the Eurasia Foundation was also passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee.  The Eurasia Foundation is a privately managed non-profit organization supported by the US government and private donors that promotes civil society and private enterprise in the countries that once comprised the Soviet Union.  By authorizing grants to the Eurasia Foundation, Wexler’s legislation strengthens the US government’s ability to support efforts to promote democracy, civil society, and rule of law in former Soviet countries.

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Congressman Wexler is Chairman of the Europe Subcommittee and a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Judiciary Committee; and he also sits on the Financial Services Committee.

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