Press Releases

This evening, Co-Chair of the Dutch Caucus Bill Huizenga (MI-02) and Co-Chair Chris Van Hollen (MD-08) led the House in a moment of silence to honor the memory of the passengers who lost their lives aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Rep. Bill Huizenga: My colleagues, as Co-chair of the Dutch Caucus here in the U.S. House of Representatives, I rise today with a heavy heart to express our condolences at the tragic loss of life of nearly 300 people on Malaysian Airline Flight 17. On that flight there was one American and a number of others from Australia, Malaysia, and a number of other countries. Counted among those were 193 Dutch Nationals. Just to put that in perspective, that's like a country the size of the United States lose over 3,600 people. That's the impact it has had with our friends in the Netherlands.

This attack on innocent civilians can only be described, I believe, as an act of terror - as it was flying over Ukrainian Airspace. We are rising today jointly in a bipartisan fashion to express our condolences to our friends in the Netherlands. The Netherlands was the first nation to ever recognize our nation, the United States of America, back during the Revolutionary War and they have been stalwart partners and stalwart friends throughout the history of our country. With that I'd like to yield to my friend from Maryland.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen: I thank my friend and colleague and I'm honored to stand with him and all of us in solidarity with the people of the Netherlands and the families and loved ones of all the victims of that act of terror. We look forward to working together to make sure that this situation is resolved as quickly as possible and the perpetrators are held accountable. I know we all stand together on that as well. I'm grateful to my colleague for bringing this together for this purpose.

Rep. Huizenga: Today, we humbly ask our colleagues to join us in a moment of silence as we pay respects and honor the memory of all 298 passengers of MH-17 that had their lives tragically cut short.

Speaker Pro Tempore Womack: All members of the People's House and those in the Gallery, please rise for a moment of silence.