Bob Casey Demands Release Of US Teacher Sentenced To 14 Years In Russian Penal Colony

4 months ago

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) called on the Biden Administration to prioritize negotiating the release of US citizen Marc Fogel from Russian prison.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you, Madam President. I rise this afternoon to highlight the continued imprisonment of

00:08 Mark Fogle. Mark Fogle is a teacher whose career I'll describe in a moment, but he's

00:16 from Oakmont, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County in the southwestern corner of our state, just

00:22 near Pittsburgh. He's been imprisoned by Russia, and I urge my colleagues in the administration

00:29 to continue to prioritize his release. On August 14, 2021, Mark Fogle was arrested by

00:37 Russian authorities upon his return to Russia to teach one last year at the Anglo-American

00:44 School of Moscow, after 35 years of teaching history to the children of American diplomats

00:53 at international schools across the globe and teaching at the same school in Russia

01:00 since 2012. Yes, Mark had medically prescribed marijuana in his luggage to help him through

01:09 the year in dealing with his chronic pain. That pain came from a hip replacement. It

01:17 came from multiple back surgeries, multiple knee surgeries, and a spinal fusion, which

01:25 has left Mark with a permanent limp. Mark broke Russian law by bringing marijuana into

01:34 the country. Mark's worsening medical conditions and actions to bring in less than an ounce

01:42 of marijuana into Russia should not require him to serve the full 14-year sentence at

01:49 a Russian penal colony. Fourteen years' imprisonment for less than an ounce of marijuana. It has

02:00 been 1,026 days since Mark's initial arrest, over 33 months ago. At Mark's age, he'll turn

02:11 63 this July. And in his poor health, terribly poor health, continuing to serve another 11

02:19 years, or 130 months, in any prison will indeed be a death sentence. Based on a review of

02:29 Mark's records from the prison hospital, Mark's treating physician has expressed grave concerns

02:35 over Mark's declining health. His spinal cord and knee injuries and a prosthetic hip have

02:42 caused, have combined, I should say, with neuropathy, a loss of feeling in one of his

02:50 feet to make the risk of a more severe injury a lot more likely. Mark has already fallen

02:57 multiple times. Every fall, every fall heightens the risk of a broken hip or other severe injury

03:06 that Mark would struggle to recover from in prison. The 33 months have taken a toll on

03:13 Mark Fogle's mental and emotional health. Where many other younger individuals in Russian

03:20 penal colonies can have great hope for decades of life after their full sentences, Mark Fogle

03:27 would be almost 75 years old by the end of his current 14-year prison sentence. I'm hopeful

03:37 that Russia, seeing the time that Mark has already served, and fully aware of his terribly

03:44 declining health, will release Mark from prison on humanitarian grounds so that he may return

03:51 to his family in Pennsylvania. Mark's support from his family has given him strength over

03:57 the last few years, but the phone service they rely on to contact him is unpredictable

04:04 and goes down for weeks at a time. My thoughts and prayers, and I know that's true of so

04:11 many others who have advocated on Mark's behalf, our thoughts and prayers remain with Mark

04:16 and his family, but we must also act to act to bring him home. That's why I introduced

04:23 a resolution with my colleague Senator Daines, calling for Mark's release and urging the

04:29 Biden administration to prioritize Mark's case in all of its interactions with the Russian

04:37 government. I'm proud that the resolution passed the Senate just last night. I'm proud

04:43 because this resolution shows the world, but more importantly, Mark and his family, that

04:49 while the news cycle may have forgotten Mark, the United States government has not. This

04:55 resolution's passage is also evidence that bringing Mark home is, and will continue to

05:02 be, prioritized at the highest level. The administration is continuing to explore all

05:16 possible avenues to bring Mark home. I want Mark and his family to know that we're working

05:23 to bring him home, that we will continue our efforts until Mark Fogle is back having dinner

05:31 with his family at his mother's home in Butler, Pennsylvania, just north of where Mark lives.

05:37 Madam President, I would also ask consent to speak as if in morning business in a separate

05:44 part of the record on a separate topic.

05:47 Without objection.

05:48 Madam President, I wanted to move to another subject, and this subject is one that I think

05:56 so many Americans are concerned about. It's anti-Semitism across college campuses and

06:02 in primary and secondary schools, but of course well beyond the boundaries of any school.

06:08 It's an American problem, it's a problem across our society and even across the world. Combating

06:14 anti-Semitism has been a top priority of mine for my entire time in the Senate, and I've

06:20 consistently taken strong actions to address this hate, including working to pass the Anti-Semitism

06:27 Awareness Act since 2016. Back towards the end of the calendar year 2022, I came to the

06:38 Senate floor to talk about anti-Semitism, mostly through the lens of the horror of October

06:46 of 2018, when a gunman killed 11 Pittsburghers and injured several others, including police

06:53 officers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. That horrific moment in the history

07:01 of the Jewish people and the history of the American people reminded all of us of how

07:07 pernicious and how widespread anti-Semitism is. At that time, I was cataloging the numbers,

07:15 the exponential rise in anti-Semitism up to that point in time, the end of the calendar

07:22 year 2022, and how anti-Semitism had grown so substantially in that time frame. However,

07:33 as we all know, since October the 23rd, or October the 7th, I should say, of 2023, since

07:40 Hamas terrorists attacked the people of Israel and killed over 1,200 Jews in Israel, those

07:50 numbers which were high and exponentially high before went even higher, an explosion

07:56 across the country of anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League has tracked the highest numbers of

08:04 anti-Semitic incidents ever, ever in the United States in 2023, and those numbers have undoubtedly

08:12 continued to rise with the ongoing campus protests. There were over 8,800 instances,

08:18 including 2,177 cases of vandalism and 161 assaults. We cannot, no one in this country,

08:30 none of us can tolerate any form of anti-Semitism, any form of discrimination, abroad or at home,

08:38 on college campuses, in the workplace, on the playground, in any setting in American

08:43 life. That's why we must pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, a bill that my colleague Senator

08:50 Tim Scott and I have worked on for almost eight years. Our bill would mandate that the

08:57 Department of Education considers a widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism in carrying

09:04 out its enforcement actions, strengthening civil rights enforcement against anti-Semitism.

09:10 Just like that same office, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education

09:15 is charged with investigating incidents of racial discrimination or discrimination of

09:22 any kind on a college campus that rises to the level of a hostile environment on that

09:28 campus. The House has already passed its version of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. They passed

09:37 that recently. We must find a pathway here in the Senate to pass this bill. This bill

09:45 is co-sponsored by 15 Democrats and 15 Republicans, all across the length and breadth of the country.

09:55 There are objections to our legislation from individual Senators on both sides of the aisle,

10:02 which so far has blocked unanimous consent, but we are confident the legislation would

10:08 pass if given a vote. An additional point on this matter is relevant. I mentioned the

10:16 Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. That is the office that is charged

10:21 with conducting these investigations of anti-Semitism, but as I said, also charged with the obligation

10:29 to conduct investigations of racism on a campus or other forms of discrimination. I have a

10:37 separate bill that would add substantial funding, absolutely essential funding, to the Office

10:45 of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. That office has to hire more people to conduct

10:52 these investigations, to initiate an investigation, to expeditiously gather evidence, complete

11:01 the investigation, and make that fundamental determination, whether there is a hostile

11:07 environment on a college campus for Jewish students, just like it would make a determination

11:15 with regard to a hostile environment for black students in the case of allegations of racial

11:20 animus on a campus, make that determination of hostile environment or not, making that

11:27 decision. Once they make that decision, of course, the college or university would be

11:33 subjected to penalties. But the only way that can happen, that those investigations can

11:38 be commenced and be completed, is to have the resources, the personnel. The Office of

11:44 Civil Rights needs to hire hundreds more people to do this. And I think it's a worthy investment.

11:52 So I'd urge senators in both parties, both sides of the aisle, to work with us to pass

11:59 that legislation. I think most of us come to this from a very basic part of our DNA.

12:09 We know that this kind of discrimination, whether it's anti-Semitism or racism or other

12:15 forms of discrimination, is a scourge on the country. It's a scourge, and I think it's

12:22 an insult to our country as a country of free people. We have to figure out a way to combat

12:33 anti-Semitism. And we can do that by passing the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, but also

12:41 to take other actions which will stamp out this kind of discrimination in our society,

12:48 throughout our country, and throughout the world. Madam President, I would yield the

12:52 floor and note the absence of a quorum.

Bob Casey Demands Release Of US Teacher Sentenced To 14 Years In Russian Penal Colony

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