This Won’t Help the Armenian Genocide Bill « The Washington Independent
Jul 31, 2020147.3K Shares1.9M Views
Former wrestling coachand House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will lobby on behalf of Turkey as part of a $35,000 per month contract with his K Street firm, Dickstein Shapiro, The Hill reportedthis afternoon.
“„The agreement is a subcontract between Hastert’s firm and the Gephardt Group, founded by Richard Gephardt, the ex-Missouri congressman who was the Democratic House leader for several years. Gephardt and others at DLA Piper replaced the Livingston Group, longtime lobbyists for Turkey, as their Washington representatives last year.
For several years, Congress has been embroiled in debate over a resolution to label as genocide the WWI-era killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Turkish soldiers. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution in 2007, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) never brought it to the floor out of concern that the contentious measure, though non-binding in every way, would alienate a strategic ally in the midst of a war with neighboring Iraq.
Hastert, who served as speaker longer than any Republican in congressional history, just made passage of that resolution even harder.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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