HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT FOR IRAQI CHILDREN IN URGENT NEED OF MEDICAL CARE.

SEC. 1223. HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT FOR IRAQI CHILDREN IN URGENT NEED OF MEDICAL CARE.(a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings:120 STAT. 2424(1) The Secretary of Defense has discretionary authority to permit space-available travel on military aircraft for various reasons, including humanitarian purposes.(2) Recently, 110 Iraqi children journeyed 22 hours by bus from Baghdad, Iraq, to Amman, Jordan, for urgently needed oral/facial surgery. While traveling, armed insurgents stopped and boarded the children’s bus, raising serious questions about the safety of further travel by ground.(3) Pursuant to the Secretary’s discretionary authority referred to in paragraph (1), the Secretary authorized the Iraqi children to travel on military aircraft for their return trip from Amman to Baghdad.(4) The Secretary is to be commended for his initiative in providing for the safe return of these children to Iraq by military aircraft.(b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense should continue to provide space-available travel on military aircraft for humanitarian reasons to Iraqi children who would otherwise have no means available to seek urgently needed medical care such as that provided by a humanitarian organization in Amman, Jordan.