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We also wish to express our appreciation to Senators Pat Moynihan and Pat Leahy, and Congressman Tom Lantos, and all the sponsors of both bills for their dedication to disclosure of Nazi war crimes records.

My name is Douglas Bloomfield, and I am the Washington Representative of the World Jewish Congress. The WJC is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations representing 80 nations on six continents, and it serves as the multinational representative of world Jewry. Combatting the persecution of Jews around the world has been a key part of our mission for more than six decades. Before the world knew of the Holocaust that was brewing in Germany, we were fighting persecution and working to save Jewish lives. Today, we continue to devote much attention to the principles on which we were founded, strengthening the spiritual survival of dispersed Jewish communities in an era of emancipation.

Our landmark efforts, under the leadership of WJC President Edgar Bronfman, to unearth the full truth about the fate of gold and other assets looted by the Nazis and their acolytes, evidences in a very dramatic fashion our abiding commitment to this quest for historical truth.

We have worked with many agencies of the United States Government during those decades to rescue the victims of the Holocaust, to protect and preserve their memory, to make certain reparations and restitution are made to them, and to help bring to justice those responsible for what we know as most likely the most diabolical crime in recorded history. We have long sought full and prompt public disclosure of the historic record. After waiting more than half a century, disclosure can no longer be called prompt, although we continue to be amazed by the delays and obstacles we continue to encounter, including right here in Washington, but hopefully this bill will be passed by this Congress and signed into law by the President so that we can move closer to full disclosure.

We are particularly impressed by the broad bipartisan support given to this cause by both Houses of the Congress and the excellent cooperation between the Legislative and Executive branches of our government.

No agency of our federal government has done more for the cause of righting historic wrongs than the Office of Special Investigations of the U.S. Department of Justice, and we want to be certain it will be able to continue its vital work. We are pleased that this subcommittee and the Senate sponsors of this legislation share that view and have recognized in this bill the need for that work to continue the vital work that it has done so effectively that it has become the only war crimes unit in the world to win awards from survivor groups and major Jewish organizations, and has been termed by the Washington Post "the world's most aggressive and effective Nazi-hunting operation"--one that, as USA Today has reported, "boasts a tremendous success record, [having] won more cases than any other Nazi-hunting operation in the world."

Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity also to express the World Jewish Congress' profound appreciation to Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder for the strong backing both have personally given to OSI and its mission.

We enthusiastically share the goals of this legislation, full disclosure. We are aware of the resistance you have encountered in some circles, particularly the intelligence community, and note with satisfaction provisions in the legislation for judicial review and ongoing Congressional oversight to guarantee the viability of this process and this legislation.

 For the survivors of the Holocaust, the clock has become the greatest enemy. They have had to wait far too long, and we particularly commend provisions of this act to expedite their Freedom of Information Act requests in particular.

Our concern, like yours, is that the process of disclosure must not impede the work of OSI, which races against that same clock. OSI is already burdened with an enormous and obviously time-sensitive workload in its ongoing efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi war criminals.

With present resources and staffing it would be overburdened by being required to review enormous quantities of documents, particularly those submitted by other agencies wishing to make sure documents do not fall under the bill's exemption for OSI-related documents. This job requires highly trained professionals, which are difficult to find and would take away those on the OSI staff from the more urgent responsibility of prosecuting war criminals. If OSI researchers and prosecutors are diverted from their primary responsibility, the unintended impact of this legislation could be to let Nazi war criminals escape.

Therefore, we consider it essential that adequate additional funds, new money, be appropriated for OSI and the other federal agencies principally responsible for carrying out the mandate of this legislation, such as the FBI, the INS, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the National Archives and the CIA. Many of them have FOIA backlogs of several years. The Congress should not be adding to their burden without providing the resources realistically necessary to do what you want them to do.

On the subject of funding, the WJC wishes to emphasize the importance of the Congress demonstrating its commitment to this historic undertaking by allocating separate funds to make its successful completion possible. Merely ordering agencies to make do by finding money in their existing budgets is not an acceptable approach; it is, instead, a prescription for further delay if not failure. If this project is worth doing -- and, Mr. Chairman, the World Jewish Congress, feels strongly it is -- then it is worth paying to have it done properly.

We are looking forward to the release of important information from the Interagency Group, but in order to make that happen the resources have to be made available.

It is also our hope that the legislative history of this bill will contain guidance from the Congress as to what search methodology the legislative branch would find acceptable. The identities of many if not most of the perpetrators of Holocaust crimes are not known and almost certainly never will be known; names often were not recorded, particularly in Eastern Europe, where most of the killing took place, and where records were kept, the documents were often destroyed. That is also the case for records regarding looted assets, where, for example, someone bought a work or art or other property that was stolen or sold in a coerced transaction.

Once again, Mr. Chairman, we at the World Jewish Congress wish to commend you, Mrs. Maloney and members of the subcommittee and staff for your efforts to raise this issue and improve the legislation to what it is today.

Thank you.

Douglas M. Bloomfield has been the Washington Representative of the World Jewish Congress since 1993. The WJC is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations representing 80 nations, and it serves as the multinational representative of world Jewry.

Mr. Bloomfield spent nine years as the legislative director and chief lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He joined AIPAC after nine years as a senior legislative assistant to Congressman Benjamin S. Rosenthal of New York and a legislative assistant and speech writer for Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. Prior to that, he was on the staff of the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer and taught college journalism.

Mr. Bloomfield is also an independent consultant and newspaper columnist. He currently writes a syndicated column about the Washington scene for American Jewish publications across the country and for several Israeli and other foreign publications. He appears frequently on American, Israeli and other international radio and television broadcasts as a political analyst.

Mr. Bloomfield holds BA and MA degrees from Ohio State University, where he did doctoral study in legislative government. He was the recipient of several fellowships in political science and journalism. He is the president of the Greater Washington Jewish Community Council.

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