Speaker. I want to thank my colleagues. the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the gentleman from Washington . cochairmen of the Congressional Call to Conscience Vigil for Soviet Jews. for their part in organizing the 1990 vigil. This annual event provides us the opportunity to bring to our colleagues and the Nations attention the plight of prisoners of conscience and other persons who are seeking freedom and emigration from the Soviet Union. Last year. 71.196 Jews received permission to emigrate. the highest recorded figure since 1968. Yet many remain behind. Today. I want to share with my colleagues the plight and our concern for Dr. Vladimir Raiz. his wife Carmella. and their two children who have repeat. edly been denied exit visas. The Raiz family who first applied for visas in 1972. are reportedly the longest standing refuseniks. having been denied permission to emigrate for over 17 years. Dr. Vladimir Raiz was employed as a molecular biologist at the Moscow Institute of Molecular Biology until his dismissal in June 1972. Raiz application for an exit visa has been denied on the grounds of access to state secrets. even though he has not dealt with classified material since 1965. Twentyfive years have passed and after so many years the information to which he may have been exposed would certainly be of little value. In fact. the Moscow Institute has certified that the research he conducted is no longer classified.
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