The pan-Armenian genocide resolution took a major step forward today, winning bipartisan support in the influential House International Relations Committee, the Armenian Assembly of America reported. H. Res. 316, which is currently backed by 140 Members, won passage thanks in part to Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) and the bill's principal sponsors Reps. George Radanovich (R-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg(R-MI) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ). "The argument has been made that these resolutions, if adopted, will be harmful to [the] interests [of the United States] by undermining our relationship with Turkey, which all acknowledge to be one of our key allies...Denial of that fact cannot be justified on the basis of expediency or fear that speaking the truth will do us harm," said Hyde. Committee Members also voted today to approve, H. Con. Res. 195, a bill that would reaffirm the Armenian Genocide. The measure, which passed 35 to 11, was introduced by Schiff in June. H. Res. 316, which was introduced on June 14, calls upon the President to "ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding" of the "Armenian Genocide" and to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide" in the President's annual message. Passage of this legislation would reaffirm the U.S. historical record, which includes thousands of pages documenting the premeditated extermination of the Armenian people. American intervention prevented the full realization of Ottoman Turkey's genocidal plan and U.S. humanitarian assistance was extended to those who survived. Additionally, today's vote reiterates the same message put forth by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. In 1981, for example, Reagan issues a presidential proclamation that said in part, "Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it - and like too many other persecutions of too many other people - the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten." President Bush himself has also carefully set forth the textbook definition of the crime of genocide as it applies to Armenians in his successive April 24th statements of remembrance.H. Res. 316 is similar to the version that nearly passed the House of Representatives in 2000. The previous resolution, which had the support of 143 cosponsors, passed the House International Relations Committee by a vote of 24 to 11. It was later scheduled for a vote on the House floor, but withdrawn at the last minute due to an intervention by President Clinton to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) which prevented the final affirmative vote. The next step in the legislative process is to work with the sponsors to secure passage in the full House.