"The House of Representatives is set to vote on the BURMA Act of 2019 (H.R. 3190) as early as tomorrow, September 24. The legislation has garnered 53 cosponsors in the House, but will need even more support to move forward. The Rohingya are in a more dire situation than ever, with those who remain in Myanmar subjected to ongoing atrocities, while those seeking safe haven as refugees in Bangladesh are being squeezed by Dhaka via a series of rights-effacing restrictions. It’s time for Washington to step up its response to this clear-cut genocide. The Trump Administration must take a much harder line with Myanmar, sending a strong message that the regime cannot get away with such atrocities and hollow sham repatriation attempts. It must also share more of the burden with Bangladesh so as to assuage the country’s mounting frustration with the continued presence and needs of the Rohingya. The BURMA Act provides a solid strategy for meeting both of these objectives by acknowledging the extent of the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military, activating counter-impunity mechanisms like robust sanctions against the top architects of the genocide, and increasing humanitarian assistance to help Bangladesh better manage the response. As a recap, in August of 2017, a brutal campaign waged by the Myanmar military apparatus, known as the Tatmadaw, triggered a mass exodus of more than 750,000 Rohingya to neighboring Bangladesh — an operation that rights groups, the UN, U.S. elected officials, and even some governments have branded a genocide. It has been two years since the “final solution” against the Rohingya began, but their circumstances have not improved since the horrific crackdown. If anything, they have continued to deteriorate. The Rohingya in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, have been living in a purgatorial limbo for the past two years — caught between a homeland that yearns for their extermination and a host country that wants them out. The Rohingya are essentially being squeezed by both sides, systematically stripped of their dignity and deprived of their rights with ever-increasing severity..."