taking place in Congress, as this issue was brought to members' attention by HIAS and the Council of Jewish Federations (the precursor to the United Jewish Communities). In November 1989, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Morrison-Lautenberg Amendment, which established that a member of a category group "may establish a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion […] by asserting a credible basis for concern about the possibility of such persecution." This amendment, which has been renewed a number of times, is still in force today and greatly facilitates processing for refugees from the FSU, Indochina, and Iran. In late September 1989, the State Department announced a major change in processing refugee admission for Soviet applicants. With a decreasingly hostile environment inside the USSR, the U.S. instituted a system that allowed Soviet Jews to apply and remain in country while waiting for notification of status. From autumn 1989, those seeking family reunification in the U.S. applied for immigration processing at the U.S. Consulate in Moscow. In 1994, HIAS opened an office in Moscow and, in 2003, one in Kyiv. Today, these offices closely monitor conditions in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and assist refugees bound for resettlement in the U.S. and other countries. Overall, during the 40 years of Soviet Jewish emigration, HIAS assisted more than 400,000 Soviet Jews to immigrate to the U.S. Among the recipients of HIAS aid was Sergey Brin, who at the age of six immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union with his family, and later became the co-founder of Google. Brin later became a benefactor of HIAS, joining its board and donating $1 million to the group. HIAS today HIAS makes reference to Jewish tradition, values, and texts that call on Jews to help the stranger and to "repair the world" (tikkun olam, in Hebrew). Thus, since 1975, and even more so since 2000, HIAS as a matter of policy has directed its resources to assist refugees and immigrants of all religions, ethnicities, nationalities, and backgrounds. It has helped many such refugees and immigrants to reunite with their families, and to resettle in the United States. In 2018, the very large majority of such refugees both recently and currently have been non-Jewish. HIAS also advocates in the United States Congress on policies affecting refugees and immigrants. HIAS