Commending the outstanding efforts by members of the Armed Forces and civilian employees of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development in response to the earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I wish to thank my colleague from Michigan for joining me in cosponsoring this resolution, and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach), for introducing the resolution with me.

This resolution commends the action of civilian employees of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development and the members of the Armed Forces for their response to last December's tsunami tragedy in the Indian Ocean.

Mr. Speaker, it was my privilege to journey with a congressional delegation to the affected areas immediately in the aftermath of the disaster. As we viewed the stricken region, we were all impressed by the quality of the relief effort and the coordination between all parties. It was truly gratifying to see the governments, particularly of these four affected countries, stepping forward in some areas where we had simmering conflicts and military actions. People would put aside the hostilities to deal with those in need.

I must confess that the pictures of our military, the rapid response, spoke volumes. I had an opportunity to visit with the leadership, starting with Admiral Crowder, and other senior officers, down the chain of command, visiting with men and women on the front lines. It was clear that they were not just acting out of a professional dedication and a military ethic, but they were doing it for the profound and heartfelt desire to help people in need.

While the pictures spoke volumes of the affected people throughout that region, I think it is important that we also recognize the efforts of the civilians from the State Department and USAID who do the tireless work of diplomacy and development that form the backbone of our foreign policy. They contribute day in and day out with far less fanfare and too often less of our support.

I was struck by individual cases of Foreign Service officers. Two examples that had been brought to my attention while I was visiting was that of Richard Hanrahan and Michael Chadwick, who were junior consular officers from American embassies who were on vacation in Phuket when the disaster struck.

They were there with their own families and had to make sure they were safe, but then they acted to set up their own remote control command post in Phuket to ensure the safe return of Americans. They dealt with traumatized families under the most difficult of circumstances, being able to borrow cell phones and deal with the communication difficulties; dealing with really very difficult situations, going from hospital to hospital, identifying injured Americans, and reporting on the situation before others had a chance to arrive.

Having seen and heard how these people behaved in such difficult circumstances, hour after hour, day after day, using their own independent action and individual motivation is something that all of us in Congress can be proud of. Having seen the impact that the officials from the State Department and USAID, working together with our military in response to the tsunami, highlights for us all the need to continue to enhance our diplomatic development and humanitarian capabilities.

As I heard these stories and met these people, I thought of the work that former Secretary of State Powell performed when he invested the prestige of his office, used the leverage of his position and his own experience to increase the support, ramping up the hiring of a new class of officials and making it a personal priority to make sure that the men and women in the front lines of the State Department around the world had the resources that they needed.

I hope that our new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will build upon his actions and as we in this Congress go through our appropriations cycle, we support her and our diplomats with the necessary funding.

We should strengthen the ability of the State Department to respond to

these crises, both natural and man-made, in part to minimize the challenge for our over-stretched military who are not always going to be able to be available in force to make the contributions that we saw in the aftermath of the tsunami. Often, frankly, there are tasks better left to civilian hands.

This disaster was an illustration of the value of the services provided by many of these agencies. I think of the USAID's outstanding individuals who were there as part of the briefing, indicating how they were equipped and ready to go to help fight the problems after the tsunami, and deal with the aftermath of poverty and environmental degradation. Hopefully, their work will make these communities less vulnerable in the future, and we can invest in disaster mitigation and planning to reduce the loss of life the next time the inevitable disaster strikes.

It is the selfless commitment of these individuals in the military, the State Department, and USAID that is making a difference. At a time when our prestige, particularly in this region, as a Nation is at an all-time low, according to independent opinion surveys, the contributions in the aftermath of the tsunami is making a difference, particularly with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. Two- thirds of the Indonesians are now more favorable to the United States because of what they saw, Americans responding and dealing with the aftermath of this disaster.

We should continue to invest in diplomacy and development along with our national defense, extend the kindness and compassion demonstrated by American people into a full-time commitment to those who suffer around the world. These efforts will pay dividends not just for the people in need but for our security as well.

The civilian employees of the State Department, the USAID, and our men and women in uniform went beyond the call of duty in responding to the tsunami. Through this demonstration of their professionalism, skill, creativity and commitment, they saved lives and took important steps for peace and security. I strongly urge the adoption of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for the time, and I thank the committee and the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) for bringing this to the floor.

Congressman Saund, whom we are recognizing today, represented parts of the gentleman from California's (Mr. Issa) district and parts of my district, the 51st district, Imperial County in California. So I am really thankful that he is doing this, and we are honoring a great man.

We have heard how he triumphed in spite of the prejudice that was around him. He did this through hard work, constantly turning the other cheek; and he was a charismatic individual.

Coming to the United States after his undergraduate education in India, as we heard, he got a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1924, but could not get a job because of his nationality. Rather than give up, go home perhaps, maybe where he could use his education a little bit more to better himself, he decided to stay in the United States and work to improve the situation.

That is when, in 1925, he moved to the Imperial Valley to become a cotton picking crew foreman, as we have heard. That is right, a man with a Ph.D. in mathematics from Berkeley became a foreman of a cotton picking crew to make ends meet; and through sheer hard work and determination, he was able to save money to start his own farm growing lettuce.

He always had an interest in politics. He carried this enthusiasm over to the Imperial Valley; and even though he was not a citizen or able to vote, he became a constant presence at official meetings, I hate to tell the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) this, of the county Democratic Party central committee where he promoted the policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In 1937, Congressman Saund organized the Current Events Club in Imperial Valley to discuss the major topics of the day with other politically active members of the community and became a member of the Brawley California Toastmasters.

So we see, even though he was not a citizen, he was becoming an integral part of the community in which he lived. In fact, if he was doing irrigation of his fields on the Toastmasters nights, he would take his dress suit with him to the field, at six o'clock change, set the irrigation to go for 3 hours, go to the Toastmasters meeting, come back to work, change clothes and go on with irrigation. Now, that is a Horatio Alger, the American Dream, for someone who was not an American citizen.

He was actively involved in trying to get naturalization rights for natives of Asia and India particularly, and President Truman actually signed the law to end the ban on Asian naturalization in 1946; and one of the earliest applicants under this new law was, in fact, Dalip Singh Saund, who became a citizen in December of 1949.

As we heard, his first task as a citizen was to run for office. He ran for justice of the peace in Westmorland, California, in Imperial County. He won the ballot, but a lawsuit said he had not been a citizen the year before, and so he was declared ineligible. Typical of Congressman Saund, or Judge Saund as he was known, he became chairman of the county Democratic central committee even after he lost the judgeship.

I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) for naming after this great Democrat a post office in his district. Maybe we will bring true Democracy, with a capital D, to the 49th Congressional District.

In 1955, he decided to run for Congress in what was then the 29th Congressional District, which included Riverside County and Imperial County. He easily won the primary and beat his Republican opponent, who brought in Vice President Nixon, brought in Bob Hope and even Rin Tin Tin, but that did not impress the constituents; and he was able to win and became the first Indian American Congressman of the United States of America.

He did this through politicking in grassroots style, a truly effective politician. By the way, he was the only Indian American until this very year in this Congress when the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jindal) was elected. So we have, at last, the continuing of a tradition here.

He might have been called a liberal, but he was very active in trying to deal with foreign aid to the wrong kind of governments, and he believed that tyrants would use the money in a corrupt way, and he was right.

He was incapacitated, unfortunately, by a stroke in his third term and could not run for a fourth term. His most lasting memory, I believe, will be that of opening the door of politics to those who otherwise would not have considered running for office because of their race or national origin.

Interestingly enough, my connection with Judge Saund was not only because I became a Congressman from Imperial County, but also because his daughter Julie Fisher became a member of the San Diego school board in the 1970s. She became my mentor. She was the one who was really advocating for students in the wake of a very repressive administration and superintendent. I was able to run for the San Diego school board because of Julie Fisher's teaching. So my relationship goes back through his daughter, who is a wonderful lady and who really brought Judge Saund's politics to San Diego with a real interest in the young people of our county.

Saund always accented the positive. He never complained or even mentioned discriminatory treatment against himself, and he never made it an issue. So I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) very much for bringing us this bill, and I am truly honored to have some part in the tradition that Judge Saund started.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 120) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, California, as the ``Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 120.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Committee on Government Reform, I rise in support of H.R. 120. This bill is to designate a post office in Temecula, California, within my congressional district as the Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building. Dalip Singh Saund was the first Indian American Member of Congress, and I am pleased the House is taking time out to remember his service.

Saund was born in India in 1899. He was educated in India before moving to the United States in 1920 to attend graduate school at the University of California. Saund proudly became a U.S. citizen in 1949. Within a year, he was elected judge of the Justice Court in Westmoreland Judicial District. Unfortunately, after his election, Saund was denied his seat on the grounds that he had not been a citizen for one year when he was elected. You might say he was reelected 2 years later and served on that court for 5 years.

Judge Saund retired from the bench because he chose to enter politics. In November of 1956, Judge Saund was elected Congressman Saund, and he was reelected to the House for three consecutive terms, leaving in 1963. How remarkable it must have been to be the first Asian American ever elected to Congress, the first Indian American ever elected to Congress. Just imagine the powerful impact of his service throughout those years.

Mr. Speaker, Congressman Dalip Singh Saund passed away in Hollywood, California, in 1973. It is a privilege to advance this legislation honoring his legacy as an American citizen, as a judge and as a Congressman. I especially want to thank my California colleagues, including the minority speaker here today, for co-sponsoring unanimously this legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 120.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at the present time I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

I would like to thank many people involved, and I did it in an overall fashion; but, particularly, I would like to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), who just had to leave, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) who just spoke. Each in his own way has been instrumental in helping point out the good deeds of this historic figure, as the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) said of the Democrat Party and of the democratic process. He is an inspiration to people on both sides of the aisle here in the Congress.

I would also like to take a moment to thank David Dillon, a former mayor out in Imperial County, who has fought tirelessly to bring this to the attention of so many of us who were not as fully informed as to Dalip's great service throughout his term.

On a closing note, I would like to say that this post office is being named after the first Asian American Congressman, yes, after the first Indian American Congressman; but I think it is also being named after a generation of men and women who came here during the turn of the century into the 1930s, a whole generation who passed through Ellis Island. They were not always treated with a welcome mat. They were not always given their due for the hard work, ingenuity, ambition, and raw intelligence they brought with them; but they persevered and they changed America for the better.

So it has been a great pleasure to point out one of that generation and name a post office in Temecula after him; but I think on both sides of the aisle, by immigrants, both Republicans and Democrats, we are thankful in this country for a generation who came here in the greatest out-migration from the rest of the world and in-migration to the United States in history because that generation led to the generation that we now have and that enjoys the fruits of their hard labor.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 120, legislation to designate the United States Postal Service facility located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, CA, as the ``Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building.'' This postal naming bill is a small act of appreciation for a statesman and activist who contributed so much to our nation.

As chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, CAPAC, I feel privileged today to speak about the late Congressman Saund.

Congressman Saund came to the United States in 1920 to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where in 4 years he earned a master's degree and doctorate in mathematics. Despite his impressive education, he was denied professional opportunities due to discrimination against South Asians in the United States.

Despite discrimination, Congressman Saund built a successful life in the United States. He entered the agricultural sector, one of the few open to South Asians in the 1920s. From 1930 to 1953, Congressman Saund was first a lettuce farmer and then a distributor of chemical fertilizer in California's Imperial Valley.

In 1928, he married Ms. Marian Kosa, despite stigma against interracial marriages at the time. The marriage also led to the loss of American citizenship for the former Ms. Kosa. The Quota Immigration Act of 1921 and Cable Act of 1922 revoked the citizenships for American women who married foreigners.

Throughout his life, Congressman Saund was a champion for South Asian Americans'

rights. As the national president of the Hindustan Association of America, he fought for citizenship rights for the 2,500 South Asians living in the United States. Gaining citizenship, he argued, would give South Asian farmers the right to own their own farms and share in the American dream. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in 1923, United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind (261 US 204), that ``while persons from India were Caucasians, they were not `white persons', and therefore were, aliens ineligible to citizenship.''

On July 3, 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Luce-Cellar legislation that granted South Asians their right to citizenship. Three years later, Congressman Saund received his citizenship and became an active member of the Democratic Party. He ran for a judgeship in Westmoreland in 1950 and won, but he was barred from taking oath because he had not been a citizen for a full year before the election. Congressman Saund was disappointed, but undeterred and won again in 1952.

In 1956, he campaigned for California's 29th Congressional District seat. Despite the use of racial epithets and anti-immigrant rhetoric, Congressman Saund defeated Republican Jacqueline Odlum by a margin of 3 percent. The voters of Imperial and Riverside counties knew in that election what the entire Congress would soon learn: Congressman Saund was a man of integrity and compassion with an unwavering commitment to bettering our Nation.

When he took the oath of office in 1957, Congressman Saund became the first South Asian American elected to Congress. He was truly a champion for the farmers, working poor, and immigrants, and today he continues to serve as a role model for all South Asians. His impressive accomplishments should not be overshadowed by the tribulations he endured. Congressman Saund served this country admirably until 1962 when he lost his re-election bid after suffering from a stroke. Congressman Saund died at the age of 74 in 1973.

Mr. Speaker, today we remember and honor Congressman Saund. He proved in his own life what he preached in his public career, ``There is no room in the United States of America for second-class citizenship.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and I would like to give a special thanks to the sponsor of this resolution, my good friend from Oregon, Mr. Blumenauer.

Like several of my colleagues on the House International Relations Committee, I had the opportunity to meet with many of the men and women of our Armed Forces, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development operating in the tsunami affected region.

My trip to the region began in Singapore, where I met with members of our Armed Forces who were using the Singapore Air Force base as a staging ground for missions into the hardest hit area of the tsunami, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

They were running operations out of the base 24 hours a day thanks to the support of our Singaporean friends.

While I was at the base I met with a Marine who was injured just days before in a helicopter crash but he remained in high spirits and was eager to get back out to help the survivors of the tsunami.

Singapore has been such a strong ally and a solid supporter of our relief mission; I want to publicly thank the government and people of Singapore for their role in the assistance to the tsunami affected region.

After Singapore, I traveled to Sri Lanka and went south of Colombo to Galle, a tourist town, which was ravaged by the tsunami.

During my day in Galle, I visited a maternity hospital that had been badly damaged and is now unusable, but I met with a doctor who told me about a c-section he was performing when the wave hit the hospital.

This doctor was able to finish the surgery by flashlight and saved the mother and child. These are some of the stories we may never have heard.

As I traveled on the road back to Colombo stretching the length of the shore I saw more affects of the Tsunami, train tracks were turned into corkscrews and buildings were totally destroyed.

But within all this rubble was American Marines and USAID Disaster Assistance Relief Teams working hand in hand with the Sri Lankan's clearing destroyed homes.

I asked one of the marines about his daily activities and he told me what brought him the most joy was playing with the local children who had lost their families and homes and that just making them smile and keeping them active brought him so much fulfillment.

As those children grow up they will always remember that marine who brought a little sense of normalcy back to their lives.

Also, during a meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, I met the director of the U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, OFDA, covering South Asia, which with the help of this committee; I was able to establish this branch.

I was caught off guard when William Berger, the director of the OFDA, thanked me for establishing this office and told me that the funding I was able to secure has saved thousands of lives and will continue to.

It's a real testament to the effect our committee has on the lives of those living so far away.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this important resolution.