Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a portrait of Dilip Singh Saund should be displayed in an appropriate place in the United States Capitol or in a House Office Building.

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, today I rise in support of H. Res. 120, the Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building Designation Act, which would designate the United States Postal Office at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, California, as the Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building. By renaming this building for Congressman Saund, we will properly honor and remember one of California's most respected and accomplished leaders.

Dalip Singh Saund was born on September 20, 1899, in a village in Punjab. He went to a boarding school in Jammu and graduated with a B.A. degree in Mathematics from Punjab University in 1919. In 1920, he immigrated to the United States and received his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of California-Berkeley. From lettuce farmer to judge to legislator, Saund became a great American success story. An admirer of Lincoln, Gandhi, and Churchill, Saund devoted his life to serving the people in his community and furthering a cause greater than his own. At every stage of his remarkable story, Saund embodied Churchill's words to ``never, never, never, never give up.''

Saund remained proud of his Indian heritage and became a strong voice for immigrants from India. After a two-year battle, he convinced Congresswoman Clare Booth and Congressman Emanuel Celler to sponsor legislation that would allow for Indian immigrants to become American citizens. The legislation was passed by Congress and on July 3, 1946, was signed into law by President Harry Truman. After becoming a citizen, his passion for democracy and politics led him into a life of public service. He served as a judge in Westmorland and a member of Congress for three terms.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be able to speak about Congressman Saund's rich legacy today and I would like to thank my good friend Congressman Darrell Issa for sponsoring this legislation. Additionally, I've introduced H. Res. 31 calling for a portrait of Congressman Saund to be displayed on Capitol Hill and will work for its passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague in the consideration of H.R. 120 which names the post office in Temecula, California, after Dalip Singh Saund.

H.R. 120 was introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) on January 4, 2005. Former Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian American elected to Congress, was born in India. He came to the United States to enroll in the University of California at Berkley and study agriculture. Instead, he ended up with a PhD in mathematics. Unfortunately, degrees in mathematics were not sufficient to overcome the rampant discrimination facing Indians and other minorities.

In the 1920s, Indian Americans were not eligible for U.S. citizenship and could not own land. So Saund worked as a lettuce foreman, eventually rising to be a distributor of chemical fertilizer in the Imperial Valley in California.

Saund married a Czech immigrant and became very active in the Indian- American community, championing the rights of Asian Indians both in the United States and abroad. He became a popular speaker and authored a book entitled ``My Mother India'' as a way to present Indian people in a positive light.

Saund went on to fight against discrimination, eventually securing the passage of legislation which made Asian Indians eligible for citizenship.

As a result of his success, Saund became active in the Democratic Party. He ran to represent California's 29th Congressional District. He won and served in the Congress from 1957 until 1962 when he lost his re-election bid after suffering a stroke. Dalip Singh Saund died in 1973.

Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleagues for seeking to honor the legacy of former Congressman Saund, and I urge the swift adoption of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner).

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