Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act

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 the subject of my special order.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to call upon my colleague, Ms. Bordallo, who hails from Guam.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to call upon our good friend, colleague from Texas, Representative Al Green.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to call upon our good friend from California, Congressman Xavier Becerra.

Just to comment about both Congressmen Al Green and Xavier Becerra, they too are also members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, and so they serve dual roles in their leadership. And I think CAPAC, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, enjoys the leadership, experience and the insights of these two gentlemen, and it makes our caucus stronger and partners with the other caucuses.

And it's no wonder that they come to Congress on behalf of the community because the communities there trust these two men and they trust their leadership and their insights and their conscience. So to both I say, thank you.

I'd like to call upon a Congresswoman who hails from the Aloha State who, I think, is probably the re-incarnation of the spirit of Patsy Mink, Mazie Hirono.

Mahalo. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Asian American Pacific Islander community and to commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

As Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, commonly known as CAPAC, I feel privileged to be here tonight to speak of the Asian and Pacific Islander American history and accomplishments.

And before I continue, I would also like to recognize you, Mr. Speaker, for presiding over this Special Order and also knowing that you too have worked with other Asian American leaders in your home State, specifically Senator Stan Matsunaga. For that we are grateful.

Additionally, I will be highlighting those isues affecting our community and the priorities for CAPAC.

The history of APA Heritage Month: In celebrating APA Heritage Month, I want to give thanks to the late Representative Frank Horton from New York and my good friend Secretary Norman Mineta, along with Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Masayuki Matsunaga, that May is now designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

The first 10 days of May coincide with two important anniversaries: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7, 1843, to the U.S. and the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.

In 1992 Congress passed public law No. 102-450, the law that officially designated May of each year as ``Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.'' The first AAPI settlement in this country dates back to 1763, when Filipinos escaped imprisonment aboard Spanish galleons and established a community near New Orleans.

The AAPI community quickly expanding. Currently, there are approximately 14.6 million AAPIs living in the United States, comprising just over 5 percent of the total U.S. population. By the year 2050, there will be an estimated 33.4 million individuals living in the United States who identify as Asian alone, representing a 213 percent increase from 2000, comprising 8 percent of the total U.S. population. My home State of California has both the largest AAPI population, 4.9 million, and the largest numerical increase of AAPIs since 2000.

There are some needs. Mr. Speaker, this year's theme for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, ``Meeting the Challenges for Asian Pacific Americans,'' reflects hardships overcome by the AAPI community while highlighting the hope we maintain as we contribute to the prosperity of this great Nation. As our community expands, we must also continue to educate our fellow citizens about the uniqueness of our experiences.

The AAPI community is often misperceived as monolithic. Our community is extremely diverse in our languages, ethnicities, culture, and challenges. Aggregating such a large and diverse group makes it difficult to understand the unique problems faced by the individual ethnicities and subgroups, such as the Southeast Asian Americans, who are refugees that fled their home countries during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. As a country, we need to better address the needs of the AAPI community when we discuss comprehensive immigration reform, education, health issues, and veterans' affairs.

Comprehensive immigration reform: Mr. Speaker, our Nation was founded by immigrants who valued freedom and liberty, who sought to be free from persecution and from tyranny. Families fled their home countries to seek refuge in this great Nation because they too believed in ``liberty, justice, and freedom for all.'' It is in this spirit that

CAPAC supports immigration legislation that shifts the debate from an exclusionary, anti-immigrant, enforcement-only approach to one that confronts the social and economic realities behind immigration; honors the dignity of all families and communities; and recognizes the economic, social, and cultural contributions of immigrants to our great country.

Today, AAPIs constitute a growing and vibrant piece of the American fabric. In 2005 close to 9 million of this Nation's foreign born were born in Asia, constituting approximately one quarter of the foreign- born population and over one half of the total AAPI population. Even with a relatively high naturalization rate, there are approximately 1.5 million Asian undocumented immigrants living, working, or studying in the U.S., representing 14 percent of the undocumented immigrants in the United States. These include victims of immigration fraud, who have become undocumented due to no fault of their own. Many work and study hard, pay taxes, and yet live in fear with no hope of gaining a path to legal permanent resident status. Let's give these workers and these students an opportunity.

In addition to an earned pathway to citizenship, family reunification is a high priority in the AAPI community. Immigration reform must espouse the family values that are so fundamental to our national ideals. Family members provide care for the sick, for their children, and for their elderly. Family members are crucial for small businesses and educational opportunities. Close to 2 million AAPIs wait years, sometimes even decades, in order to reunite with their families in the United States. AAPI families who seek to be reunited with their family members overseas have not seen their dreams come true because of our dysfunctional immigration system. We need comprehensive immigration reform to address these backlogs.

And education: In addition to immigration reform, expanding educational access for all Americans is also a high priority for CAPAC. Mr. Speaker, as Americans, we need to ensure that our children receive a quality education by providing adequate teacher training, funds for after-school and extra-curricular activities, and ensuring that college is affordable for every student who desires to receive a higher education.

According to the U.S. Census, 41 percent of Asians age 25 and over have a bachelor's degree or higher level of education. However, when the data is disaggregated for AAPI subgroups, we find that the ``model minority'' stereotype is, in fact, a myth. According to the 2000 Census, only 9.1 percent of Cambodian Americans, 7.4 percent of Hmong Americans, 7.6 percent of Lao Americans, 19.5 percent of Vietnamese Americans, and 16.5 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who are 25 years and older have a bachelor's degree or higher degrees.

These numbers show that we must do a better job of disaggregating the data and information about our communities to assess the needs of those hardworking Americans who still falter behind.

To address the disparities between subgroups of the larger AAPI community, we need Congress to pass the Asian American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions bill, which my colleague from Oregon, Representative David Wu, has introduced in January. This legislation will provide Federal grants to colleges and universities that have an enrollment of undergraduate students that is at least 10 percent AAPI and at least 50 percent of its degree-seeking students receive financial assistance.

As a caucus, we will work to increase the availability of loan assistance, scholarships, and programs to allow AAPI students to attend a higher education institution; to ensure full funding for teachers and bilingual education programs under the No Child Left Behind law to support English language learners; and to support full funding of minority outreach programs for access to higher education such as the TRIO programs to expand services to serve AAPI students.

In health, Mr. Speaker, a common misperception of AAPIs is that as a group, we face fewer health problems than other racial and ethnic groups. But, in fact, AAPI as a group, and specific populations within this group, do experience disparities in health and health care. For example, AAPIs have the highest hepatitis B rates of any racial group in the United States.

This week, health advocates from around the country will be participating in a National Awareness Campaign to bring attention to and educate their communities about prevention of hepatitis B through testing and vaccination. In the United States, 12 million people have been infected at some time in their lives with the hepatitis B virus, and more than 5,000 Americans die from hepatitis B related liver complications each year.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders account for more than half of the chronic hepatitis B cases and half of the deaths resulting from chronic hepatitis B infections in the United States. In order to break the silence surrounding this deadly disease and bring awareness to the American people, Congressman Edolphus Towns, Congressman Charlie Dent and I have introduced H.R. 366, which supports the goals and ideals of National Hepatitis B Awareness Week. I hope my colleagues will join me in educating our communities about the dangers of this disease.

AAPIs are also five times more likely to develop cervical and liver cancer than any other ethnic and racial group. Furthermore, according to the Census Bureau, 18 percent of AAPIs went without insurance for the entire year in 2000. This means that the uninsured are not only more likely to go without health care for serious medical conditions, they are also more likely to go without routine care, less likely to have a regular source of care, less likely to use preventive services, and have viewer visits per year.

At the same time, without appropriate language translation services or properly translated materials, limited English proficient immigrants cannot receive adequate care as well as State and Federal benefits for which they may be eligible. In the AAPI community, 76 percent of Hmong Americans, 61 percent of Vietnamese Americans, 62 percent of Korean Americans and 39 percent of Tongans speak limited English. Therefore, eliminating health care disparities in the AAPI community must include data collection, linguistically appropriate and culturally competent services and access to health insurance.

CAPAC has been working with both the Congressional Hispanic and Black Caucuses on the Health Care Equity and Accountability Act to eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities for all of our communities. The act would expand the health care safety net, diversify the health care workforce, combat diseases that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities, emphasize prevention and behavioral health, and promote the collection and dissemination of data and enhance medical research.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to extend my gratitude to the patriotic men and women serving our country in the military, including the 62,378 AAPIs who are on active duty in the military, and the 7,904 AAPIs who are currently deployed in the global war on terrorism. I also commend and thank the 446,000 AAPI veterans who have fought for our country.

I would like to highlight and honor the Filipino veterans who have not been compensated or recognized for their service, which I believe is a national disservice to these brave veterans. As a country, it is our duty to ensure these veterans have equal access to all of the benefits and treatment that other veterans receive. We believe that our troops should be taken care of when we send them into battle and that they should be given the respect when they return home. Therefore, CAPAC endorses H.R. 760, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act introduced by Representative Bob Filner, who chairs the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. CAPAC thanks Representaive Filner for his leadership on this issue.

H.R. 760 would do justice by providing the full benefits promised to all Filipino veterans who fought in World War II under the command of the U.S. military. The Filipino Veterans Equity Act would eliminate the disparities and

benefits between some Filipino veterans and restore the honor and dignity they so deserve. With Congressman Filner as the Chair of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, we have a great chance to get this bill to the floor.

There are many firsts among the AAPIs. I am proud of our community's accomplishments, and I would like to recognize many of the AAPIs first in areas of art, film, sports, science, academia and politics, but also emphasize that they should not be the last.

In 1847, Yung Wing, a Chinese American, graduated from Yale University and became the first AAPI to graduate from an American university.

In 1863, William Ah Hang, a Chinese American, became the first AAPI to enlist in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.

In 1922, Anna May Wong, in her lead role in ``The Toll of the Sea,'' at the age of 17 became the first AAPI female to become a movie star, achieving stardom at a time when prejudice against the Chinese in the United States was rampant.

In 1944, An Wang, a Chinese American who invented the magnetic core memory, revolutionized computing and served as a standard method for memory retrieval and storage. And today we have iPods that are smaller than a deck of cards that can hold up to four gigabytes of information, all coming from this 1944 invention by An Wang.

During World War II, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, comprised mostly of Japanese Americans, became the most highly decorated unit of its size in the history of the U.S. Army, including 22 Medal of Honor recipients, Senator Daniel Inouye being one of them.

In 1946, Wing F. Ong, a Chinese American of Arizona, became the first AAPI to be elected to State office.

In 1947, Wataru ``Wat'' Misaka became the first ethnic minority and the first AAPI to play in the National Basketball Association for the New York Knicks. How about that?

In 1948, two Californian divers, Dr. Samuel Lee, a Korean American, and Victoria Manalo Draves, a Filipina American, became the first AAPIs to win Olympic gold medals for the U.S.

In 1956, Dalip Singh Saud, an Indian American, became the very fist AAPI to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

In 1959, Hiram Leong Fong, a Chinese American, became the first AAPI to be elected as a United States Senator and is the only AAPI to actively seek the Presidential nomination of a major party.

In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink, a Japanese American, becames the first AAPI woman and woman of color elected to the United States Congress.

In 1971, Judge Herbert Choy, late Ninth Circuit Court judge, became the first AAPI to sit on the Federal bench.

In 1985, Haing Ngor, a Cambodian American survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, became the first AAPI to win an Academy Award for his role in ``The Killing Fields'' movie.

In 1985, Ellison Onizuka, grandson of a Japanese immigrant, became the first AAPI astronaut to reach outer space, and in 1986 died in the space shuttle explosion of the Challenger.

In 2000, Secretary Norman Mineta was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton and became the very first AAPI to hold a cabinet post; then continued his service to America as Secretary of Transportation under President Bush.

In 2001, Secretary Elaine Chao was confirmed as Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush, becoming the first AAPI female to hold a cabinet position.

Mr. Speaker, the Asian and Pacific Islander American community continues to fight for our civil rights as Americans. Even after the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, we as a community did not grow embittered or cowed by discrimination; instead, we progressed and moved forward.

I am a proud member of the AAPI community, and I am proud to be one because we continue to serve as positive contributors to our many communities by investing in education, business and cultural opportunities for all Americans.

In closing, this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month we take pride in our history, accomplishments and the promise of our future as we continue to pave the way for a better tomorrow and a better America.

Madam Speaker, on the first of this month, I reintroduced the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act (H.R. 1287), which will provide for the expedited reunification of the families of our Filipino World War II veterans.

This body has many times heard accounts of the bravery of the Filipino veterans: how they fought shoulder to shoulder with American servicemen; how they sacrificed for the same just cause. For too long, we have ignored the promise we made to those men to provide benefits and care equal to that provided to our own soldiers.

As the House prepares for debate on comprehensive immigration reform, let us remember the broken promises made to our Filipino World War II veterans and provide for a meaningful way to make amends by expediting the immigration petitions of their sons and daughters.

I would like to submit into the Congressional Record an article that recently appeared in the Washington Post that humanizes the intent of my bill.

[From the Washington Post, Mar. 4, 2007]

Hope for Amends to Filipino Immigrants

(By N.C. Aizenman)

Amid the wrangling over immigration reform, virtually

everyone in Congress appears to agree on one point: Filipino-

born veterans who fought alongside U.S. troops during World

War II deserve a break.

Denied the right to immigrate to the United States until

1990, they came hoping that their children could follow them

here later, just as other groups have done. But the adult

children have been required to wait twice as long--up to 16

years--as anyone else. With the veterans often too old and

sick to travel home, many have died while waiting to be

reunited with their families.

Now, after several longtime backers have risen to key

positions in Congress, Filipino American advocates are

hopeful that legislation will be pushed through to exempt the

veterans' children from the immigration delay. They also are

optimistic about a potentially more controversial bill that

would grant Filipino veterans military pensions.

About 5,000 veterans in the United States would stand to

benefit from a change in immigration provisions, and an

additional 10,000 in the Philippines could be eligible for

pensions.

To many in the 2-million-strong Filipino American

community, the issue represents a chance to cement their

political identity in a nation where they have long felt

invisible, even though Filipinos rank second, behind

Mexicans, in the number of immigrants living in the United

States.

``Historically, we Filipinos have always been looked down

on as your little brown brothers--as these acquiescent people

who would just accept anything Uncle Sam would do to them,''

said Jon Melegrito, communications director of the National

Federation of Filipino American Associations. ``This is about

asserting who we are as a people and how we served this

country. . . . It's a call to action to stop acting like

colonial slaves and to start acting like first-class

citizens.''

The effort builds on an association with the United States

that dates to 1898, when the United States acquired the

Philippines from Spain after winning the Spanish-American

War.

Laws and discriminatory practices against all Asian

immigrants kept Filipino numbers in the United States low

through the first half of the 1900s. But in the Philippines,

many residents were taught English and raised to think of

themselves as something akin to Americans.

Celestino Almeda, 90, a veteran who lives in Alexandria,

remembered that the director of his elementary school in

Manila led students in a pledge of allegiance to the American

flag every morning.

``We also celebrated all the holidays: Washington's

birthday, Armistice Day,'' Almeda said. ``In our mind, it was

like America was our mother country.''

When Japan invaded the Philippines in 1941, more than

200,000 Filipinos joined Americans in waging a fierce

resistance, enduring such horrors as the Bataan Death March

and the grueling guerrilla campaign that followed.

Technically, the Filipino fighters were under overall U.S.

command. But within months of the Allied victory, Congress

stripped most of them of their rights as foreign veterans of

U.S. forces--including the opportunity to become U.S.

citizens--on the grounds that the Philippines was about to be

granted independence.

Even so, the Philippines continued its close affiliation

with the United States. Thousands of Filipinos joined the

U.S. Navy, which until recently had major bases there. By

1970, there were more Filipinos in the U.S. Navy than in the

Philippine Navy.

And, after 1965, when Congress repealed the nationality

quota system that had practically prohibited Asians from

immigrating, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos streamed in.

Ranging from unskilled workers and nannies to nurses and

professionals who came in on occupational preference visas,

the new arrivals immediately formed social, cultural and

professional organizations. Before long, they were rising to

prominent positions in government, unions and the military.

Several won elected office, including in Prince George's

County, where a sizable community settled.

Yet when it came to turning their clout into political

activism on behalf of Filipino American causes, many of the

immigrants hesitated, said Bing Cardenas Branigin, 50, a

former regional chairman of the Filipino American federation.

``There was this sense that you shouldn't make trouble,

that you shouldn't contradict the government,'' she said.

``You should just pay your taxes and send your kids to school

and keep quiet.''

That began to change in the mid-1970s when anger spread

over the repressive policies of the Filipino president,

Ferdinand

Marcos. As much as their opposition to Marcos galvanized the

Filipino American community, it also caused rifts with those

who supported Marcos.

After Marcos was ousted, community leaders looked to

refocus their newfound energy on a more unifying issue. The

fight for veterans' equity was a natural choice.

Since then, the veterans have won some of the benefits they

lost after the war. Most notably, in 1990, Congress granted

Filipino World War II veterans the same opportunity to

naturalize offered to all other foreign nationals who served

in the U.S. armed forces.

But the Filipino veterans remain ineligible for a military

pension, forcing many of the more than 24,000 elderly

veterans who became U.S. citizens after 1990 to live off food

stamps and Supplemental Security Income payments.

Joaquin Tejada, 84, a former guerrilla fighter who survived

two years resisting the Japanese from jungle hideouts, said

he now struggles to get by with his $545 monthly SSI check.

The rent for the two-bedroom apartment he shares with another

Filipino World War II veteran in Columbia Heights takes $275.

``By the end of the month, it's hard to buy even basic

food,'' said Tejada, who proudly sported an American flag tie

during an interview.

Then there is the l6-year wait veterans face if they wish

to bring over their adult children, an unintended consequence

of the 1965 law lifting the quotas that had prevented most

Asians from immigrating.

In their place, Congress introduced a complicated system

meant to offer every country the same number of family

reunification visas. But because Filipino applicants far

outnumber the yearly slots allotted to them, they face the

longest delays--22 years to sponsor an adult brother or

sister, for instance, compared with 11 years for applicants

of most other nationalities.

Candida Romulo, 72, said she and her husband, Bayani, a

veteran who became a lawyer in Manila, would not have

naturalized and moved to Oxon Hill had they known that the

wait to sponsor their grown children would be so long.

``We did it because we wanted to give them the

opportunities of living in this country. It was going to be

our gift to them,'' Romulo said during an interview in a

living room crammed with photographs of her four children.

Soon after the couple's arrival, Bayani developed a medical

condition requiring frequent dialysis, making visits to the

Philippines impossible. Because of their pending residency

applications, his children were unable to get visas to visit

him.

When Bayani suffered a severe stroke in September, his

eldest son wasn't able to relay his final words to his father

over the phone before he died.

``The receiver couldn't reach his bed in the ICU,'' Candida

Romulo said. ``So I told my husband, `Your son says that he

loves you very much and that he's so proud that you are his

father.' My husband couldn't speak, but I could tell that he

understood, because there were tears in his eyes.''

Now Romulo worries that her son may never gain entry to the

United States, because if a sponsor dies while the visa

application is pending, there is a chance that the

application will be annulled.

But she said she is still praying that Congress will pass

the legislation for the sake of those veterans who remain

alive.

``If that happens, I know my husband will be very happy

about it, even if he is already in heaven,'' she said.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the gentlemen for his remarks concerning the legislation that has been recently considered and passed in the Congress in providing for the needs of our Filipino veterans.

My understanding is it has been requested a little over $200 million to provide proper compensation. Sixty years. We're spending $12 billion a month on this war in Iraq, and after 60 years, we cannot manage ourselves not only morally but as a matter of legal obligation that we should have for these fellow patriots who helped us fight the war in World War II that we've just now gotten around to trying to provide justice and fairness to the system.

So I want to commend the gentleman for noting that, as well as my good friend, the gentlelady from Hawaii, the chief sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from California for her management of this legislation and also my good friend from California (Mr. Issa) for bringing this legislation to the floor and for its consideration. I especially also want to thank my good friend and dear colleague, the dear lady from Hawaii as the author and chief sponsor of this important legislation. I know that the chairman of our Asian Pacific Congressional Caucus would have been here, Congressman Honda, to also make comments concerning this proposed legislation.

I do want to say that in honor of Asian Pacific Heritage Month in which this Nation pays a special tribute to the contributions of some 15 million of our fellow Americans who are of Asian Pacific descent, I want to honor especially in particular the thousands of our Asian Pacific Americans who served in the Armed Forces of our Nation. In fact, this weekend it will be my privilege and a personal honor for me to visit Fort Bragg which has a lot of my fellow Samoan tribesmen who are members of the 82nd Airborne. We're going to have a tribal gathering there in Fort Bragg. There are going to be a whole bunch coming out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the 101st Airborne group, and I'm looking forward to meeting with them and also as part of our Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

Fifteen million Americans, Mr. Speaker, Asian Pacific Americans, are considered among the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States today. Although it makes up only 4 percent of our Nation's population, permit me to share with you an overview of some of the contributions of our Asian Pacific Americans. I know time will not permit me to give you the whole story here but just a couple just to note.

A couple years ago, a world-renowned physicist by the name of Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu, a Chinese American lady, perhaps little known to the average American, passed away quietly in her home in New York but for decades dedicated her life in study of beta ray physics. She was born in Shanghai and in her youth studied with Nobel Laureate E.O. Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron facility at U.C. Berkeley, where Dr. Wu also received her doctorate degree in physics. For some 30 years she taught physics at Columbia University. And in 1957, she also won the Nobel Prize in physics for her work on emission of electrons from radioactive nuclei.

Years ago, Time magazine featured as its Man of the Year Dr. David Ho for his medical research in an effort to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Makio Murayama, a Japanese American, conducted vital research in the United States that laid the groundwork for combating sickle-cell anemia.

There is also Dr. Leo Esaki, another Japanese American, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his electron tunneling theories.

And in the field of engineering, few have matched the architectural masterpieces created by the genius of I.M. Pei.

I could talk to you about Bruce Lee. I could talk to you about Jet Li. But there is another one.

Now, another sports and movie icon is coming through his way in the movie industry. Believed to be the heir apparent to Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, none other than the former World Wrestling Federation champion wrestler, Dwayne Johnson, or commonly known as The Rock. After starring in his first movie, The Scorpion King, the Rock has also completed his sixth movie now, Get Smart, which is scheduled for release next month. Some of you may remember him in Be Cool, The Game Plan, The Rundown, and Walking Tall. His newest movie, G.I. Joe, is slated for release in the fall of next year.

The unique thing about the Rock is that while his father is African American/Native American and of European descent, his mother is pure Samoan Polynesian. Now just about every Samoan alive claims to be related to the Rock, including myself, Mr. Speaker.

Years ago, Duke Kahanamoku, a native Hawaiian, won the Olympic gold medal in swimming for the United States. And then there was Korean American Dr. Sammy Lee, who also won the Olympic gold medal in high diving for the United States in the Olympics. The interesting thing about Dr. Lee when I met him at the Olympics in Korea in 1988, because he was non-white, he was not allowed to train along with his fellow American Olympic athletes.

So he had to become creative by performing high dives off cliffs and all the trees and I suspect even coconut trees, and despite all this, he still won the gold medal for our country.

Then we have our fellow Polynesians whom we exported to Japan. One happens to be a relative of mine, a Samoan Polynesian by the name of Saleva'a Atisanoe, who's a Sumo wrestler named Konishiki, that followed the other great Sumo wrestlers, Chad Rowen, Akebono; Peitani Fiamalu, also a grand champion, Musashimaru. These are some of the great athletes.

As a Vietnam veteran, Mr. Speaker, it's ludicrous for me not to say something in honor and respect for the hundreds of thousands of Asian Pacific Americans who served then and now in all the branches of the armed services of our Nation. As a former member of the U.S. Army Reserve unit known as the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Combat group, I would be remiss if I did not share with you the contributions of the tens of thousands of Japanese American soldiers who volunteered to fight our Nation's enemies in Europe during World War II.

Some of you may not be aware that after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, by the Imperial Forces of the Japanese government, there was such an outrage and cry for an all-out war against Japan, days afterward our President and the Congress formally declared war. But caught in this crossfire were hundreds of thousands of Americans, Americans mind you who just happened to be of Japanese ancestry.

Our national government immediately implemented a policy where some 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were forced to live in what we call relocation camps.

In our Nation's history, Mr. Speaker, let me just share with you the results of the bravery and the courage of these Japanese Americans who fought in Europe. 18,000 individual declarations for heroism; over 9,000 awards of the Purple Heart; 560 Silver Stars; and after some corrective action taken by the Congress, 19 Medals of Honor were awarded to these Japanese Americans who fought for our Nation.

We need to be reminded that forevermore we should never have this kind of thing happening in our Nation's history where people who happen to be of different ancestry or ethnicity are discriminated against simply because they are not like the rest of our fellow Americans.

I fully support this proposed legislation, and I ask my colleagues to approve this legislation. I thank again my good friend from Hawaii for her sponsorship and authorship of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, more than anything else I'd like to thank Chairman Mike Honda from California for organizing tonight's special order to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month because it's important for us to not only say it today, but have it recorded in the Congressional Record for all time that we appreciate what members of American society have done for us, especially members, this month we want to celebrate of Asian Pacific American heritage, who are Americans, patriotic, hardworking, and in every respect trying to live the American dream.

And so I stand here with a great deal of pride as a Member of Congress who represents a portion of the city of Los Angeles, a very diverse district with a substantial Asian Pacific American population. I stand here as a very proud member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus' Executive Committee.

And I also stand here very proud to say that on many occasions I've had the opportunity to author legislation very important to the Asian and Pacific American community here in this country, whether it has been the issue of reuniting families of Korean descent who have not seen family members in North Korea for many, many years, or whether it's been legislation to try to help obtain justice for Asians of Latino descent who were deprived of their rights back during World War II and never, never received the recognition they deserved to get their rights and their property back. I had that opportunity.

But rather than talk about the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which began the whole process of discrimination and racism towards Asian and Pacific Americans in this country, or rather than dwell much longer on the history of the internment of Japanese Americans, some 120,000 back during World War II for no reason, without due process, when, in fact, we found out that Japanese Americans served this country proudly and patriotically. In fact, they were among the most decorated of American soldiers during World War II.

And rather than talk about, as I just mentioned, the plight of Filipino soldiers during World War II, who as Filipino veterans, served under the American flag, yet, by an act of Congress in 1946, were deprived of the rights to veterans benefits in this country, let me talk about something else, and not in general terms.

Let me talk to you a little bit about America's leaders today and tomorrow. Just yesterday I had the opportunity to award the winner of my Congressional Arts Competition, which we do every year, so the one winner in my district in high school who has an opportunity to present his or her piece of art work in the Capitol of the United States is introduced on that day of the selection. And that was yesterday.

My winner, for the 31st Congressional District, was Julie Lee, a high school student in my congressional district who did a phenomenal piece of art work. She will be a leader tomorrow. We know it not just because of her artistic talents, but because she came forward to participate in this process.

I could name the various military academy nominees that I've sent off to, whether it's West Point or the Air Force Academy of Japanese, Chinese or Korean American descent that I've had the pleasure and honor to send on to become leaders of this country.

Or I could simply talk about someone by the name of Christine Oh, who happens to be a legislative assistant in my Congressional office here, or Henry Truong, who happens to be my executive assistant here in my Washington, D.C. office, who many would consider my gatekeeper because he decides what my schedule looks like; or perhaps Melvin Tabilas in my district office in Los Angeles, who is one of my field representatives who helps me manage an area that has some 650,000 people there to try to make sure we give the people in my district the coverage they need.

Or perhaps I could mention the names of people like Stuart Kwoh, who has been a champion for civil rights and simply the rights of Americans, especially those of Asian Pacific American descent in Los Angeles through his work with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

Or I could speak to you about Grace Shimizu, who has been a champion to have restored to those Japanese Latin Americans the rights they lost during World War II through the organization Campaign For Justice, which she is a part of and leads.

Or I could mention Hyepin Im, who is the leader of the Korean Churches for Community Development in the Los Angeles area, now a national organization, which tries to help, through the Korean churches throughout this country, to bring Korean Americans forward and to receive the benefits of what this society offers to Americans.

Or perhaps I could mention Joel Jacinto, who is the Director of the Search to involve Filipino Americans, SIPA, an organization which truly goes out into the community, especially in the Filipino American community in Los Angeles to make sure that whether it's on education, housing, health care issues, SIPA is there to offer Filipino Americans those services.

Mr. Speaker, to Mr. Honda we say, thank you for letting us have this opportunity to talk about the achievements, the accomplishments of people of Asian Pacific and American descent. Clearly, these are Americans who have persevered and excelled in this country.

We could talk about the difficulties of discrimination and racism, the violence that has been experienced by many. But rather than that, I think it's better, most fitting to talk about today's leaders, and tomorrow's leaders in this country.

So to one of today's leaders, Congressman Mike Honda, I say thank you for letting us talk today about tomorrow's leaders in this country as well. And with that, with great pride in helping to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Asian Pacific Heritage Month and to recognize the contributions of Asian and Pacific Island Americans to our Nation. First, I want to thank my colleague from California, the Honorable Mr. Honda, the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, for his distinct leadership and dedication to the needs of our communities.

Every May during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we recognize the contributions Asian and Pacific Island Americans make to the United States economically, culturally, politically, throughout its history. Asian and Pacific Islander Americans continue to make notable and diverse contributions to every aspect of American life. Asian and Pacific Island Americans also serve public interests by serving honorably in the United States Armed Services and ably at every level of government in the United States. I am proud to participate in the effort to honor their contributions to this country and celebrate our heritage with this month's events.

Some people wonder why we continue to celebrate cultural diversity. I respond by saying that doing so helps to remind us that while many of us have no memory of fleeing oppression or desiring to live freely, many Vietnamese Americans can tell you of their desire to live freely and the risks that they took fleeing communism to do so. Or, the experiences of some Korean Americans can help us better understand the importance of family and the hardships and the pain created as a result of being kept apart from loved ones for generations. While many of our lives are relatively stable and certain, some Chinese Americans or Japanese Americans can inspire you with their stories of succeeding here in the United States after arriving with no money and no possessions.

Freedom and economic opportunity are attributes of the United States that have, for generations, inspired hope among the repressed people of the world. Some of us take the United States and the American way of life for granted. The United States and the privilege and the goodness of America's way of life are particularly important for at least two groups among the Asian and Pacific Islander American community. They are Chamorro or Filipino-Americans. And I say that because Chamorro or Filipino-Americans are among the very few Americans who can identify with heart-swelling pride inspired by witnessing the striking and the unique beauty of the Stars and Stripes flying proudly at the top of flagpoles for the first time after enduring and being liberated from a brutal and extended occupation by the foreign power.

To all Americans I say this: To learn of the experiences endured by these Americans during occupation and liberation will provide you invaluable perspective on what it means to be an American. In fact, before the House this week is H.R. 1595, the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act. This bill would help fulfill a moral obligation on the part of our national government to a group of citizens, the people of Guam, most of whom were indigenous Chamorros who bore the burden of a brutal occupation. The people of Guam were brutalized through public executions, beheadings, rape, and severe injury, forced labor, forced march, and internment in concentration camps.

H.R. 1595 is called the Loyalty Recognition Act because the loyalty of the people of Guam to the United States during this 32-month enemy occupation should be honored.

It is a tragic injustice of history that, following liberation, Congress did not provide for war claims for the people of Guam in the same manner and with the same opportunities that were afforded to other Americans. The people who carried a disproportionate burden of the war were given less than other Americans when it came time to make our Nation whole. Those who gave more in blood got less in recognition. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month would be especially noteworthy if this legislation were to be agreed to by the House of Representatives.

Asians and Pacific Islanders have a powerful story to tell, and they have a love for this Nation that many take for granted. Our contribution to America is not just the great food and the intriguing cultures that we have introduced to this land; it is also the stories of our incredible journeys to freedom.

Our heritage is our gift to this Nation. Our unique cultures have survived and continue to thrive because America has come to know and appreciate how our contributions enrich our Nation.

I am very, very proud of the Chamorro culture on Guam and take every opportunity to share our culture and our traditions.

Today it is worth reflecting on who we are as a Nation and what values we stand for. We are a Nation of immigrants whose parents and grandparents have come to these shores seeking individual liberty, prosperity and human dignity. The Nation we call our own is one of compassion and of justice. And when it comes to our heritage, we may be Chamorros, Hawaiian, Japanese, Samoan, Chinese, Filipino, Palauan, Chuukese, Korean or any of the various proud cultures of Asia and the Pacific, but we all share a common love for this country.

So as we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, let us honor the contributions of all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and let us appreciate the cultural diversity, the patriotism and the communities that make our country, that make America so great.

Dangkulo na Si Yu'os Ma'ase.