Judy Chu

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU. I yield myself such time as I may consume. S. 4010 is an immigration relief bill for Shigeru Yamada. The House passed a substantially identical version of this bill by voice vote in the 110th Congress, but the Senate was unable to take up the measure. I am pleased to see that the House will have an opportunity to vote on final passage today. Shigeru was brought to the United States from Japan when he was 10 years old. Together with his mother and his two sisters, Shigeru entered the country on a non-immigrant visa and remained in the United States for over 3 years on his mother's student visa. During this period, Shigeru's mother became engaged to a U.S. citizen. Had she married her fiance, she and her children would have been able to obtain lawful permanent residence in the country. However, in September 1995, when Shigeru was only 13 years old, his mother was killed in a car accident. After his mother's death, Shigeru and his sisters were raised by their maternal aunt and uncle in Chula Vista, California. Shigeru's natural father was an alcoholic who was physically abusive to Shigeru, his sisters, and their mother. There was no other viable caretaker in Japan. Shigeru's aunt attempted to formally adopt him, but was unable to complete the adoption before his 16th birthday. Under current immigration law, virtually all adoptions of foreign children by U.S. citizens must be completed before the child's 16th birthday in order for the child to qualify for legal status in the United States. Although Shigeru's sisters obtained legal status through adoption and marriage, Shigeru continued to reside here without such status. In the meantime, Shigeru became a model student, graduating from Eastlake High School with honors in 2010. At Eastlake, he served on student government, participated in numerous community service activities, and excelled at football and wrestling. He was an All- American Scholar and was named Outstanding English Student his freshman year. He was also voted the Most Inspirational Player of the Year in various sports, both at the junior varsity and varsity level. He served as vice president of the associated student body his senior year. Shigeru also volunteered to coach the Eastlake High School softball team and obtained an associate's degree from Southwestern Community College. It is through no fault of his own that Shigeru was raised in the United States without legal immigration status. Shigeru's mother died before she could regularize his status, and adoption proceedings by his aunt were completed too late to affect his immigration status. S. 4010 presents the only option for Shigeru to remain in the United States. I commend Representative Bob Filner and Senator Dianne Feinstein, who each introduced their first private immigration bill on Shigeru's behalf back in the 108th Congress. I would also like to recognize Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith for their help in moving this bill to the floor today. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Washington, DC, Aug. 27, 2009. Hon. Zoe Lofgren, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, & International Law, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Washington,

Ms. CHU. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 4010) for the relief of Shigeru Yamada.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, last year, Bobby Salcedo, a beloved elected official in my district, was brutally murdered by the Mexican drug cartels while visiting family in Durango, Mexico. While I am saddened by Bobby's loss, his death has led me to fight the dangerous drug cartels that thrive along our border. That is why I introduced the Preserving Foreign Criminal Assets Forfeiture Act, a bill that will make it easier for Federal police to seize the illicit assets of international criminal organizations. Foreign criminals are able to protect hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty money by moving their proceeds abroad before U.S. police can seize them, enabling them to continue their illegal activities. With this bill, we will have another tool to fight the drug cartels by cutting off their lifeblood and allowing Federal law enforcement officials to seize these illicit assets.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of America's great pioneers. Secretary Norman Mineta is a role model for Americans of every color, background, and creed. His story is one of sacrifice, hardship, dedication, and triumph. His success in the face of adversity is not only important to Asian Americans but to all Americans. Secretary Mineta was born to Japanese immigrant parents who came to America for a better life, even though they faced harsh conditions, particularly in the halls of Congress. After passage of the Asian Exclusion Act, Japanese immigrants were prohibited from becoming citizens, forced to carry papers with them at all times, and often harassed and detained. If they couldn't produce the proper documents, authorities threw them into prison or even out of the country. But it didn't end there. When Mineta was a young boy, he and his parents were rounded up, forced out of their home, and shipped off to live in the Santa Anita racetrack on the infamous order of President Roosevelt during World War II. Three months later, they ended up at Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming, where they lived surrounded by barbed wire as the war dragged on. For some, such treatment would make them abandon their country, but not Secretary Mineta. After graduating from business school at Cal Berkeley, he signed up for the Army and served the very Nation that imprisoned his family, and he served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea. This dedication to service never left him, and when asked to join the San Jose City Council he jumped at the chance. With this City Council seat, he became the first minority and first Asian American City Council member in San Jose. It wasn't long before he was elected the first Asian American mayor of a major U.S. city, and thus began a long line of major accomplishments for a leader who was ahead of his time. It is because of Secretary Mineta, who introduced legislation when he was in Congress, that we designate May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Because of that, today all Americans are reminded of the many contributions Asian Americans have made to this country. It was Secretary Mineta who spearheaded the long push and final passage of the Japanese American reparations bill. Because of him, finally there was an apology and relief to the 120,000 Japanese Americans who lost everything while being interned during World War II just because of their ancestry. And it was Secretary Mineta who cofounded and cochaired the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Today, our caucus is 11 members strong, providing a unified voice for issues unique to the Asian American community. And that was all before he became Secretary. A decade ago, he was appointed by President Clinton as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, making him the first Asian American to be a Cabinet member, and then he was appointed--the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary under President George Bush--to head the Department of Transportation. And, after 5 years in the post, he became the longest-serving Transportation Secretary in the Department's history. I can think of no one more deserving for this body to honor than Secretary Mineta. He is an inspiration to many, including me, and we owe a debt of gratitude for all that he has done to put Asian Americans on the map and to put America on the map. It is because of his leadership that America is a better and stronger Nation today.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1774) for the relief of Hotaru Nakama Ferschke.

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. I rise in strong support of this bill to repeal the flawed Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Alexander Nicholson was a bright young man who joined the Army's Intelligence Unit. He was a great asset, speaking 5 different languages, including Arabic. One day, a fellow linguist discovered a letter he had written to his boyfriend. It was in Portuguese, so he thought no one could understand it. Well, that linguist did and outed him. Instead of being discharged, Alexander resigned . . . 6 months after 9/11 when they needed someone with his ability the most. Since Don't Ask, Don't Tell, 13,000 soldiers have been discharged for no other reason than their sexual orientation. It has cost over $360 million to replace them, an utter waste of dollars and talent. That's why I've stopped calling this policy ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' and instead label it what it really is: ``Doesn't Work, Never Has.'' Let's stop this misguided policy from hurting countless men and women who serve our country. Our country should praise the men and women who keep us safe--not persecute them.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5446, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 600 Florida Avenue in Cocoa, Florida, as the Harry T. and Harriette Moore Post Office. H.R. 5446 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Florida, Representative Bill Posey, on May 27, 2010. Mr. Speaker, Harry Tyson Moore was born in Houston, Florida, on November 18, 1905. He excelled in his schooling and graduated from Bethune-Cookman College in 1936. He soon after accepted a teaching position in a segregated school in Cocoa, Florida, and later became principal of the Titusville Colored School in Brevard County. There, he met Harriette Simms. The two married on Christmas Day, 1926, and had two daughters, Annie and Juanita. After the birth of their two daughters, Harry and Harriette Moore founded the first branch of the NAACP in Brevard County, Florida, in 1934. They also helped the Florida State Conference of the NAACP in 1941, and Harry Moore took an unpaid position as its secretary. The Moores led a successful effort to advance civil rights. In 1937, Harry Moore filed the first lawsuit in the Deep South to equalize salaries of black teachers with white teachers in public schools. This effort failed at first, but it laid the foundation for other lawsuits that succeeded. In 1943, Moore began reviewing every incident of lynching involving black people in the State of Florida, taking affidavits from victims' families and launching investigations. He pursued this effort for the rest of his life. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Allwright that all-white primaries in Texas and other States were unconstitutional, a major victory for the NAACP. Moore then organized a group called the Progressive Voters League and spent 6 years registering over 116,000 black voters in the Florida Democratic Party. This activism led the Florida public school system to fire and blacklist the Moores in 1946, after which Harry Moore became a full-time paid activist for the Florida NAACP. In July 1949, he got involved in a police brutality case in Groveland, Florida, where he uncovered evidence that four black men accused of rape had been beaten. Moore leveled brutality charges against Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall. Three of the defendants were convicted in 1949, but two of the convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Lake County prepared to put the two on trial again, and on November 6, 1951, while Sheriff McCall drove them back to Lake County for a pretrial hearing, he shot the two handcuffed men, killing one and critically wounding the second. Moore immediately called for Sheriff McCall to be suspended and indicted for murder. Six weeks later, on Christmas Day, 1951, Harry Moore was killed when a bomb exploded beneath the floor joists under his bed. Harriette died of her injuries 9 days later. Harry Moore was the first NAACP official murdered in the civil rights struggle, and Harry and Harriette Moore remain the only married couple to be murdered for their activism in the era. The FBI was unable to file charges due to a lack of evidence, but it was suspected to be the work of central Florida members of the Ku Klux Klan. Harry Moore has been called the first martyr of the 1950s civil rights movement. The Moores' murder sent a shock around the country and around the world, drawing attention to the movement. Mr. Speaker, the extensive efforts of the Moores during the civil rights movement is worthy of our greatest praise. Let us now pay tribute to the life and work of Harry T. and Harriette Moore by designating the postal facility on Florida Avenue in Cocoa, Florida, in their honor. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 5446. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5446) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 600 Florida Avenue in Cocoa, Florida, as the ``Harry T. and Harriette Moore Post Office''.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 1743, a measure congratulating Gerda Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. House Resolution 1743 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Arizona, Representative Harry Mitchell, on December 1, 2010. The measure enjoys the support of over 90 Members of the House. Mr. Speaker, in 1939, Mrs. Weissmann Klein was living in Poland at the age of 15. Within months of the German invasion of Poland that year, she began to lose her family. Her beloved older brother, Arthur, was taken away by the Germans, and the remainder of her family was forced to live in a ghetto. Later, the Nazis separated her from her parents, sending them to Auschwitz. Weissmann Klein was forced to spend 3 years in a series of concentration and slave labor camps from 1942 to 1945. In 1945, she and the other inmates of her camp were sent on a 350-mile death march to avoid the advance of Allied forces. When the U.S. Army liberated the survivors of the march in Volary, Czechoslovakia on May 7, 1945, she was one of fewer than 120 out of 2,000 women to survive. After the war, she married Lieutenant Kurt Klein of the U.S. Army, an intelligence officer present at the liberation at Volary. She settled with Kurt in Buffalo, New York, and had three children. She then spent decades telling her story, giving speeches, and writing books offering a message of hope drawn from her struggle for survival. She and Kurt also got involved in a number of charity efforts. In 1998, they started the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, a public nonprofit foundation which promoted the teaching of tolerance, respect for others, and the value of community service. Currently, she is focusing her efforts on her new foundation, Citizenship Counts, a nonprofit organization that reaches out to middle and high school students to promote the appreciation and potential of American citizenship and the democratic process. For her life of service and promotion of tolerance and understanding among all people, President Obama announced that early next year, Gerda Weissmann Klein will be one of 15 recipients of the Nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mr. Speaker, let us now pay tribute to Mrs. Weissmann Klein and congratulate her on being selected for the Presidential Medal of Freedom through the passage of House Resolution 1743. I urge my colleagues to support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the sponsor of this resolution, Representative Harry Mitchell from Arizona.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6205) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1449 West Avenue in Bronx, New York, as the ``Private Isaac T. Cortes Post Office''.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure. I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU. I now yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6205, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1449 West Avenue in Bronx, New York, as the Private Isaac T. Cortes Post Office. H.R. 6205 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from New York, Representative Joseph Crowley, on September 23, 2010. The measure enjoys the support of New York's entire delegation to the House. A native of the Bronx, Private Isaac T. Cortes held several jobs before enlisting in the Army. He was very proud to work as a security guard at Yankee Stadium and at one point hoped to become an officer with the New York City Police Department. He enlisted with the Army in November 2006 to gain experience that would help him achieve that goal, but later decided to become a career military man. Private Cortes served as an infantryman with the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Light Infantry, based out of Fort Drum, New York. He was a Humvee driver and performed operator-level maintenance on the vehicle. While overseas in Iraq, he participated in mountain Humvee and dismounted walking patrols. Private Cortes engaged in weapons cache searches and humanitarian aid missions to the local Iraqi people. Sadly, on November 27, 2007, Private Cortes was one of two soldiers killed when an improvised explosive device was detonated as his vehicle rode past Amerli, Iraq, about 100 miles north of Baghdad. His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Army Service Medal. He is survived by his parents, Emily and Isaias, his younger brother Christopher, a young daughter Amaria, and a large extended family. They remember Private Cortes as the kid who would help elders carry groceries, the young man who would play with his younger cousins, and the father who wanted to be the best he could be for his young child. Today we also remember him as the soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Mr. Speaker, let us now pay tribute to the life and service of Private Isaac T. Cortes by designating the postal facility on West Avenue in the Bronx in his honor. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 6205. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Ms. CHU

Ms. CHU. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I present S. 3794, the FOR VETS Act of 2010. The measure authorizes the transfer of Federal surplus property to State agencies for donation within the State for veterans organizations. S. 3794 was introduced by our colleague in the other Chamber, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, on September 16, 2010. It was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and agreed to in the Senate, with amendment, by unanimous consent. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on November 15, 2010. This bill, which was originally known as the Formerly Owned Resources for Veterans to Express Thanks for Service Act of 2010, adds veterans groups to the list of entities already eligible to receive the transfer of surplus Federal property from State agencies through donation. Under this measure, eligible groups will include education or public health organizations whose membership is substantially comprised of veterans and whose representatives are recognized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Speaker, S. 3794 provides unneeded and unutilized Federal property to assist our veterans in their daily lives. This is a small token of our gratitude for their sacrifices on behalf of our country, but one that can make a great difference to those proud men and women who have given so much for us. I would like to thank Senator Leahy, Chairman Towns, and Ranking Member Issa for their hard work on this bill; and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.