Loretta Sanchez

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I would say to the gentleman that he and I have had many conversations, not just here on the floor but in our walks and in talking every day. And we are very concerned that the money that we are spending, and let us face it, we are spending billions of dollars since September 11 on security and on helping the airline industry; and we are very concerned, whether it is the employees who are being laid off and their need for medical care, for health insurance, whether it is for unemployment benefits lasting longer than 26 weeks, whether it is what is happening to the people being laid off at motels as I see in my district. It also is about the fact that when these types of attacks hit, it could happen in a city where the Federal Government cannot get to it. We just cannot get in there fast enough, and what we will need is our local firefighters and our local law enforcement officers. Our local health clinics and hospitals will take the brunt of any other type of attack like this, and we need to ensure that we are funding not only at the top but also funding within communities, funding the workers, funding the doctors, funding the hospitals, funding the ability of our communities to respond.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me. I heard the gentleman while I was watching in my office. I thought I would really like to come down and talk a little bit about what has happened. I was in New York yesterday, and I know that many of the people who worked in the buildings in the World Trade Center came from Connecticut. My husband used to work in one of those towers, so that we are very well aware that Connecticut lost several people in that tragedy. I ask the gentleman, was it not wonderful to see our firefighters and our police officers, and even those people who volunteered their time in our emergency, people who respond in emergencies, who went down to help during this disaster, this real disaster that happened to our country? Somebody was asking me the other day when I was talking to some of the volunteers, the Red Cross volunteers in New York yesterday, someone said to me, did you in California, my State, really even understand what this all is about? And I looked at them, and I said, ``You are looking at volunteers who are from California who have come to spend 2 or 3 weeks here to try to help, even if it is just to serve food to these firefighters and servicemen and women who are working down at ground zero; or the fact that these planes had people headed to Los Angeles, many of them from my region. They also died in this disaster in New York. It is not just that. As we went around, I was kind of laughing. I saw one day on the television the Oregon delegation had taken 1,000 people to New York to try to spend money, because they had heard that so many people were out of work in New York. I think of the devastation, the real devastation and the toll on a city. We from California are also pretty based on tourism. My own district has Disneyland in it, the happiest place on Earth. Today, it does not have a lot of people there, which means the people are losing their jobs, hotels are having to shut down, restaurants are not serving food. So this devastation has gone not just to New York or to the Pentagon area, but really across the Nation. I wanted to come down, and I know that the gentleman and I have spoken so often about all the work that is being done in New York. These people who are doing this, whether they are being paid, whether they are our firefighters, whether they are our reservists or our National Guard or just our volunteers, have their whole heart in it. Across America, we are suffering because of this attack.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 373 on October 9, 2001 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 372 on October 9, 2001 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I yield 1 minute to my colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. Today, I join my colleague the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman) to offer this amendment. Our amendment is about safety and choice, and it is simple and fair. This amendment allows military personnel and their dependents overseas to use their own funds to obtain legal, safe abortion services in military hospitals. The amendment has been redrafted to leave no room for misinterpretation. It only affects U.S. military bases overseas. In light of the recent events, I cannot think of a better time to address this issue. The President has already started to activate reserve units, and our brave men and women are being deployed overseas. The military will not transport a woman out of a forward deployment unit to obtain medical services in a U.S. hospital. That is why our amendment has never been more important. Women who volunteer to serve in our Armed Forces already give up many freedoms and risk their lives to defend our country. They should not have to sacrifice their privacy, their health, and their basic constitutional rights because of a policy with no valid military purpose. This is a health care concern. Local facilities in foreign nations are not equipped to handle procedures. This is a matter of fairness. Our amendment does not allow taxpayer-funded abortions at military hospitals nor does it compel any doctor who opposes abortion on principle to perform an abortion. Vote for the Sanchez-Harman amendment. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I will leave the closing of this amendment to the gentlewoman from New York. I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), my colleague on the committee.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, may I inquire how much time is remaining on both sides?

Ms. SANCHEZ. I reserve the balance of my time, Madam Chairman.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman), my colleague and the cosponsor of this amendment. (Ms. HARMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, a wonderful thing about our country is how we celebrate each other in art, custom, food and friendship. A ``nation of immigrants'' might have been blighted had Pilgrims not learned from Native Americans. Proof? Check the menu for the first Thanksgiving Dinner. Now almost everyone samples each other's traditional dishes, catches the color and feeling of each other's special days, senses the human goodness in each heritage and faith. This is how strangers turn into neighbors in so many ways that our ways of getting along have become unique in the world. It is so American no one else even comes close. Now we are joyfully in another such season of sharing and appreciation. On September 17, 1968, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives adopted House Joint Resolution 1299, creating an Hispanic Heritage Week. Twenty years later, Public Law 90-498 was enacted expanding the Week to a month eventually stretching from September 15 through October 15 each year. The period includes the anniversary of Mexican Independence and ``birthdays'' of many other Latin American countries. Cultural sharing will take many forms across the United States of America. At heart, it will reveal itself in real people not only glad they are who they are but glad to be here. LOS AMIGOS OF ORANGE COUNTY, persons who have met weekly for 23 years to talk over community concerns in my district, asked that the two following stories be shared. Millions of people create a blur but sketches of two--a book creator and a bookseller--are offered in the hope they will convey very personal, human glimpses of America's lively, evolving Hispanic Heritage. [From La Voz, Nov. 16, 2000] Life's An Open Book? Crack It (By Galal Kernahan) Miami? A big city in Florida? A river in Ohio? Or is it someplace baked and a little bleached? Is it where the sun is a presence, winds sometimes mutter and deer browse on the other side of the hill? Is it where you could read the day away in an outhouse with no more interruption than a buzzing fly? Rueben, the first of the five boys and two girls of Cipriano Marfinez and Rometia Rivas de Martinez, was born in Miami, Arizona, in 1940. There he grew to young manhood. His parents were transplanted Chihuahuenses. One took root. The other didn't. The children attached their mother to that small copper town, but their father blew away on the notes of an alto saxophone. He made it big with Big Bands like the Glenn Miller Orchestra. By the time the road and that life got old and he got old, his boys and girls were men and women who remembered him no more clearly than he did them. Rueben came to love books during his school years. He took them everywhere. They took him everywhere. All in Miami, When he was 10, the town, like other Southwestern copper towns, was coming off its World War II-hyped mining high. By the time he graduated from high school, nothing was being hauled to the smelter anymore. At 18, he went to East Los Angeles. Beside what books taught him, what did Miami teach? What has stayed with him? ``My grade school was segregated to Apaches and Mexicans, but the teachers were good. I loved shop,'' remembers Rueben. ``And Miami? It was so ugly, it was beautiful.'' In California, he worked and read, got married and read, attended East Los Angeles Community College and read, had children and read and got divorced and read. Also, he raised three teenagers and read and lived to tell the tale. Then he read and read and looked up to see he had nine grandchildren. Rueben is more than 40 years a barber, more than 25 in Santa Ana. There were places and times in human history when barbers probably ran everything. They certainly knew everything that went on. If they loved reading, too, they were formidable forces in the life of their communities. Rueben is a formidable force in the Orange County Latino community and far beyond. Locally? Consider that most Latino candidates for any political office hold fundraisers in his Santa Ana bookstore. And now with a unique cross-the-alley emporium of children's books he is reaching for youngsters. Far beyond? Six years ago, he suggested to Community Leader and Actor Edward James Olmos ideas that became the Latino Book and Family Festival. Wherever it goes--Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, San Jose, San Diego, New York--Rueben's books anchor a ``Book Village'' that contributes directly to the goal of encouraging Latino parents to read to their children and children themselves to read. Families come by the thousands. Acting on his own advice, he reaches for future generations with a unique emporium of children's books just cross-the- alley from his Santa Ana bookstore. It is full of color and lined with stories in Spanish and English . . . and Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, and . . . It all makes you wonder. Which is its purpose. Rueben's life is an open book he seems to read like a child. He turns pages, laughs and says, ``What's this?'' Then he tries to tell you he knew it all the time . . . that he planned it. He is a strong believer we all should write down our goals. He writes his down. No one could have that many! And do credit to them, too. On a coast-to-coast TV program, he commanded fathers to be perfect husbands: ``Take out the trash and read to your children!'' He, is a sought-after motivational speaker, a consultant to publishers, a friendly prod to writers and artists, an energizer to teachers and a media personality. The biggest independent bookstore in Orange County, California, began as a few books for customers in a barber shop. Now he carpets the space next door with kids eager to be read to. Rueben's life is an open book with one new chapter after another. He reads on and says, ``Amazing!'' And then, ``That's me, too!'' Victor Strings Words to Compute Life x 13 (By Galal Kernahan) As Victor Villasenor emerged from adolescence, his parents sent him to Mexico City. He was overwhelmed by what he saw. The world suddenly opened, widened, deepened. He became ill. A doctor was summoned. ``You are a doctor?'' ``Yes.'' ``You are a Mexican?'' ``Yes,'' answered the baffled physician. Victor thought that, though all Mexicans might not be farm workers like his friends on his father's place in Oceanside, it was unlikely they would be persons in the professions, New realities shook him. The discovery of books catapulted him into dawning understanding of human landscapes and feelings, strivings and failures. A conflicted teenage functional illiterate he started down an endless road to finding himself. In writing. He drove himself for decades ten hours a day, six days a week untying, re-ordering and retying strings of words. Eventually, some books reached print and modest success. Then, in 1981, he wrote the made-for-TV motion picture THE

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, on September 20, 2001, during debate on the Defense Authorization bill for fiscal year 2002, H.R. 2586, I entered into a colloquy with Representative Skelton regarding the Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. I have attached related correspondence between myself and the Department of the Navy which was inadvertently left out of the Record. Congress of the United States House of Representatives, Washington, DC, July 19, 2001. Hon. Duncan Holaday, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Installations and Facilities, Department of the Navy, Washington, DC. Dear Secretary Holaday: When you met with me and representatives of the Santa Ana Unified School District in my office on March 20, 2001 to discuss the Base Reuse Plan for Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Tustin, we discussed the local resolution of the City of Tustin's failure to include public benefit conveyances to Santa Ana Unified and Rancho Santiago Community College District in its Base Reuse Plan. You assured me then, and in your follow-up letter dated March 26, 2001, that the Department of Navy would not convey MCAS property until the parties concerned come to an agreement on the allocation of land. We also discussed the possibility that, in implementing any such agreement, the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Base Reuse Plan may be required to be amended, to substitute a public benefit conveyance to the Districts in place of commercial development, or otherwise to accommodate a compromise among the City and the Districts. You stated in our meeting that such an amendment to the ROD would not create a significant problem for the Department of Navy. Furthermore, you stated that such a change may not even require an amendment to the ROD, but that if an amendment were required, that the Department of Navy could approve such an amendment to the ROD expeditiously and without undue delay. Could you please affirm these statements to me by way of a short confirming letter. I would appreciate hearing from you by August 3rd, 2001. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Loretta Sanchez, Member of Congress.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking minority member of the Committee on Rules for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, there is no question that we must help the airline industry. They are in a real danger of financial collapse. However, I have real concerns with the way that we are going about giving the airline industry financial assistance. We have left the workers behind in this bill, the workers who are or in so many cases were the heart and the soul of the very industry we may be bailing out this evening. Despite the efforts over the last several hours, hours to digest and debate a bill of this magnitude, the leadership in this House, the people's House, has refused to include in this legislation any relief for the tens of thousands of workers in the airline and related industries who have lost or will soon lose their jobs because of this crisis. I have voted against the martial rule; and I will vote against this rule, because I believe that a bill this size, this magnitude, of this importance should not be rushed through the Congress. However, I will vote for this bill because I do not have a choice. The leadership has left no choice. Mr. Speaker, this bill is not even close to perfect, but I will support it.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, as a member of the House Committee on Armed Services, I wish to bring to the attention of my colleagues and the administration a problem that involves a former active military facility in my congressional district, the Marine Corps Air Station of Tustin.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, as the gentleman from Missouri knows, MCAS Tustin was closed along with MCAS El Toro in Orange County, California. As in other communities throughout the Nation, the local public and their leaders have had to decide how best to use these former military installations. In the case of MCAS Tustin, there is currently a ``tug of war'' going on in my district about the different interests. The city of Tustin wishes to use most of the facility for purposes that exclude public benefit conveyances to Santa Ana Unified School District and Rancho Santiago Community College District.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, I rise to engage the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), the distinguished ranking member of the committee, on an issue that directly impacts my district.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Chairman, that is correct. In short, the city of Tustin has not provided for the conveyance of enough appropriate land to accommodate the needs of the growing school district populations in Santa Ana. The land that the city of Tustin has offered to the school districts is contaminated and unusable for purposes of housing children. The Department of the Navy has assured me that the resolution of the issues surrounding conveyance of this Tustin property for educational needs is critical in any conveyance decision, and the Navy continues to encourage a local agreement on the issue and feels that the lack of an agreement on educational transfers seriously complicates and has stopped any Navy decision to convey MCAS Tustin property.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I will miss the rollcall vote on H.J. Res. 64, which will formally authorizes the use of military force against the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks which occurred on September 11, 2001. I have scheduled very important meetings in California over the weekend and Monday with district employers and employees to discuss the defense budget and other matters of national security. These meetings have been scheduled for some time, and cannot be easily reconfigured. Therefore, during the vote I will be unavoidably detained. The events of September 11 were horrific, and I request that the Congressional Record reflect that had I been present and voting, I would have cast my vote in favor of the resolution authorizing the use of military force.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, yesterday Americans were both dumbfounded and outraged. The scenes which were played out over and over on television were something we are accustomed to seeing from Hollywood, not something that happens here in America. Surely these scenes could not occur in two of the most important cities we have, New York and Washington, D.C., the symbols of capitalism and freedom. But they did. Witnessing the horrific events of yesterday, I am proud to tell you that my faith in America is strong and that my belief in tomorrow is even stronger. The United States is mightier than any group of terrorists. We have resolve and reassurance that our unity is strong and our patriotism can never be doubted. I will not allow the spirit of democracy to be destroyed. We will stand tall as Americans together, black and white, rich and poor, Democrats and Republicans, to ensure that an event such as this never occurs again on our land. As a member of the Committee on Armed Services and its terrorism panel, I will stand with our President to locate the cowards who harbored and funded these suicide pilots. Just as importantly, I will continue to strongly support more funding for counterintelligence activities and fighting terrorism both domestically and abroad. It is really unfortunate that it took a terrible tragedy like the one yesterday to force policymakers to rethink our priorities, and yet I know I am safe in saying that none of my colleagues want to see a repeat of yesterday. So how can the mightiest, the wealthiest Nation in the world prevent such an attack in the future? The first step is to take a look at our priorities and make it an order that will reflect our desires to protect American citizens. I firmly believe that the biggest risk to our country, to all Americans, is not some missile from some rogue Nation but terrorism. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, both are threats, but as a country we need to get our priorities right. We need to devote more funds to counterintelligence support and infrastructure and education of terrorist activities. Yesterday was an assault on the freedom of every American, and we must come together and offer our support. Today, we grieve those who have lost their lives. As we pray for their families, we speak in one voice to condemn these attacks. Today, the healing must begin.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), my colleague, for being such a defender and proponent of human rights, not just in this debate today, but in his recent work also when he was in South Africa. Madam Speaker, I rise today as a cosponsor and a strong supporter of H.R. 2833, which promotes the development of freedom and democracy in Vietnam. While the United States should move toward promoting economic relations with Vietnam, we must first address the current human rights violations, religious persecution, and the social injustice that is faced by so many in that country. In our support for the economic revitalization of Vietnam, we cannot ignore these basic human rights. We cannot ignore that they go unresolved in that country. Although diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Vietnam have improved in recent years, very little headway has been made with respect to the rights of people in that country. Madam Speaker, I have the privilege of representing the largest Vietnamese community outside of the country of Vietnam. They are the parents, siblings, the children of families who fought communism for 2 decades. The majority of the people that I represent feel that the economic relations with Vietnam should not be established until specific immigration, political and human rights are addressed; and in this debate, I am their voice. On their behalf, I support H.R. 2833, which links bilateral, non- humanitarian aid to Vietnam's progress on human rights. While encouraging economic revitalization of Vietnam, it will require a climate of freedom and democracy. At this point, the Vietnamese Government has not made sufficient progress. In fact, in the 4 years, now 5 years that I have been in Congress, very little progress has been made. When we held a human rights hearing recently on Vietnam with my other colleagues, we reviewed the United States State Department records, and they reported that the Vietnamese Government has made some change, but their human rights record remains poor. Moreover, human rights groups report that over the past year the Vietnamese Government, in order to avoid international criticism, has cracked down on political and religious dissidents by isolating and intimidating them through such practices as house arrest and constant surveillance rather than imprisoning them. In fact, I myself saw some of this while I was in Vietnam this past year. I was supposed to meet with six of the leading dissidents on human rights in Vietnam. Unfortunately, two were unable to make it because of that constant watch and the ability to stop them. The four that I did meet with, Professor Nguyen Thanh Giang, General Tran Do, Mr. Pham Que Duong and Mr. Hoang Minh Chinh, discussed the restrictions. They talked about the rising fear that they have because of this government oppressing them in particular as they continue to speak out on human rights. The Government of Vietnam systematically deprives its citizens of the fundamental right to freedom of religion. Numerous respected religious leaders, including the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, Father Ly, all of these have been under house arrest in the last few years. The Venerable Thich Quang Do, 28 of our colleagues in this House and I signed a letter to the Nobel peace prize people because of the work he has done on behalf of trying to stop this religious persecution. The Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church, Thich Huyen Quang, has been detained for 21 years, 21 years, in a ruined temple, and Thich Quang Do has recently been put under house arrest once again simply because he wanted to get his colleague to Saigon for medical treatment. Contrary to the pretense of the Vietnamese Government that it has no political or religious prisoners, many Vietnamese continue to languish in prisons because of their beliefs. All they simply do is say they broke the law. Well, if the law is to ask for the right to assemble, if the law would be the right to free speech, if the law would be the right to religious freedom, if it was a right to collective bargaining, if it was a right to own the press or speak up in the press, then the laws of that country would be correct; but currently all of that is deprived these people in Vietnam. Madam Speaker, today I will support H.R. 2833 because I believe we must keep the pressure on the Government of Vietnam to improve its record on religious and human rights. It is the United States' responsibility, the world's beacon of democracy, to make certain that the Vietnamese Government is making sufficient progress with the human rights of their own people before we give them concessions with respect to trade normalization. I urge my colleagues to join me in keeping the spotlight on the Government of Vietnam so that it may improve its political and human rights record. Vote yes to end that religious persecution. Vote yes to promote free speech and democracy. Vote yes on H.R. 2833.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to House Joint Resolution 51, which extends temporary most favored nation status to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Vietnam-U.S. bilateral trade agreement is unwarranted until Vietnam demonstrates tangible progress in addressing its human rights and the moving forward to a more market- oriented economy. Free trade does not mean trade at any cost. In the case of Vietnam, certain conditions, I believe certain conditions should be met, to have long, meaningful, lasting trade relations developed. I am concerned that we are losing our economic leverage without gaining concrete, verifiable steps towards reform in exchange. In our support for the economic revitalization of Vietnam, we cannot ignore basic human rights issues that need to be resolved. Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of representing the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. They are the parents, the siblings, the children of families who fought communism for over 2 decades, and they, the majority of these people, do not want to establish normal trade relations with Vietnam until we do something about immigration, political and human rights issues for the people of Vietnam. Recently, I have learned of the distressing case of Mr. Dac Vi Hoang, a former Vietnamese businessman who fled Vietnam recently to escape persecution. His situation is emblematic of the economic repression and political corruption that stifles free enterprise in Vietnam. Mr. Hoang was a prominent Vietnamese entrepreneur who owned Thanh My, Incorporated, an international exporter of lacquerware. In fact, he enjoyed an astounding success, this private corporation, in the midst of a communist regime, with annual sales of $3 million and over 400 employees. Thanh My was internationally recognized as the first private corporation in Vietnam to receive permission to sell its shares to a foreign entity, although that permission was eventually revoked by the Vietnamese government. Nonetheless, just 1 year ago, in August of the year 2000, Mr. Hoang found himself having to flee Vietnam with his family, leaving this entire business behind. Let me take a minute and tell my colleagues the story. In February of 1976, nearly 1 year after the end of the war, Dac Vi Hoang started his small, family-oriented company specializing in lacquerware products. At the time, the communist government was closing down large corporations and industrial plants because they were considered to be tools of capitalism, but they allowed a few small, private companies to operate, as long as they did not have a lot of capital or heavy machinery. Although the business was allowed to remain in operation, Mr. Hoang was imprisoned for 5 years so that he could be ``reeducated,'' which meant that his wife had to run the business in the meantime. During his time, it should be noted that Mr. Hoang was severely tortured, mentally and physically, when he underwent reeducation. Although business operations were kept to a minimum, when he was released, he started into the business, and by 1991, Thanh My was allowed by the Government of Vietnam to actually export its lacquerware to other countries. Ultimately, Thanh My became one of Vietnam's largest exporters with customers in the U.S., in France, Japan, Germany, Sweden, even Canada. Because of his success, however, Mr. Hoang became a well-known member of the Vietnamese business community. He was one of the founding members of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry; he was elected Vice President of the Union of Associations of Industry and Commerce, and he was also featured in Baron's Who's Who in the Asian Pacific Rim. Well, all of this caught the attention of the Vietnamese communist government. Mr. Hoang voiced the concern of the business community with respect to what was going on. His criticisms of the government were unfair and arbitrary taxing against private corporations and that there was corruption at virtually every level of doing business. In recent years, the communist government of Vietnam began cracking down on executives of leading private corporations. Using various pretexts, the communist regime has imprisoned executives of successful, private companies when they are considered too vocal, too vocal, in criticizing the government or when their companies become too successful, thereby threatening the regime's grip on power. This is what was happening to Mr. Hoang when he decided to flee with his family. He learned from the government ministry of public security task force officer who was assigned to monitor what was going on at Thanh My that Mr. Hoang was a target for persecution. This security officer was someone that Mr. Hoang gave side bribes to in addition to the usual money you have to pay these people to supervise what was going on with Thanh My. He would give this money to get good government reviews and not have problems with the government. Finding out that a change in the government supervision over Thanh My was going to occur, was going to be an excuse for the government to come in and bring somebody to try to find incriminating evidence against him, Mr. Hoang took his family and fled Vietnam leaving the entire business behind. He currently is residing in southern California while he awaits his political asylum hearing. I ask my colleagues to understand that this is continuing to happen in Vietnam. As the person who represents so many of the Vietnamese, we get all of these cases all of the time. After hearing this story, does Vietnam appear to be a country that is moving toward market-oriented reforms? Mr. Speaker, I cannot support this, and I hope that my colleagues will help and not support this either.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the type of energy policy that our great Nation should embrace, not the one that the President has put forward. We should support plans that recognize the need for new energy production and generation, but will at the same time save consumers money, continue the important work to cut pollutants that affect the health of every American, create real jobs and will reduce our percentage of imported foreign oil. We should support flexible tax credits and incentives for high- efficiency vehicles, the purchase of energy-efficient homes, home and business improvements that reduce our energy costs, critical improvements to our energy infrastructure and energy produced from renewable resources. I support an energy plan that will combine improvements to our existing energy processes, the development of new and renewable energy resources and energy conservation which truly does make a difference. In California alone we have seen already a 17 percent decrease in consumption by our retail consumers. I believe, like most Americans, that a well-balanced energy plan is what we need as a country as we enter the dawn of the 21st century.