March 10, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 46 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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RECOGNIZING INDIVIDUALS FOR HELPING ATTAIN JUSTICE FOR THE CHAMORRO PEOPLE; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 46
(House of Representatives - March 10, 2020)
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[Pages H1562-H1563] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] {time} 1030 RECOGNIZING INDIVIDUALS FOR HELPING ATTAIN JUSTICE FOR THE CHAMORRO PEOPLE The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Guam (Mr. San Nicolas) for 5 minutes. Mr. SAN NICOLAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a group that oftentimes doesn't get recognized. I rise to recognize this Congress of the United States. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Grijalva, Minority Leader McCarthy, Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member, Rob Bishop. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Graham, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, and Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member Feinstein. I rise to recognize the staff of this House: Trent Bauserman, Shuwanza Goff, and Ray Salazar of Leader Hoyer's office; David Watkins and Sarah Lim, leading Chairman Grijalva's staff on the Committee on Natural Resources; Elliot Waldman of the Senate Judiciary; Sara Zdeb of Senate Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member Feinstein's office. Mr. Speaker, I also rise to recognize staff of the administration: Rob Howarth of the Department of the Interior; Michael DiRoma of the U.S. Treasury; and Doug Hoelscher of the White House. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize these individuals because without them, we would not have been able to move forward as expeditiously as we have over the past 13 months with H.R. 1365, which was addressed by this House yesterday. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1365 brings closure to a long saga of suffering from the people of Guam at the hands of Imperial Japan during World War II, that finally sees closure with the recognition and compensation--as much as we can try and call it that--for the sufferings of the Chamorro people during the war. Oftentimes, Mr. Speaker, it gets very, very difficult for us, especially as territories, to be able to find closure on longstanding issues because of the fact that territories are underrepresented in this body by the very nature of their existence in this country. And yet, despite that, we are able to finally bring this issue to closure by the individuals I mentioned. Mr. Speaker, I put their names in the Record today, because I want the Chamorro people to be able to look back and identify generations from now the individuals who made such justice possible in this House. Mr. Speaker, I further rise to address another injustice, one that has been longstanding in territories, and one that also addresses a community that, really, in this country should never be ignored. Mr. Speaker, supplemental security income is something that is afforded to U.S. citizens throughout this country, but once you move to a U.S. territory, you immediately become ineligible for supplemental security income. Mr. Speaker, as we are aware, that is something that is provided to the most vulnerable in our community--those with disabilities, those who are at certain ages that require that kind of support. Mr. Speaker, for us to be neglecting our very own citizens in our territories just because of where they live, I think is something that this body very much needs to address. Unfortunately, we run into fiscal constraints and the price tag of having to move forward something of such magnitude. And while we really shouldn't put dollars and cents to the quality of life of those most vulnerable in this country, we still face those fiscal realities as territories, and the fiscal realities that this Congress must grapple with if they were to extend supplemental security income to the territories. Mr. Speaker, we introduced H.R. 208 in the 116th Congress. That was intended to address the fiscal constraints in a manner that all territories are willing to come to the table and work together on. And rather than having all territories at once try and pursue supplemental security income for their residents, we have decided to try and snowball this and handle it one territory at a time. And Guam has taken the lead with H.R. 208, allowing for supplemental security income in Guam that we may, for just 170,000 people, extend a critical quality of life service that this country has made available everywhere else in the United States. After we are able to secure this for Guam, perhaps we can move this to another small territory, and to another small territory, and incrementally address this in our budget, that really on the greater picture of the cost of supplemental security income, would be a fractional rounding error for justice for those who so desperately need it in areas that are so highly affected. Mr. Speaker, Guam, as you are aware, is thousands of miles away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We are closer to every Asian city than we are to Hawaii. It is very, very difficult for [[Page H1563]] people with disabilities to be able to avail themselves of service providers because they can't just drive to the next county or drive to the next State. And the thought of flying to Hawaii to be able to get those services is so exorbitant that it is actually cheaper to go from Japan to Dulles International Airport than it is to go from Guam to Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to take the next step and pursue further justice for our territories. I wanted to recognize those individuals who made it possible for us to finally close a chapter on war claims. May we now move on to the chapter of addressing those people who have disabilities in our country that we really should be taking care of that just so happen to be living in the U.S. territories. ____________________
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