[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 8 (Tuesday, February 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H247-H249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 DALIP SINGH SAUND POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 120) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, 
California, as the ``Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                H.R. 120

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DALIP SINGH SAUND POST OFFICE BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, 
     California, shall be known and designated as the ``Dalip 
     Singh Saund Post Office Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Issa) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).


                             General Leave

  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H.R. 120.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Committee on Government Reform, I rise in 
support of H.R. 120. This bill is to designate a post office in 
Temecula, California, within my congressional district as the Dalip 
Singh Saund Post Office Building. Dalip Singh Saund was the first 
Indian American Member of Congress, and I am pleased the House is 
taking time out to remember his service.
  Saund was born in India in 1899. He was educated in India before 
moving to the United States in 1920 to attend graduate school at the 
University of California. Saund proudly became a U.S. citizen in 1949. 
Within a year, he was elected judge of the Justice Court in 
Westmoreland Judicial District. Unfortunately, after his election, 
Saund was denied his seat on the grounds that he had not been a citizen 
for one year when he was elected. You might say he was reelected 2 
years later and served on that court for 5 years.
  Judge Saund retired from the bench because he chose to enter 
politics. In November of 1956, Judge Saund was elected Congressman 
Saund, and he was reelected to the House for three consecutive terms, 
leaving in 1963. How remarkable it must have been to be the first Asian 
American ever elected to Congress, the first Indian American ever 
elected to Congress. Just imagine the powerful impact of his service 
throughout those years.
  Mr. Speaker, Congressman Dalip Singh Saund passed away in Hollywood, 
California, in 1973. It is a privilege to advance this legislation 
honoring his legacy as an American citizen, as a judge and as a 
Congressman. I especially want to thank my California colleagues, 
including the minority speaker here today, for co-sponsoring 
unanimously this legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to 
support H.R. 120.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague in the consideration 
of H.R. 120 which names the post office in Temecula, California, after 
Dalip Singh Saund.
  H.R. 120 was introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) 
on January 4, 2005. Former Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, the first 
Asian American elected to Congress, was born in India. He came to the 
United States to enroll in the University of California at Berkley and 
study agriculture. Instead, he ended up with a PhD in mathematics. 
Unfortunately, degrees in mathematics were not sufficient to overcome 
the rampant discrimination facing Indians and other minorities.

                              {time}  1500

  In the 1920s, Indian Americans were not eligible for U.S. citizenship 
and could not own land. So Saund worked as a lettuce foreman, 
eventually rising to be a distributor of chemical fertilizer in the 
Imperial Valley in California.
  Saund married a Czech immigrant and became very active in the Indian-
American community, championing the rights of Asian Indians both in the 
United States and abroad. He became a popular speaker and authored a 
book entitled ``My Mother India'' as a way to present Indian people in 
a positive light.
  Saund went on to fight against discrimination, eventually securing 
the passage of legislation which made Asian Indians eligible for 
citizenship.
  As a result of his success, Saund became active in the Democratic 
Party. He ran to represent California's 29th Congressional District. He 
won and served in the Congress from 1957 until 1962 when he lost his 
re-election bid after suffering a stroke. Dalip Singh Saund died in 
1973.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleagues for seeking to honor the legacy 
of former Congressman Saund, and I urge the swift adoption of this 
bill.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, at the present time I have no further 
speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Filner).
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for 
the time, and I thank the committee and the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Issa) for bringing this to the floor.
  Congressman Saund, whom we are recognizing today, represented parts 
of the gentleman from California's (Mr. Issa) district and parts of my 
district, the 51st district, Imperial County in California. So I am 
really thankful that he is doing this, and we are honoring a great man.

[[Page H248]]

  We have heard how he triumphed in spite of the prejudice that was 
around him. He did this through hard work, constantly turning the other 
cheek; and he was a charismatic individual.
  Coming to the United States after his undergraduate education in 
India, as we heard, he got a Ph.D. from the University of California, 
Berkeley, in 1924, but could not get a job because of his nationality. 
Rather than give up, go home perhaps, maybe where he could use his 
education a little bit more to better himself, he decided to stay in 
the United States and work to improve the situation.
  That is when, in 1925, he moved to the Imperial Valley to become a 
cotton picking crew foreman, as we have heard. That is right, a man 
with a Ph.D. in mathematics from Berkeley became a foreman of a cotton 
picking crew to make ends meet; and through sheer hard work and 
determination, he was able to save money to start his own farm growing 
lettuce.
  He always had an interest in politics. He carried this enthusiasm 
over to the Imperial Valley; and even though he was not a citizen or 
able to vote, he became a constant presence at official meetings, I 
hate to tell the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) this, of the 
county Democratic Party central committee where he promoted the 
policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
  In 1937, Congressman Saund organized the Current Events Club in 
Imperial Valley to discuss the major topics of the day with other 
politically active members of the community and became a member of the 
Brawley California Toastmasters.
  So we see, even though he was not a citizen, he was becoming an 
integral part of the community in which he lived. In fact, if he was 
doing irrigation of his fields on the Toastmasters nights, he would 
take his dress suit with him to the field, at six o'clock change, set 
the irrigation to go for 3 hours, go to the Toastmasters meeting, come 
back to work, change clothes and go on with irrigation. Now, that is a 
Horatio Alger, the American Dream, for someone who was not an American 
citizen.
  He was actively involved in trying to get naturalization rights for 
natives of Asia and India particularly, and President Truman actually 
signed the law to end the ban on Asian naturalization in 1946; and one 
of the earliest applicants under this new law was, in fact, Dalip Singh 
Saund, who became a citizen in December of 1949.
  As we heard, his first task as a citizen was to run for office. He 
ran for justice of the peace in Westmorland, California, in Imperial 
County. He won the ballot, but a lawsuit said he had not been a citizen 
the year before, and so he was declared ineligible. Typical of 
Congressman Saund, or Judge Saund as he was known, he became chairman 
of the county Democratic central committee even after he lost the 
judgeship.
  I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) for naming after 
this great Democrat a post office in his district. Maybe we will bring 
true Democracy, with a capital D, to the 49th Congressional District.
  In 1955, he decided to run for Congress in what was then the 29th 
Congressional District, which included Riverside County and Imperial 
County. He easily won the primary and beat his Republican opponent, who 
brought in Vice President Nixon, brought in Bob Hope and even Rin Tin 
Tin, but that did not impress the constituents; and he was able to win 
and became the first Indian American Congressman of the United States 
of America.
  He did this through politicking in grassroots style, a truly 
effective politician. By the way, he was the only Indian American until 
this very year in this Congress when the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Jindal) was elected. So we have, at last, the continuing of a tradition 
here.
  He might have been called a liberal, but he was very active in trying 
to deal with foreign aid to the wrong kind of governments, and he 
believed that tyrants would use the money in a corrupt way, and he was 
right.
  He was incapacitated, unfortunately, by a stroke in his third term 
and could not run for a fourth term. His most lasting memory, I 
believe, will be that of opening the door of politics to those who 
otherwise would not have considered running for office because of their 
race or national origin.
  Interestingly enough, my connection with Judge Saund was not only 
because I became a Congressman from Imperial County, but also because 
his daughter Julie Fisher became a member of the San Diego school board 
in the 1970s. She became my mentor. She was the one who was really 
advocating for students in the wake of a very repressive administration 
and superintendent. I was able to run for the San Diego school board 
because of Julie Fisher's teaching. So my relationship goes back 
through his daughter, who is a wonderful lady and who really brought 
Judge Saund's politics to San Diego with a real interest in the young 
people of our county.
  Saund always accented the positive. He never complained or even 
mentioned discriminatory treatment against himself, and he never made 
it an issue. So I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) very 
much for bringing us this bill, and I am truly honored to have some 
part in the tradition that Judge Saund started.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.
  I would like to thank many people involved, and I did it in an 
overall fashion; but, particularly, I would like to thank the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. Crowley), who just had to leave, and the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Filner) who just spoke. Each in his own way has 
been instrumental in helping point out the good deeds of this historic 
figure, as the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) said of the 
Democrat Party and of the democratic process. He is an inspiration to 
people on both sides of the aisle here in the Congress.
  I would also like to take a moment to thank David Dillon, a former 
mayor out in Imperial County, who has fought tirelessly to bring this 
to the attention of so many of us who were not as fully informed as to 
Dalip's great service throughout his term.
  On a closing note, I would like to say that this post office is being 
named after the first Asian American Congressman, yes, after the first 
Indian American Congressman; but I think it is also being named after a 
generation of men and women who came here during the turn of the 
century into the 1930s, a whole generation who passed through Ellis 
Island. They were not always treated with a welcome mat. They were not 
always given their due for the hard work, ingenuity, ambition, and raw 
intelligence they brought with them; but they persevered and they 
changed America for the better.
  So it has been a great pleasure to point out one of that generation 
and name a post office in Temecula after him; but I think on both sides 
of the aisle, by immigrants, both Republicans and Democrats, we are 
thankful in this country for a generation who came here in the greatest 
out-migration from the rest of the world and in-migration to the United 
States in history because that generation led to the generation that we 
now have and that enjoys the fruits of their hard labor.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 120, 
legislation to designate the United States Postal Service facility 
located at 30777 Rancho California Road in Temecula, CA, as the ``Dalip 
Singh Saund Post Office Building.'' This postal naming bill is a small 
act of appreciation for a statesman and activist who contributed so 
much to our nation.
  As chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, CAPAC, I 
feel privileged today to speak about the late Congressman Saund.
  Congressman Saund came to the United States in 1920 to study at the 
University of California, Berkeley, where in 4 years he earned a 
master's degree and doctorate in mathematics. Despite his impressive 
education, he was denied professional opportunities due to 
discrimination against South Asians in the United States.
  Despite discrimination, Congressman Saund built a successful life in 
the United States. He entered the agricultural sector, one of the few 
open to South Asians in the 1920s. From 1930 to 1953, Congressman Saund 
was first a lettuce farmer and then a distributor of chemical 
fertilizer in California's Imperial Valley.
  In 1928, he married Ms. Marian Kosa, despite stigma against 
interracial marriages at the time. The marriage also led to the loss of 
American citizenship for the former Ms. Kosa. The Quota Immigration Act 
of 1921 and Cable Act of 1922 revoked the citizenships for American 
women who married foreigners.
  Throughout his life, Congressman Saund was a champion for South Asian 
Americans'

[[Page H249]]

rights. As the national president of the Hindustan Association of 
America, he fought for citizenship rights for the 2,500 South Asians 
living in the United States. Gaining citizenship, he argued, would give 
South Asian farmers the right to own their own farms and share in the 
American dream. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in 1923, United 
States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind (261 US 204), that ``while persons from 
India were Caucasians, they were not `white persons', and therefore 
were, aliens ineligible to citizenship.''
  On July 3, 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Luce-Cellar 
legislation that granted South Asians their right to citizenship. Three 
years later, Congressman Saund received his citizenship and became an 
active member of the Democratic Party. He ran for a judgeship in 
Westmoreland in 1950 and won, but he was barred from taking oath 
because he had not been a citizen for a full year before the election. 
Congressman Saund was disappointed, but undeterred and won again in 
1952.
  In 1956, he campaigned for California's 29th Congressional District 
seat. Despite the use of racial epithets and anti-immigrant rhetoric, 
Congressman Saund defeated Republican Jacqueline Odlum by a margin of 3 
percent. The voters of Imperial and Riverside counties knew in that 
election what the entire Congress would soon learn: Congressman Saund 
was a man of integrity and compassion with an unwavering commitment to 
bettering our Nation.
  When he took the oath of office in 1957, Congressman Saund became the 
first South Asian American elected to Congress. He was truly a champion 
for the farmers, working poor, and immigrants, and today he continues 
to serve as a role model for all South Asians. His impressive 
accomplishments should not be overshadowed by the tribulations he 
endured. Congressman Saund served this country admirably until 1962 
when he lost his re-election bid after suffering from a stroke. 
Congressman Saund died at the age of 74 in 1973.
  Mr. Speaker, today we remember and honor Congressman Saund. He proved 
in his own life what he preached in his public career, ``There is no 
room in the United States of America for second-class citizenship.''
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the 
resolution introduced by my friend from California Congressman Issa.
  I am honored to speak in support of this legislation to honor the 
life and achievements of former Congressman Dalip Singh Saund.
  Congressman Saund was the first Asian American to be elected as a 
full voting Member of Congress and the first Indian American to be 
elected to U.S. Congress.
  While I am proud to have the privilege to serve with the second 
Indian American in the U.S. Congress, we cannot forget that almost 50 
years ago this glass ceiling was broken by Congressman Saund and the 
people of southern California who put their trust in him to represent 
them in the U.S. Congress.
  Congressman Darrell Issa now represents parts of the district that 
Congressman Saund represented.
  Congressman Saund was elected to the House of Representatives in 
1956, just 6 years after his work to secure citizenship for Indian 
Americans.
  He served as a distinguished Congressman from California for three 
terms before he suffered a stroke during his campaign for a fourth term 
in the House.
  His book ``The Congressman from India'' tells the remarkable story of 
how he became the first Indian American member of the U.S. House of 
Representatives.
  As cochairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian 
Americans during the past 108th Congress, I had the honor of 
highlighting the accomplishments of Congressman Saund and the trail he 
blazed for young Indian Americans today.
  From New York to Iowa to New Jersey to Minnesota to the U.S. House of 
Representatives the accomplishments of Indian Americans in politics 
today is because of the trail blazed by Congressman Saund.
  I am proud to join my friend Darrell Issa in recognizing the life of 
this great American.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of 
H. Res. 120, the Dalip Singh Saund Post Office Building Designation 
Act, which would designate the United States Postal Office at 30777 
Rancho California Road in Temecula, California, as the Dalip Singh 
Saund Post Office Building. By renaming this building for Congressman 
Saund, we will properly honor and remember one of California's most 
respected and accomplished leaders.
  Dalip Singh Saund was born on September 20, 1899, in a village in 
Punjab. He went to a boarding school in Jammu and graduated with a B.A. 
degree in Mathematics from Punjab University in 1919. In 1920, he 
immigrated to the United States and received his Masters and Doctorate 
degrees from the University of California-Berkeley. From lettuce farmer 
to judge to legislator, Saund became a great American success story. An 
admirer of Lincoln, Gandhi, and Churchill, Saund devoted his life to 
serving the people in his community and furthering a cause greater than 
his own. At every stage of his remarkable story, Saund embodied 
Churchill's words to ``never, never, never, never give up.''
  Saund remained proud of his Indian heritage and became a strong voice 
for immigrants from India. After a two-year battle, he convinced 
Congresswoman Clare Booth and Congressman Emanuel Celler to sponsor 
legislation that would allow for Indian immigrants to become American 
citizens. The legislation was passed by Congress and on July 3, 1946, 
was signed into law by President Harry Truman. After becoming a 
citizen, his passion for democracy and politics led him into a life of 
public service. He served as a judge in Westmorland and a member of 
Congress for three terms.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be able to speak about Congressman Saund's 
rich legacy today and I would like to thank my good friend Congressman 
Darrell Issa for sponsoring this legislation. Additionally, I've 
introduced H. Res. 31 calling for a portrait of Congressman Saund to be 
displayed on Capitol Hill and will work for its passage.
  Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Speaker, Dalip Saund's story is one of determination 
and true accomplishment. He personifies the idea that every person can, 
through hard work and dedication, achieve amazing heights.
  Through his election to Congress, Dalip Saund brought pride and joy 
not only to Indian-Americans, but to all Americans. Each of us owes a 
debt of gratitude to his trailblazing efforts, so that America could 
continue to be a land of opportunity.
  The naming of this post office in Mr. Saund's honor does justice not 
only to the man and his actions, but also to the American spirit and 
the belief that America is still the land of the free and the home of 
the brave.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Aderholt). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 120.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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