[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 10, 2020)]
[House]
[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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