Dana Rohrabacher: “Mr. Speaker, again, we need to take a look at what this is all about. The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly in the…”

“Mr. Speaker, again, we need to take a look at what this is all about. The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly in the House, and yes, with a solid majority in the Senate, to make sure that the survivors of the Bataan Death March, our greatest American heroes, were able to sue those Japanese corporations that worked them as slave labor. After the war, there was a provision put in the treaty which prevented them from suing these Japanese corporations until the situation changed, which it did when Japan had agreements with other countries that permitted those countries and the citizens from those countries to sue. So what we have now is a situation that even after the status of their case and their ability to sue had changed, our State Department became the biggest block to having these heroes from the Bataan Death March exercise their right, because our State Department would intercede in their court cases and undermine their right to sue in court. What this bill does and why it is necessary to put it on this appropriations bill is, it prevents the State Department from using its resources or its people to interfere with the rights of those American POWs and interfere with their right to take their case to court.”