Howard Berman: “I oppose the Rohrabacher motion. I do so with great reluctance, because I have tremendous respect for many of the people…”

“I oppose the Rohrabacher motion. I do so with great reluctance, because I have tremendous respect for many of the people leading the fight against this waiver. But Jackson-Vanick is about immigration. Anyone who has studied the statistics, because I know there are many anecdotal stories and there are many problems remaining, but anyone who has studied the statistics knows that in the last year there has been a dramatic reversal and a massive improvement in the Vietnamese Government's cooperation with us on processing refugees, people who were shipped back from the camps in Thailand, in Hong Kong, in Indonesia, to Vietnam against their will. Mr. Speaker, 15,000 interviews have been granted already; 82 percent of the people we are interviewing have been cleared for coming to the United States or other countries that they intend to go to. The criteria for interviews is far more liberal than the traditional refugee definition. We cannot turn down and thereby risk the retrenchment of this program, and I urge a 'no' vote on the resolution. I urge a 'no' vote against H.J. Res. 120. Vietnam is cooperating on the key issue behind granting this waiver: Jackson-Vanik. Mr. Smith and I fought long and hard with the administration to get them to implement a Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR) program.”