Chris Smith: “I want to thank the distinguished gentlelady, our good chairwoman, for her leadership on this important issue and so…”

“I want to thank the distinguished gentlelady, our good chairwoman, for her leadership on this important issue and so many human rights issues around the globe. Thank you, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for again bringing to the floor a very important bill and series of bills, many of which are directed at human rights. And to Mr. Berman, thank you for your kind comments and your strong support for this effort to try to bring freedom and hope to the people of Vietnam--who, while as you pointed out so rightly, have enjoyed some economic progress, regrettably, political rights, human rights, fundamental rights have gone in the opposite direction--and so thank you for that. I want to thank the original cosponsors of the bill--Mr. Royce, Mr. Wolf, Ms. Zoe Lofgren, and Ms. Loretta Sanchez--for being original cosponsors of this legislation, and I hope the membership will roundly and soundly back its enactment or its passage today. Mr. Speaker, many of us on both sides of the aisle have been trying for decades to help the Vietnamese people secure their fundamental human rights and their democratic institutions. From assisting the boat people in the 1970s and all of the human rights work that was done to help so many Vietnamese, individuals who were in reeducation camps and who were dealt with so severely by the dictatorship in Hanoi, Congress and the Presidents over the years have tried nobly to assist them, as have other human rights activists around the world.…”