Grace Meng: “I am very pleased that H.R. 4238 has made it to the House floor today. As you know, this bill will strike the term…”

“I am very pleased that H.R. 4238 has made it to the House floor today. As you know, this bill will strike the term ``Oriental'' from Federal law in the last two places it is used to refer to a person. This legislation is long overdue, and I am thankful for your consideration and, I hope, passage of it. I would like to thank my colleague and friend, Representative Ed Royce, for being an original author of this bill with me, as well as every member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. I would also like to thank Representative Butterfield and Representative Sanchez, chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, respectively, for cosponsoring this legislation. I would also like to personally thank Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Pallone for shepherding this legislation through the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as Representatives Whitfield and Rush, who moved it through the Energy and Power Subcommittee. We are all aware that there are chapters of American history that are not perfect. This very body, for example, once found it appropriate to pass laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Geary Act. But we also found it appropriate to repeal them. Times change, what is acceptable changes, and this Congress more often than not yields to that change. Toward that end, the time has come to repeal certain terms from Federal law that many in the Asian American community would find offensive.…”