welcome back everyone we are continuing with the markup that we began yesterday we left off just before we reported the bill h r forty two and then we w hope to move to mark of h r fourteen twenty five but before we do i want to mention first let me thank the ranking member for giving me the sad news that i had not heard before i walked into this committee room we are very saddened by the tragic death of agent robert rowe rojas most of us who was lost his life  stand no act of violence against our border patrol will be tolerated she has directed that the full resources of the department assist in the investigation to find and bring to justice those responsible for the crime  all feel deeply saddened by this news in our thoughts and prayers and condolences are with agent rose whose family and his fellow agents  border patrol agents risk their lives every day to protect and defend our nation in a does a sad day indeed when that willingness to to risk life and limb actually results in the loss of life and i would recognize the ranking member for any brief comment he might want to make on this before we get to the bill thank you madam chair this is indeed a sad day and i appreciate you raising this issue as i thought it was important that we all stop and take share in our grief in our prayers with the family it's something that if enough years go by these things are statistically inevitable but it is also something that is a very much a tragedy of the family to the entire family of the border patrol and all the  enforcement officers and their families that put their lives on the line every day and sometimes we say so that you will we will say that these officers put their lives on the line for us we don't think about it being sometimes literally so that is the case here that letter now do we have a reporting quorum here i think we do we have if we could get mr wiener you can bring us lunch out  the question was on reporting the bill h r forty two favorably to the full judiciary committee we had had a voice vote and a recorded vote had been requested and at which point somebody walked out of the room and we lost our reporting quorum so we we we would like then to have the clerk call the roll again on  seven eyes tonight and the bill is reported favorably to the full committee without objection the staff has directed make any a technical and conforming changes pursuant to notice the chair calls up h r fourteen twenty five a bill creating a commission to study the treatment of european latin americans hope that wrong  the pursuant to notice the chair calls up fourteen twenty five a bill creating a commission to study the treatment of your p and latin americans and european americans in the united states during world war two the clerk will report the bill h read and i will begin to the introduction of the measure h r fourteen twenty five is very similar to h r forty two the bill just voted upon except that it addresses completely different populations european latin americans european americans and jewish refugees the commission on wartime relocation and in terminus civilians only briefly discussed mistreatment of these populations during world war two limiting its discussion to the appendix and its of its final report much like it did with japanese latin americans after they were forcibly relocated from italy and germany citizens from these countries were sent to ins internment camps in texas as most cases passports had been confiscated before landing and the state department  deportation proceedings the treatment of german and italian americans in new in the united states during world war two as distinct from german and italian latin americans was mentioned very briefly in one chapter of the commission's report which noted simply that quote by february hundred two the justice department had in turn one thousand three hundred ninety three germans and two hundred sixty four italians witnesses who testified during our march nineteenth hearing explain this history and their view why these communities should be the subject of a bill a federal commission with full powers to provide recommendations to congress h r fourteen twenty five would create a commission that will review the united states government's wartime pretend to both european latin americans and european americans during world war two another important issue addressed by h r four hundred twenty five is the treatment of jewish refugees seeking sake safe haven in the united states during world war two although the commission did not report on this important issue the jewish community has requested a federal commission to study this history and report to congress with findings recommendations subcommittee heard from witnesses back in march of this year about title two of h r four hundred twenty five which addresses that is treatment of jewish refugees during war two and would establish a commission to study quote the united states government's refusal to allow jews jewish and other refugees fleeing persecution persecution or genocide in europe and treat to the united states on quote i would  like also to highlight the fact that h r four hundred twenty five has the support of the leadership conference on civil rights the nation's oldest and largest civil rights coalition consisting of nearly two hundred national organizations from across the political feedback on this bill and to address any concerns they may have had with this important piece of legislation acting in good faith and in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation mr wexler accepted many of the changes success suggested by our colleagues in the minority but came to understand that even with these changes there would still be opposition to the bill as a result we're marking of the bill as introduced but mr wexler has expressed to me a continued interest in the go shooting with the minority that would ultimately lead to an agreement on this bill like the l c c are in so many others who recognize the importance of this legislation i strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of fourteen twenty five and i would now recognize our ranking member for five minutes for his comments on the bill thank you madam chair i oppose this bill and as i previously stated congress and the executive branch have addressed the issue of world war two internment many times we've even addressed it with regard to italian americans in the year two thousand congress passed and the president signed the war time violation of italian american civil liberties act the builder rector the attorney general to conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment of the federal government given the treatment by the federal government of italian americans during world war two and to report to congress on the findings of that review actually have some of her merit with the treatment because  had italian prisoners of war who were brought in from a ranch outside of my hometown and brought to the church where my family goes today many were treated very well as far as a prisoners were concerned but such a report was issued in november of two thousand and one finding that and i quote after the december seventh one nine hundred forty one attack on pearl harbor citizens and aliens of italian descent were subjected to restriction including curfews searches confiscations of property the loss of livelihood and internment close quote the report goes on to say individuals residing in prohibited zones were required to move from their homes and were excluded from certain areas and persons of italian and ancestry who were not united states citizens were declared enemy aliens and were required to carry identification identification cards designating them as such and that's all in the language of the report in addition the report points out that quote again these wartime restrictions were sanctioned by the alien enemy act of one thousand seven hundred ninety eight presidential proclamation number twenty five twenty seven executive order nine zero six six close quote and other regulations so i don't understand why we've got to rehash this issue except that this group and their descendants want the same treatment that the japanese americans received reparations this is about reparations and again i do not understand how monetary payment by individuals tax dollars from individuals who had nothing to do with the actions of the us government during world war two can make the situation any better especially if the reparations money goes to the defendants of the individuals who were affected by those government decisions in a war about two and a half generations ago h r four hundred twenty five creates a commission to again study the treatment of italian americans as well as individuals of german garion romanian and bulgarian descent it also requires that the commission to issue a report it requires the commission to issue a report on its findings aside from the fundamental flaw of even creating such a commission the bill also contains additional flaws that directs the commission to recommend appropriate remedies at lax acknowledgment of the justified reasons that existed for such us government activities and its findings basically direct the commission as to the outcome it should reach as i stated previously during my statement on h r forty two the president has a responsibility to protect the population from future attack and from the theft of military and intelligence secrets and acts of t sabotaged by our enemies which often result in military attack if he did not do so he would be abdicating his power to protect americans from those who want to do them harm think about the implications of bringing up bill after bill telling the commission what conclusions they should draw essentially laying a legislative guild on the actions of our predecessors and this was under f d r s administration i defend him in such an assertion but we have  ourselves within the context of what they knew at the time what did the roosevelt administration know and when did they know it did they actually reasonably under the context of the history that they were operating in is there any benefit for us to go back and revisit this again and again and again and try to lay this guilt on the people that acted in this way and open up the door for reparations and i will submit that there is a negative impact that we haven't talked about it would make it much harder for the united states to act in self defense in our domestic areas if this congress continually continues to fasten judgment on the actions of those who are leading this country at a time of our greatest peril and so i will submit that the al qaeda cells that may exist in places like detroit or minneapolis will be impervious to any kind of round up no matter what kind of crisis and we might have because we're making putting a marker down here that the united states of america is willing to take the risk and take the price that is paid in violence rather than to do the prudent thing within the context of the history that we're page six strike lines fourteen through seventeen insert the following representation the european american commission shall and coote only members were distinguished scholars and economic historians will be able to provide professional expertise and impartiality and have made no pri become familiar with this bill this bill is slightly different than the bill we looked at a preview number forty two and that on page six lines fourteen through seventeen the representation on this on this  board are on this commission i should say is slightly different in that it says the european american commission shall include two members representing the interest of italian americans at two members representing the interest of german a member americans it seems to me that we should allow and respect the president and the speaker of the house and the those appointed by the majority of the in the senate by the majority leader in the senate to have a little bit more flexibility given that this board is consisting of seven people in the on this bill a way it's currently is allocates for members that have already have some preconceived notion of what the result should be and so i think this is again different than forty two and that it allocates two  two and all this amendment simply does is to say these people are going to be professionals there can be distinguished they're going to have a degree of impartiality and again i think it would give more flexibility to the president to the speaker and to the majority leader in the constitution of what that commission should be was about i would appreciate your consideration i developed a good changes the spirit of what's happening here but i think it would allow colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come up with an agreement on this legislation mr wexler had accepted many of the changes suggested by the minority but he has informed me that even with those changes there would be opposition to the bill the composition of the commission is determined by the president the speaker of the house president pro tem of the senate with recommendations from the majority a minority leader now the president and congress certainly can find commission members who are fair while also allowing participation from the german and italian american communities the bill requires that the commission include two members representing the interests of italian americans and two members representing the interests of german americans congress and the president are left to determine what the interests of those groups would be a fair panel is in everyone's interests and there's no reason to assume that this requirement places a bias in the commission i would  make the suggestion which you are free to consider or not if we are able to report this bill and i'll talk about the schedule in a second this is the first leg of it it goes to the full committee and i think it would be a valuable process if the gentleman would withdraw the amendment at this time use the time between now and when this hearing will be this market will be continued to talk to mr wexler and see if agreement can be reached on this and we could begin on friday with this amendment again without prejudice should agreement not be reached i will i will take the advice of  the chair and on this one are you going to insist on the point of order but no i'm not i am not insisting on my point of order although potentially it isn't germane but i don't want to do that and if the gentleman would withdraw without prejudice have an for clarification and that was the statement was made that even with these changes there is still the operation opposition to the bill and i want to make the point that part of what we do here is perfect legislation and even though there are members th will offer amendments that they believe improve the bill they may conclude that it doesn't they improve the bill enough for them to support it in its final passage and so i would hope that whatever mr wexler's position is we'll be able to hear it in full committee and we'll be able to evaluate each amendment that comes before this and every bill objectively as to whether it actually improves a bill rather than whether it gets enough votes to pass the bill and i think that's an important distinction and i would withdraw my reservation reservation was withdraw the amendment is withdrawn without prejudice and i will note that we will be continue these votes on the last of the day and i have learned that when the last votes of the day are taken it is impossible to get members back for a markup and so we will indicate that i was detained thursday on july twenty fifth if i had been present i would have voted for h r fifteen seventy six i for h r thirty one eighty six and you know anything else on that day no but we just did the h r forty two and i would have voted i on h r forty two h r twenty rigs twenty six of them and then yes i would have voted i and then the september eleventh humanitarian these i would have voted i'd ask  that these be placed appropriately in the wreckage on the record of my votes intended votes without an election that notation will be made in in the record and i will note that we will be recessed into this markup will be recess until ten a m next friday and i hope that everyone has a nice weekend