Date: 2004-07-14
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I tliank the gentleman for yielding me time. I rise in opposition to H.R. 1587 and urge a no vote by the House. There is no one in this House who does not wish to see improvements on Vietnams policies on democracy and freedom. I have visited the nation on four occasions in the last 5 years. meeting with everyone from workers in shoe factories to highlevel government ministers. There are many and I would say a growing number of Vietnamese who share the hope of a more open and democratic society and who are working to achieve these goals. This legislation will not help them. There are many in our own veterans organizations who are working closely with the Vietnamese on the POW/MIA issue. I have gone to the excavation sites and seen the close cooperation that has resulted in the repatriation of over 500 remains of their loved ones here in the United States. This legislation will not help in that effort. Our government is working closely with the Vietnamese to address the issues of infectious disease control. including AIDS and SARS. which are real issues because of the heavy travel between our countries. We know that many Vietnamese acted quickly in the case of the SARS crisis and controlled what might have been a far more severe pandemic. This legislation will not promote improved cooperation on health policy. Throughout Vietnam. in the aftermath of the normalization of relationships. the passage of the Bilateral Trade Agreement. U.S. businesses are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build a better trade. to provile jobs. and to improve the economic relations between our countries. This legislation is not going to enhance those investments or those benefits. I have been working with the international labor organizations and U.S. companies to improve Vietnams compliance with basic labor rights and standards. and we have seen improvements in many areas. although much additional work remains to be done. This bill is not going to provide or achieve those goals. On these. and many other areas. we are working to improve our relationship and improve the nature of the society in Vietnam for the benefit of its residents. who include the family members of millions of U.S. residents and citizens. This bill will set back those efforts. It provides the harshest elements in the Vietnamese government with the rationale for reacting to our pressure. Does anyone in this Chamber. after our long experience in Vietnam. seriously believe that the Congress ordering them to change an internal policy in the nation. however desirous we may be of seeing that change. is going to persuade the government in Hanoi to do it because we so order it? We alU share the hope that Vietnam will evolve into a freer and more open. democratic nation. We hold the same goals for other nations in th& region and around the world where records of human. labor and religious rights are no better than in Vietnam and. in some cases. worse. Just earlier today. prior to this legislation. we considered legislation criticizing China. whose record on religious freedom. political democracy. and labor rights is certainly as unacceptable as Vietnams. but it would not withdraw the nonhumanitarian assistance as this bill does. It urges them to improve their record on intellectual property. We know why this legislation periodically resurfaces. We understand that there are areas in this Nation with large concentrations of Vietnamese expatriates who remain embittered about the outcome of the war and the government in control in Hanoi. Many of those same expatriates send hundreds of millions of dollars back each year to Vietnam to assist their relatives who still live in that nation. I understand their viewpoint. and I was one of the Congressmen sent in. the 1970s to inspect the refugee exodus from Vietnam.