STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1634

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.C.R. No. 183

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 183 entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CONGRESS TO SUPPORT AND PASS THE FILIPINO VETERANS FAMILY REUNIFICATION ACT OF 2013,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the President of the United States and Congress to support and pass the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2013, which exempts the children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigration visas to facilitate the reunification of Filipino veterans with their families.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Papa Ola Hawai‘i, and one individual.

     Your Committees find that Filipino soldiers endured untold suffering while fighting alongside American soldiers in the Philippines during World War II.  Your Committees further find that Filipino and American prisoners of war were forced to go on the infamous Bataan Death March, during which thousands of Filipino soldiers perished.  Filipino soldiers who survived the war waited more than fifty years to receive the United States citizenship they were promised, but have yet to be reunified with their children who are unable to immigrate to the United States.  This measure encourages the United States government to allow these brave veterans to be reunited with their children through the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2013.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 183, and recommend its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs,

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair