CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E1045 INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 4914, THE (b)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision fense and commercial transportation re- CENTER FOR COMMERCIAL DE- of law, from amounts made available to quirements. Voyager’s proposed trimaran PLOYMENT OF TRANSPORTATION carry out this subsection, the Secretary of high speed. cruise vessels, in addition to rep- TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AU- Defense, in cooperation with the Secretary resenting the next step in the evolution of of Transportation, shall carry out a program cruise vessel design, offer distinct advan- THORIZATION ACT OF 2002 under this subsection to develop and deploy tages for both commercial and defense sea- dual use transportation technologies for lift missions. In fact, a representative of the HON. STEPHEN HORN commercial and military applications, in- Department of the Navy has told Voyager OF CALIFORNIA cluding but not limited to the following: Holdings that they ire ‘‘particularly pleased IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (A) Agile port. that [this] design includes a number of fea- (B) High-speed sealift. tures that will greatly enhance the defense Wednesday, June 12, 2002 (C) Advanced cargo and passenger vessel related value of your vessel . . . These high- hull design, propulsion systems, and con- Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to in- speed long range vessels . . . will signifi- struction employing national defense fea- cantly enhance our nation’s United States- troduce the Center for Commercial Deploy- tures. ment of Transportation Technology Develop- (D) Rapid deployment. flag commercial sealift capability.’’ ment Authorization Act of 2002. The Center (E) Command and control, and decision We believe CCDoTT’s mission to pursue for the Commercial Deployment of Transpor- support. dual use defense and commercial tech- tation Technologies (CCDoTT) is a chartered (F) Maritime, port, and cargo security. nologies will, as in the case of the high-speed (2) The Secretary of Defense shall carry university center at California State University trimaran cruise vessels, help the United out such program in cooperation with the States gain worldwide leadership in the ad- Long Beach (CSULB) functioning as a partner- Secretary of Transportation under section ship of academic institutions, government, and vanced high-speed ocean transportation mar- 2358(b)(4) of title 10, United States Code. ket. Your legislation, by providing CCDoTT (3) The program required by paragraph (1) commercial corporations. with a multi-year authorization, will enable shall be carried out pursuant to a coopera- The CCDoTT project is operated by the CCDoTT to continue to pursue its mandates tive agreement to be entered into by the Sec- CSULB Foundation in conjunction with the De- over the long term with the knowledge that retary of Defense, the Secretary of Transpor- partment of Defense, the United States Trans- its work can proceed in an uninterrupted portation Command (USTRANSCOM), and the tation, and the Center for Commercial De- ployment of Transportation Technology of fashion. Department of Transportation, through the California State University, Long Beach. We again express our support for your leg- Maritime Administration (MARAD). (4) Of amounts appropriated or otherwise islation and look forward to working with CCDoTT was organized to pursue a broad made available for the use of the Department you and your colleagues for its enactment range of defense and commercial tech- of Defense for research, development, test, this year. nologies, to analyze transportation problems and evaluation, Defense-wide, the following Sincerely, and environmental impacts, and to develop amounts shall be available for a task and de- Captain Timothy Brown, Masters, Mates technological, procedural, computer, or equip- livery order contract under section 2304(c) of & Pilots; Ron Davis, Marine Engineers’ ment solutions. CCDoTT and its associates title 10, United States Code, to carry out this Beneficial Association; Henry Disley, subsection, to remain available until ex- are well versed in transportation technologies, Marine Fireman’s Union; Gunnar pended: Lundeberg, Sailors’ Union of the Pa- computer simulation and modeling, defense, (A) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2003. cific; Michael Sacco, Seafarers Inter- electronic commerce, economic and cost mod- (B) $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2004 national Union. eling, state-of-the-art training and educational and 2005. solutions, and advanced manufacturing tech- (C) $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 and 2007. f nologies. Recent developments with respect to na- Below is a letter of June 11, 2002, from five Presidents of the marine unions who want to THE BRACERO JUSTICE ACT OF tional security issues and more specifically 2002 maritime related security issues, have intro- see the dedicated ship-building in high-speed duced a new dimension to a number of passenger and cargo vessels. CCDoTT program undertakings. These initia- JUNE 11, 2002. HON. LUIS V. GUTIERREZ tives seek to advance the technology, proce- Hon. STEVE HORN, dures and equipment associated with im- House of Representatives, OF ILLINOIS Washington, DC. proved surveillance and security of cargo IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DEAR CONGRESSMAN HORN: On behalf of the movement to and from domestic and foreign undersigned maritime or organizations, we Wednesday, June 12, 2002 marine ports and terminals. are writing to express our support for your Working with its partners, CCDoTT will con- legislation, H.R. 4914, the ‘‘Center for Com- Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today tinue to help our Armed Forces meet their mercial Deployment of Transportation Tech- to announce the introduction of my bill, the rapid deployment needs for the new millen- nology Development Authorization Act of Bracero Justice Act of 2002. I am joined by nium while concurrently advancing the com- 2002.’’ We are especially pleased your legisla- Representatives FARR, FILNER, PASTOR, petitive capability of U.S. based shipping inter- tion would specifically authorize the devel- NAPOLITANO, SOLIS, BACA, ROYBAL-ALLARD, ests and maritime security related efforts cur- opment and deployment of dual use transpor- tation technologies for commercial and mili- SERRANO, MCGOVERN, RODRIGUEZ, FRANK, rently under consideration. Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that my col- tary applications in the area of high-speed MENENDEZ, MILLENDER-MCDONALD, passenger vessels. SCHAKOWSKY, GONZALEZ, ORTIZ, VELA´ZQUEZ, leagues will join me in supporting H.R. 4914, As you may be aware, our organizations ACEVEDO-VILA´, REYES, LIPINSKI, BECERRA, The Center for Commercial Deployment of have been working with Voyager Holdings, a Transportation Technologies Authorization Act U.S.-owned venture that has contracted to MCKINNEY, DAVIS (IL), and BERMAN. of 2002. build two very high-speed trimaran pas- I am very pleased to introduce legislation H.R. 4914 is printed below: senger vessels at Baltimore Marine Indus- that offers relief to people who have long tries. These vessels will incorporate a new, H.R. 4914 sought help. My bill would allow people to highly stable hull design developed by Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- Kvaemer Masa Marine with technology sup- seek recourse in a venue that so often has resentatives of the United States of America in port from Science Applications International protected the most vulnerable in our society: Congress assembled, Corporation (SAIC), David Taylor Research the federal judicial system. In short, my bill SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. Center, and Band Lavis & Associates. In ad- would give a deserving group of people their This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Center for dition, these vessels will be capable of con- day in court and to have their case heard on Commercial Deployment of Transportation version for national emergency support due the merits. Technology Development Authorization Act to their innovative militarily useful features of 2002’’. designs. Significantly, these design enhance- Bracero workers have been waiting for their SEC. 2. JOINT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPOR- ments are based on the cooperative develop- day in court for nearly six decades. Sixty TATION/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ment between the California State Univer- years ago, in 1942, the U.S. Government en- PROGRAM TO DEVELOP TRANSPOR- TATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR COM- sity at Long Beach and the Center for the tered into a program that was designed to MERCIAL AND MILITARY APPLICA- Commercial Development of Transportation help America get through the economic chal- TIONS. Technologies (CCDoTT). lenges that accompanied World War II. Under Section 8 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920 The CCDoTT program enables the Depart- the program, nearly 5 million workers came to (46 U.S.C. App. 867) is amended— ment of Defense, through the United States (1) by designating the text as subsection Transportation Command, and the Depart- the United States from Mexico, to carry out (a); and ment of Transportation, through the Mari- the back-breaking labor that kept our Nation (2) by adding at the end the following new time Administration, to leverage advanced going. They filled in where labor was in short subsection: transportation technologies to address de- supply—especially in agriculture. Their work E1046 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks June 13, 2002 allowed America to carry out its war effort and would then (supposedly) transfer it to regional RECOGNITION OF JUNE L. to feed the country and its troops. banks. MCNEELY After the war, during the late 1940s and into Somewhere along the way—sometime dur- the 1960s, braceros helped keep America ing a process which we know began on U.S. growing and expanding. Some worked on soil and may, for all we know, ended on U.S. HON. HENRY E. BROWN JR. farms, others in railroad construction or other soil, too—the money was lost. Or taken away. jobs. Unfortunately, despite working a full day All we know is, the money is still owed. To OF SOUTH CAROLINA in the fields, despite being fully exposed to the discover where the money went, to get some IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES elements and a full range of other challenges, accounting of what went wrong, is one of the braceros did not receive compensation in full. primary goals of a lawsuit filed last year in fed- Wednesday, June 12, 2002 As many as 400,000 workers saw their pay- eral court. But, even that basic step is blocked checks reduced by as much as $70 million. until certain legal matters are resolved. These Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Mr. Speak- During the first 7 years of the program, it matters are addressed in this bill, the Bracero er, I would like to submit the following poem, was an overt, explicit policy that each worker Justice Act of 2002. ‘‘First Place in the Heart’’, by a fellow South would sacrifice 10 percent of his or her salary, For example, my bill addresses the issue of Carolinian, June L. McNeely. with the promise that it would be available to the statute of limitations. We must eliminate This poem expresses my feelings toward them upon their return to Mexico. It was a pol- any time limits on legal action. Just as we patriotism, family, and faith. by: June L. icy which very well may have continued long have seen with Holocaust survivors who were McNeely after that period, and affected far more work- robbed of their assets or the Japanese citi- ers. And, yet, the money disappeared. It went zens interned in our country for years— ‘‘FIRST PLACE IN THE HEART’’ unaccounted for. At least $70 million of it— waiving the statute of limitations is a nec- which, with interest, may be worth as much as essary step in seeking justice that is decades (By June L. McNeely) $500 million to a billion dollars today—was overdue. My bill also addresses jurisdictional Let’s put GOD back in America, let HIM gone. questions, allowing suits to be filed in any dis- have first place in our heart. Today, Members of both parties speculate trict court, so the full universe of workers can Let’s put GOD back in America and right about the possibility that American workers will gain relief. now is the time to start. not get the full Social Security payout to which The Bracero Justice Act also seeks a waiver Let us all stand together as a family hand in hand and pray for GOD’s mercy and for they are entitled upon their retirement. Here is of sovereign immunity, so that action can be the healing of our land. a real-life example of exactly that scenario. In taken against a government—whether the HE has given us a country that is special to this case, it was tens (perhaps hundreds) of United States or Mexican Government—if it is us all. millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to found that their actions contributed to this fi- Let’s not bow to the enemy, but keep stand- people who had little resources then—who asco. Eligibility of class members matters, so ing very tall. had little resources in the years since. And, in that the full category of workers who may Let’s put GOD back in America. This beau- many cases, few resources today. Without this have been harmed, which may have included tiful country we call home. legislation, these people will lack the most braceros working into the late 1960s, may Put HIM in our homes and schools and all of basic resource of all: the ability to have their have legal standing. In short, what we are our gathering places. complaint heard. asking is that such cases be heard and de- Then everyone in this world will see GOD’s Do we know where the money went? No. cided on their merits so that justice cannot be love in all our faces. However, we do know this: Under the Bracero dismissed on a technicality, so that we can Put all of your trust in your HEAVENLY program, the U.S. Government acted as the discover—first and foremost—the truth. FATHER. He will all of your burdens employer. Workers were contracted out to var- I am confident that my colleagues will agree bear. HE will never leave you nor forsake you. ious businesses—farms, for example. The that the American legislative and judicial sys- HE has promised to always be there. U.S. Government withheld 10 percent of their tem can be put to work to help people who HE will help you through each moment so all wages. The funds were then to be transferred were put to work to build and grow and feed of your fears will cease. to Wells-Fargo Bank and this bank was to our country. Please join me in cosponsoring Let’s put GOD back in America and with HIS transfer it to the Banco de Mexico which my bill, the Bracero Justice Act of 2002. help live with others in peace.