Vietnam Advocacy Day in Congress, June 4: 140 registrants in 10 days. We aim for 500 Vietnamese-American participants. To register, write to bpsos@bpsos.org.
White House briefing, June 3: We plan to bring 100 Vietnamese Americans to the White House for a meeting with Administration officials on that day. To register, write to bpsos@bpsos.org
Agenda (draft) for June 4
Vietnam Advocacy Day – June 4, 2013
Purpose: Gather 500 Vietnamese American advocates in Congress to:
– Promote human rights and democracy in Vietnam
– Call for a process of regular consultation with Vietnamese Americans on US policies affecting them and affecting Vietnam
– Prepare community members for grassroots advocacy
Activities:
10:00 am – 11:30 am: Plenary Conference in which our religious and community leaders will present the issues that affect our community to the House Majority Leadership. We are working to get the Speaker of the House to address the delegation. But his presence will be contingent upon the size of our delegation. He will not appear if our delegation is small, so we will have to bring as many of our people to DC as possible. Tentatively, there may be a chance for question-and-answer if time permits.
12:00 noon – 1:00 pm: We will break for lunch, which will be provided by the House Majority Leadership.
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: We will have working group discussions (break-out sessions) with the legislative staff to further discuss the issues and to propose legislation.
In the planning stage: Congressional hearing on human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam
Throughout the day: Meetings with individual members of Congress
(Meeting with Senate Majority Leadership is being requested.)
Break-out Working Groups:
1) Human Rights and Religious Freedom: We will discuss and explore a range of legislative actions to promote human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam.
2) Immigration: a) pushing Congress to keep the 3rd and 4th Family Sponsored Preferences; b) reducing the civic exam requirements for our elderly; and c) reducing the civic exam requirements for Amerasians.
3) Trade: We will continue to impress that if Vietnam is to be a member of the Trans Pacific Partnership or to receive GSP, labor laws and working conditions in Vietnam must improve; that printed materials must be allowed in Vietnam without undue censorship; that human rights and religious freedom must expand; that properties of US citizens must be respected. If not, the Congress should not ratify the Trans Pacific Partnership or confer any other trade benefits on Vietnam.
4) Business and Economic Development and Community Empowerment: Focus on the overall development and advancement of our communities in the US with a subtopic of pushing for equal economic opportunities for the women of our community–i.e., minority contracting; etc.
5) Youth and young leadership: In this break-out session, we will continue to focus on our youth and young leaders’ involvement in community empowerment and activism.
