For Immediate Release
Washington DC – June 26, 2007
Contact: (202) 547-3686
House Foreign Affairs Committee Passes Resolution, Supporting Visits By Taiwan’s President To U.S. Anytime, Anywhere
In an unprecedented move, and with unanimous consent, the House Foreign Affairs Committee today passed the H.Con.Res.136 led by Rep. Steve Chabot, calling for the lifting of all restrictions imposed on the visits by the Taiwanese highest-level government officials to the U.S, including the President. It marked the first time the House Foreign Affairs Committee marked up and passed the resolution after similar resolutions were introduced during the past two Congresses.
It is worth noting that both the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Committee Reps. Tom Lantos and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen co-sponsored the resolution, indicating the importance and the strong level of support the Committee placed on this resolution. The resolution has 33 co-sponsors.
The resolution concludes that: “restrictions on visits by high-level elected and appointed officials of Taiwan to the United States, including the democratically elected president of Taiwan, should be lifted. And the U.S. should allow direct high-level exchanges at the Cabinet level with the Government of Taiwan.” The resolution has 33 co-sponsors.
Today’s effort to support Taiwan in the Congress follows the House passage last week of the amendment halting all government funding used to impose restrictions on exchanges between two governments. Unlike the amendment that touches upon restrictions on various exchanges between the two government, HCR 136 focuses only and mainly on the visits by the Taiwanese President and high-level government officials to the U.S.
FAPA president C.T. Lee, MD states: “The mark up of the resolution today is major landmark in the campaign to lift all restrictions on high-level visits from Taiwan and provides great encouragement to the government and the people of Taiwan in less than a week. It will lend further credence to the prevalent belief in Congress that Taiwan is a strong U.S. democratic ally and deserves to be treated as one. The time is now that the United States treats Taiwan like the fellow and friendly democracy it is.”
美眾議院外交事務委員會無異議通過決議案，歡迎台灣高層官員，包括台灣總統，隨時隨地自由訪問美國
美國眾議院外交事務委員會於今日無異議通過由夏波議員領銜的第136號決議案，呼籲廢除美國政府長期以來加諸於台灣官員訪美的眾多限制。
類似的決議案曾在前兩期的國會由夏波與布朗議員聯手提出，不過，這是外交事務委員會首次通過這項決議案，意義格外重大。此外，三十三位聯署議員中，委員會的正副主席－藍托斯與蘿斯列敦娜兩位重量級議員特地雙雙聯署此決議案，充份展現出外交委員會對這項議題的高度重視與支持。
決議案表示：「所有加諸於台灣高層官員訪美的限制，包括民選總統都應一併解除；美國應該允許部長級的台美高層政府官員直接交流。」決議案並要求美國政府確切遵守1994年生效的美國「移民與國籍技術修正法」，此法案第221條款強調台灣總統與高層官員應獲准訪開美國。此外，為了強調台美兩國最高層級雙方政府直接對話的重要性與必須性，決議案表示：「台灣海峽是全世界公認的(軍事)衝突點之一，美國政策決策者直接與台灣政府對話是必要的。」
這是美國國會繼上週眾議院通過聯邦撥款法案修正案，要求國務院解除數十年來對台灣的各項台美交流外交禁令後，再次展現對台灣的支持。有別於上週通過的撥款法案修正條款，觸及多項台美雙方互動，今天的第136號決議案專門著重在台灣高層訪美一事。
FAPA會長李青泰表示：「眾議院外交事務委員會今日通過第136號議案，對解除台灣高層訪美限制有著突破性的進展，也是美國國會於不到一週內，第二度給予台灣人民與政府最大的鼓勵，證明美國國會廣泛地認同台灣不僅是美國堅定的民主盟友，也該是時候給予民主的台灣應得到的尊重與肯定。」
H.Con.Res.136
