Nghị Quyết H.Res. 342 ấn định ngày 2 tháng 5, 2009 là Ngày Người Tị Nạn Việt Nam được thông qua ngày 28 tháng 4 với toàn thể sự ủng hộ của dân biểu Hạ Viện Hoa Kỳ. Dưới đây là phần phát biểu ủng hộ của DB Jeff Fortenberry (Cộng Hoà - Nebraska).

Mr. Speaker, today I also rise, as the Vietnamese community in my district gathers for their regular meeting, to express my support for a national Vietnamese Refugees Day.

   Throughout the past years, I have listened with great interest and admiration to the poignant stories of hardship and triumph that many members of the Vietnamese community have shared with me. I am deeply moved by their dedication to the principles of liberty that have distinguished our American experience. This is expressed in the difficult decisions to leave their beloved homeland of Vietnam and to embrace our Nation's founding principles, principles that those of us who have never experienced life under oppression and communism invariably run the risk of taking for granted.

   Even today, Vietnamese American refugees gather across this Nation to raise awareness of concerns affecting their loved ones back in Vietnam. Lincoln's Vietnamese American community has been particularly concerned with religious freedom and Vietnam's two-child policy. And I have tried to make it a priority to urge the Government of Vietnam to uphold its stated commitments to religious freedom. I deeply value the active civic engagement of the Vietnamese American community in Nebraska with regards to these and other important human rights issues.

   It is my privilege to serve the Vietnamese American community. And I want to thank Congressman Cao, who, as he mentioned, at 8 years old, 34 years ago today, fled his homeland of Vietnam on a United States of America C-130 transport plane, for bringing this important resolution forward and allowing us to reflect on the profound commitment of the Vietnamese refugee population to the well-being of our Nation.