NYLJ: ‘Moving Forward After the Election’
NYLJ: ‘Moving Forward After the Election’
Last week, on December 8, AABANY co-sponsored with SABANY and MuBANY a panel discussion on moving forward post-election, hosted by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The New York Law Journal ran an article about it (follow the link in the title; subscription may be required). Our Issues Committee Co-Chair, Chris Kwok, was among the distinguished panelists in this timely, topical and important conversation.
From the article:
From left [referring to the photo in the article], Lisa Khandhar, director of the South Asian bar; Sania Khan, assistant state attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau; Sharaf Mowjood, Huffington Post senior reporter; Ali Alsarraf, an associate at Gibson Dunn; Merium Malik, director of the Muslim bar; Arun Venugopal, WNYC reporter; Amol Sinha, vice president of public relations for the South Asian bar; Christopher Kwok, supervisory ADR coordinator at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Asian American bar issues committee chairman; and South Asian bar president Rippi Gill, a senior associate at Lazare Potter & Giacovas.
House Passes Bill to Award Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino World War II Vets
House Passes Bill to Award Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino World War II Vets
On November 30, following the Senate’s approval of this bill in July earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a bill seeking to honor more than 260,000 Filipino-American World War II veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal. To read more about this event, click on the link in the title for a story by Stephany Bai and Charles Lam.
As stated in the article:
The medal would recognize the soldiers who responded to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call-to-duty and fought under the United States flag during World War II. Those soldiers were promised military benefits, but that offer was retracted by the Rescission Act of 1946.
During NAPABA’s Annual Lobby Day on May 24, AABANY was represented by Past President Robert Leung and Issues Committee Co-Chair Chris Kwok. They met with Congressman Jerry Nadler’s Office and with David Greengrass, Legislative Assistant. Using Lobby Day as an opportunity to discuss the Filipino War Veterans of WWII Gold Medal, they reminded the Congressman that Filipino Americans were the second most populous Asian American subgroup and that passage of the bill would be very meaningful to the Asian American population. He subsequently voiced support of the bill.
AABANY is pleased by the news that the House of Representatives passed this bill, which now will go to President Obama for signature. We are gratified to know that after all these decades, these Filipino-American World War II veterans will get the honor and recognition they deserve for their service to America.