This week, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus backed legislation to reverse a six-decades-old law and award veterans' benefits to Filipinos who fought with the U.S. forces in World War II:
Caucus Wants to Help Filipino Veterans. Originally, 250,000 Filipinos were recruited, mostly in 1941 as the United States built forces to counter any Japanese attacks on U.S. interests. The Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth then, and the recruits were promised they would be treated as U.S. veterans regarding benefits. When the war ended, Congress passed the 1946 Rescission Act, which stopped pension, health and burial benefits for nonservice-connected Filipino veterans. The proposed law would remove the rescission from the 1946 statute and restore the promised equity.
