House Passes Amata-Cosponsored Veterans and Foreign Affairs Legislation

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is highlighting House passage this week, and a few earlier this month, of several bills that she cosponsored. 

The following Amata-cosponsored bills were passed by the House on Monday: 

The TRAVEL Act, H.R. 3400, fully titled the Territorial Response and Access to Veterans' Essential Lifecare Act, sponsored by Rep. Kimberlyn King-Hinds (R-CNMI); together with original cosponsors Rep. Aumua Amata Radewagen of American Samoa, who serves as Vice Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee (HVAC), and Rep. James Moylan (R-Guam), then added the support of ten more representatives, including Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) and Pablo Jose Hernandez (D-PR). 

This bipartisan bill, passed 371-21, authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to assign a physician in the Veterans Health Administration as a traveling physician for up to a year, providing health care to veterans in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Traveling physicians will coordinate locally for quality care for veterans. The VA will provide a relocation or retention bonus to these traveling physicians.

“Through this bipartisan bill, the VA can bring fresh medical expertise directly to our island Veterans,” said HVAC Vice Chairman Amata. “The VA traveling physician would work in cooperation with our local health professionals to the benefit of our veterans, for weeks and months at a time.”

The Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act, House final passage by voice vote Monday of the Senate-amended H.R. 452, which Amata cosponsored, now sent to President Trump to be signed into law. The bill awards Congressional Gold Medals to the members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team, “in recognition of their extraordinary achievement at the 1980 Winter Olympics where, being comprised of amateur collegiate players, they defeated the dominant Soviet hockey team in the historic ‘Miracle on Ice’, revitalizing American morale at the height of the Cold War, inspiring generations and transforming the sport of hockey in the United States.”

Congresswoman Amata also cosponsored the following bills, passed earlier in September, after advancing through the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC):

The ARMOR Act, H.R. 4233, fully titled the AUKUS Reform for Military Optimization and Review Act. In turn AUKUS is an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, working cooperatively on security issues, equipment and systems. The bipartisan bill, led by Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), who chairs the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, of which Amata is vice chairman, expedites review and licensing to prioritize these efforts. 

The Uyghur Policy Act of 2025, H.R. 2635, a bipartisan effort also led by Rep. Kim. This bill addresses human rights issues concerning the Uyghurs and other minority groups residing primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China; directs the Department of State to prioritize policies and programs to support the Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the XUAR and to lead coordination efforts for the release of certain political prisoners in the XUAR; facilitate the presence of human rights advocates at public diplomacy forums to speak on issues related to the human rights and religious freedoms of persecuted minority groups in China; ensure that Uyghur language training is available to Foreign Service officers, and that a Uyghur-speaking member of the Foreign Service is assigned to U.S. diplomatic and consular posts in China.

“AUKUS strengthens our Pacific region and is an enduring priority,” concluded Congresswoman Aumua Amata. “We also take an important stand as a nation for human rights, principles of freedom, and the dignity of people. Years ago, before I was in Congress, I held workshops on democracy and economics including a seminar with the Uyghurs, as their leaders came to our meeting from all over the world. Thank you especially to the leadership of Chairwoman Young Kim on each of these bipartisan efforts.”

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