The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution by a voice vote July 30 urging the administration of President George W. Bush to allow top Taiwanese officials to visit Washington freely. It was sponsored by Congressional Taiwan Caucus co-chairman Steve Chabot. Similar resolutions introduced by Chabot in 2004 and last year went nowhere.
The bill is the second pro-Taiwan bill to be passed by the House this year. In June, the House added an amendment to a US State Department funding bill that aimed to eliminate a set of departmental guidelines that severely restrict the way US and Taiwanese officials communicate in Washington and elsewhere. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee stripped that and other provisions from the funding bill, and its fate in the upper chamber is still unclear. (Source: Charles Snyder, Washington Post, Aug 1, 2007).