Rep. Hoekstra to co-chair Dutch Congressional Caucus

Recipient prestigious award

NEW YORK – U.S. Congress now has a bipartisan Congressional Caucus on the Netherlands, which will work to preserve and enhance the existing relationships between the United States and the Netherlands.

Co-chairman U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) who is the only Dutch-born member of Congress, recently announced that the Caucus will pursue its mission by hosting events and briefings and by supporting events sponsored by such key partners as the Netherlands Embassy to the United States and The Netherlands-America Foundation, Inc. (The NAF).

Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who is of Dutch descent, will serve with Hoekstra as co-chairman. Van Hollen said he looks forward to deepening “our nation’s ties with such a critical ally” as is The Netherlands.

At The NAF 2006 Awards Dinner, Rep. Hoekstra, who is Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was joined by fellow Caucus member Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who gave the keynote speech.

The new Caucus currently includes Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA), Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI), Rep. Donald A. Manzullo (R-IL), Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Rep. Michael McNulty (D-NY), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. Lleana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY).

At the NAF event, Rep. Hoekstra was presented with the prestigious Ambassador C. Howard Wilkins Jr. Award for his significant contributions to the relationship between the U.S. and the Netherlands. Wilkins was U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1989 to 1992. Hoekstra accompanied U.S. President George W. Bush on his 2005 visit to U.S. war cemetery Margraten.

An ongoing program of The NAF is its sponsorship of many Fulbright scholarships each year. Over the decades, hundreds of Dutch students were placed by The NAF with companies through the U.S. Executive Director Joan C. Kuyper currently is recompiling a list of people it sponsored since the 1940s and likes to make contact with anyone that first came to the U.S. through The NAF. She can be reached at [email protected] or 1-212-825-1221.