Rep. Robert Matsui dies

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Rep. Robert T. Matsui of California, who spent time in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans as an infant during World War II and went on to serve 26 years in Congress, has died of complications from a rare disease, his family said Sunday.

The 63-year-old died Saturday night at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., outside Washington.

Matsui was the third-ranking Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he was his party’s point man on Social Security legislation. He chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, where he led the party’s unsuccessful effort to regain control of the House.

His office said the congressman had been diagnosed several months ago with myelodysplastic disorder, an often-fatal form of bone marrow cancer. The congressman’s family said he entered the hospital on Dec. 24 with pneumonia.

Matsui was re-elected with ease to his 14th term in November. His wife, Doris, was until 1998 a deputy director of public liaison in the Clinton White House.

Matsui was born in 1941. The following year, his family was among the Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II.

Decades later, he helped pass legislation apologizing for the internment policy and providing compensation for the survivors.

As senior Democrat on the subcommittee on Social Security, Matsui indicated in recent weeks that he was eager to lead the opposition to President Bush’s plans to establish personal retirement accounts as part of a general overhaul of the program.

Matsui is survived by his wife and a son.