; Whereas, since 1999, substantial legal, academic, and journalistic inquiry has documented the inherent racial motivation behind the operations at Port Chicago and the prosecution of the Port Chicago 50; Whereas, on December 16, 2015, the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray Mabus, wrote to the President strongly support[ing] executive action in favor of the 49 remaining Sailors with general court-martial convictions or the 207 with summary court-martial convictions … in light of the well documented challenges associated with uniformed service by African Americans during that era. ; Whereas, in 2000, Congress approved S.J. Res. 26 to posthumously exonerate Captain Charles B. McVay III, captain of the USS Indianapolis, for his wrongful court martial, and President William Clinton signed that resolution on October 30, 2000; Whereas the language of that resolution was enacted as section 545 of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 ( Public Law 106–398 ), including language that Captain McVay’s military record should now reflect that he is exonerated for the loss of the USS Indianapolis and so many of her crew ; and Whereas, on July 17, 2023, the Nation will mark the 79th anniversary of the Port Chicago disaster, and the unjust and racially motivated convictions remain on the records of the Port Chicago 50: Now, therefore, be it