WASHINGTON - With Congress expected to be in session for only another week, House members called today for their chamber to take up a Senate-passed bill that would give special pensions to Filipinos who fought with the U.S. Army against the Japanese in World War II.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said more than 250,000 Filipino soldiers were told in 1941 that if they fought with the U.S. forces, they would receive the same benefits as the American soldiers.

"Shamefully, that vow was not kept," Abercrombie said on the House floor. "Today, there are less than 20,000 of those brave Filipino World War II veterans still alive."

U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., called for Congress to recognize that the Filipino veterans' service was equal to that service of American solders "with whom they stood shoulder to shoulder."

"This is not just about benefits for a few surviving heroes," he said. "It is also about our honor as a country and a legislative body."

The Senate bill would give full veterans status to the Filipino veterans, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s now, including special pensions of $3,600 a year for single veterans who are living outside the United States and $4,500 a year for married veterans outside the county.

House members' efforts to debate and vote on the bill, which the Senate approved in April, have foundered on Republican objections that the money is better spent to beef up benefits for U.S. veterans.

U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, said that Filipino veterans sacrificed "for the same just cause" as American World War II veterans.

"We made a promise to provide full veterans' benefits to those who served with our troops and Congress is running out of time to fulfill our obligations to them," she said.

Across the Capitol, U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, also tried to find a way today to break the logjam over giving the Filipino veterans the same benefits that U.S. veterans receive.

Akaka offered a motion to set up a conference with House lawmakers to try to work out a final bill but U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, objected, killing the effort.

"I am very disappointed that that an objection has been made," Akaka said on the Senate floor. "The intent of this motion is to create a means by which there might be further action on this very important veterans' legislation before the Congress recesses next week."

In another effort to break the impasse, the House Veterans Affairs Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would authorize $198 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay Filipino veterans who are not U.S. citizens a one-time payment of $9,000 for their service. Filipino veterans who are U.S. citizens would receive $15,000.

Accepting the payments would prevent the veterans from filing any further claims with the United States for their service.

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the committee chairman and sponsor of the bill, said the bill "wasn't his first choice for doing this job," but he and other advocates for the Filipino veterans had been unable to overcome the Republican opposition to other measures, including the Senate bill.

"With only a couple of weeks left, I decided to try a bill that would make a lump sum payment," he said.

Filner said he expected the lump-sum bill to pass the House but it faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

Ben de Guzman, campaign director for the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity, said the Filipino veterans advocates were lobbying for the Senate bill, not the new lump-sum legislation.

"None of us think that the lump-sum proposal is an ideal situation for the veterans," he said. "We think it's much more useful for the community to continue its focus on the Senate bill. Procedurally, it is not dead."