WASHINGTON — The House passed a $126 million bill today to compensate Guam victims of the Japanese occupation of the island in World War II.

With a 299-99 vote, the House sent the bill to the Senate for the second time. The House approved the same bill on a vote of 288-133 in 2007, only to see it stall in the Senate.

Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, reintroduced the bill with 86 bipartisan co-sponsors on Jan. 8 in another effort to have the bill eventually passed and signed into law.

"There is an increasing amount of understanding in the House of the importance and need for this legislation," Bordallo said. "I will continue to work hard to whip the vote ... to ensure its timely passage and that is it ultimately sent to the Senate and the president for his signature."

But war claims bills introduced since the 1980s by Guam's previous delegates have failed.

The current bill is based on the recommendations of the Guam War Claims Review Commission, which found in 2004 that the Chamorros, as the indigenous people of Guam are known, were not treated the same as other Americans on war claims matters.

"The people of Guam who were subject to public executions by beheading, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, rape and internment at the hands of the Japanese have waited much too long for just compensation," said Delegate Donna Christensen, D-Virgin Islands. "Sadly many of the Chamorros who suffered these atrocities have passed away but we must not let their suffering, largely due to their steadfast loyalty to the United States, be in vain," said Delegate Donna Christensen, D-Virgin Islands.

Under the bill, $25,000 would be paid to survivors of the almost 1,000 residents who died as a result of Japan's occupation of Guam from December 1941 to July 1944, when the island was liberated.

The bill also calls for $7,000 to $15,000 to be paid to each resident — or survivor — who suffered injury, rape, forced labor or forced marches, internment or hiding to escape internment.

The bill would create a $5 million grant program for research, education and other activities to memorialize the events surrounding the occupation.