Starting in 1993, the Washington, D.C.-based The Centre for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), and its Executive Director, Philip Smith, made over seven research missions to Wat Tham Krabok and Laotian and Hmong refugee camps in Thailand. Philip Smith, the CPPA, and the Lao Veterans of America, repeatedly conducted US congressional-backed research missions on the plight of Laotian and Hmong refugees fleeing forced repatriation and human rights violations in communist Laos and Thailand. These joint US congressional and CPPA research missions sought to review policy developments in Thailand and Laos, and to convey humanitarian offers of support and assistance to the abbot, temple monks, and Hmong and Laotian refugee leaders, from members of congress and international human rights organizations. For over a decade, prominent members of congress, in bipartisan fashion, also supported US-backed research missions by Philip Smith and the CPPA to Wat Tham Krabok, and the Laotian and Hmong refugee camps along the Mekong River and Thai-Lao border. Support for these missions came from a bipartisan coalition in the US Congress, including Congressman Steve Gunderson (Republican-Wisconsin), Congressman Bruce Vento (D-Minnesota), Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) and others. The findings of these missions were frequently discussed in news stories, and at sessions of the US Congressional Forum on Laos held in the US Congress and Library of Congress.