About The Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service

The Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service (“The Foundation”) is a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting careers in public service for recent college and law school graduates. Interned by the Government as a third generation United States citizen merely for being a Japanese American, Robert T. Matsui overcame the interment and was elected to Congress in 1978, after having served as Vice Mayor of Sacramento and on the Sacramento City Council. Mr. Matsui served as a distinguished Member of Congress for 26 years until his death on New Years Day 2005.

Throughout his career, Mr. Matsui demonstrated an unwavering commitment to public service, and he championed a wide range of issues, from protecting our Nation’s civil liberties, to promoting social services for those who need them most, to advocating for free and fair trade. In all this work, Mr. Matsui supported open debate, discourse and bipartisan compromise.

The Foundation, created shortly after his death by friends and family, aims to promote these same issues and ideals that Mr. Matsui fought for so vigorously during his life. Its aim is to provide opportunities in public service that might not otherwise be available to individuals, and, by achieving this goal, the Foundation believes it can impart some of Mr. Matsui’s commitment to public service on the future leaders of today, and tomorrow.