Amata says 2006 begins, 936 expires
January 07, 2006

Reprinted from Samoa News

Aumua Amata said yesterday that as 2006 begins, Section 936 is dead. "We begin the new year with 936 having actually expired before the U.S. Senate could pass it. So in a sense, the action the U.S. House took doesn't matter anymore." Amata says she is hearing that Senate passage of the provision may be in trouble.

According to Amata, who traveled to the Nation's Capitol to attend a critical winter meeting of the Republican National Committee where she is fifth in seniority on the powerful 168-member body, the U.S. House passed the Budget Reconciliation Act which includes the one-year extension for American Samoa. The U.S. Senate has not passed its own version but is not likely to pass the House version as is.

"The talk is that the Senate Finance Committee staff does not like the one-year extension," she said. "The question is, "How strongly will House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas fight for it? But whether or not Thomas does, the fact remains that there's no way they're going to support more than a one-year extension and there's no way they're going to let Puerto Rico get 936 again."

"The point is, people feel that if Chairman Thomas (R-CA) really wants it, he'll get it," explained Amata. "The Senate will pass its own budget reconciliation bill, then there'll be a Conference but both the House and Senate are going to have to act again, if nothing else. So we're not even close to getting it all done."

According to the nine-year veteran U.S. House Majority Leadership staffer, the Delegate's (Faleomavaega Eni) attacks on the Governor are generating criticism even by those on Capitol Hill who have been helping Eni on the one-year extension, and a one-year extension is all it is, nothing more, according to what she's hearing from Democrat and Republican Members of Congress and staff.

Amata said that the talk in the halls of Congress is that the Delegate has allowed himself to be used by the Puerto Ricans, "who supported him on the long shot that by keeping 936 on the books they might be able to restore some or all of it for Puerto Rico after the GAO studies on Puerto Rico's economy come out this year."

She added, "From what people are saying the price they extracted from Eni in exchange for Puerto Rico's support was that they would stick to 936 or nothing, which is why the Delegate is so inflexible about the Governor's alternative proposal, as well as my own proposal for an employment based credit. People are saying American Samoa could get a long term alternative wage based deal to help the canneries but the Delegate is saying no to anything but Section 936."

Amata contends that effective political strategy cannot be based on an intolerance for a diversity of ideas and one cannot monopolize the debate.

"The idea that the Governor should not be able to make a reasonable alternative proposal, or that I can't talk about a wage or employment based credit, without messing up Eni's proposal is being laughed at," she said. "Congress is able to consider alternative proposals without abandoning whatever deal they have with our Delegate. The real question is whether the Delegate's deal is the best that was possible for American Samoa."

The Republican National Committeewoman for American Samoa indicated that she senses a growing resistance to Section 936. "We all hope for the best but the Delegate will have to assume full responsibility for whatever happens and he cannot point the finger and blame others. That will no longer work."

"Anyway, that is what I am hearing, who knows what is real and what is not real in the world of the U.S. Congress?"

Osini Faleatasi, Inc. dba Samoa News reserves all rights.