Amata: "We need to be pushing a positive program with Congress"
June 14, 2007

By Aumua Amata

Reprinted from American Samoa Tribune
June 14, 2007

I read about the interesting report by our local delegation that
traveled last month to Washington to express their concerns about the
minimum wage bill and feel their report is pretty accurate.

My take on this issue is based largely on conversations with highly
placed Democratic staff who work for the United States Congress. When
I made inquiries I was genuinely surprised because, while I realized
that there were failures over the years I did not think that influential
Democratic congressional staff knew about them or even felt that way.

The real story here is that, according to Dems, our Delegate did not
anticipate what was going to happen. He had 10 years' notice that
Section 936 was going to end, and yet nothing was done until the last
minute. Then, they said, all he did was tell Congress it had to
extend Section 936 or our American Samoa economy would collapse
because the canneries would leave.

When that didn't work, said Democratic congressional staff, he played
the Section 30A card and got a short term stay of execution from a
Republican controlled Congress. The Puerto Rican faction that hoped
against all odds to revive Section 30A had more to do with that than
our Delegate.

The Delegate also knew for years, according to staff, that the CNMI
(Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) minimum wage reforms
were coming and it was an obvious risk that these reforms might be
applied to all territories. There should have been advance work done
on alternatives to both Sections 936, 30A and any CNMI reforms that
might potentially be applied for American Samoa. Instead the Delegate
fell back on the same tactic used in the 30A argument, telling
Congress the American Samoa economy is a basket case that will
collapse if not artifically propped up.

This time, said the staff, the Democrat controlled Congress treated
our Delegate worse on the federal minimum wage issue than the
Republicans had done on Section 936 and Section 30A. This was
because, according to insider Democratic staff, the Delegate was
blaming everyone and made no effective alliance with anyone. He
caused no one to want to help our tuna canneries and that made a lot
of people in Congress think American Samoa will do better "calling the
canneries' bluff" and adjust and adapt if they really leave.

And yes, American Samoa is subject to the political whims of Congress.
That comes with the territory status, so to speak. Republicans are
in the minority now, and they are fighting fire with fire, doing to
the majority what was done to them when the Republicans controlled
Congress, and it is the responsibility of the majority party to take
the heat from a political attack and do what is right. In this
particular case, the majority caved in to a political attack by the
minority that was too close to its highest ranking leader and
sacrificed policy for political cover. That, too, should have been
anticipated. All-in-all it was a fiasco.

The question is: Are we happy with the current state of federal
policy and federal-territorial relations? Blaming DOI and/or OIA
(Office of Insular Affairs) is off target. The Department of Interior
(DOI) did a lot more to help American Samoa and try to broker a better
result than a lot of people believe they should have done.
Papaliitele Cohen and Interior went way out on a limb trying to help
American Samoa. It was not OIA or even the territorial policy
committees in Congress that did this. It was national politics and
national policy that drove this, and pointing the finger at DOI is
blaming the best friend American Samoa ever had in the U.S.
government. By doing so, we are blaming those who tried to help our
territory out of a disaster it found itself in.

On Section 30A and this CNMI crossover effect, Democratic staff
sources told me, OIA did as much as they could, but national policy
trumps territorial policy every time. The CNMI reforms were important
because of that territory's link to the Abramoff scandal and the
Democrats were determined to make a statement that they were reforming
a problem that that scandal had caused. That became a corruption
issue and that is a 2008 election issue. That made it open season for
political attacks and the Speaker Pelosi alleged link to a cannery was
irresistible for Republicans who have the same priority as Democrats,
which is 2008 election politics. Territorial policy always gets lost
in the shuffle when that happens.

Congress included American Samoa in a policy regarding minimum wage
that was aimed at CNMI and a policy regarding IRC (Internal Revenue
Code) Section 30A (which by the way expires December 31, 2007) that
was driven by a marginal faction in Puerto Rico who were trying to
salvage a lost cause.

Personally I think it is incredible that Congress could not carve out
a federal policy toward American Samoa based on its unique
circumstances. Part of the problem rests with American Samoa for not
defining an agenda Congress could adopt that would have been good for
American Samoa and the Nation. Instead it became an issue of whether
American Samoa would be treated the same as everyone else, when it
should have been a substitute legislative package customized for
American Samoa's needs that was as bold and important as CNMI's
package, but not the same.

We need to be pushing a positive program with Congress and not just
reacting to problems.