When the Fourth Regular session of the 36th legislature closed today, lawmakers had not acted on an administration bill which would have established the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority by law.
The House held a hearing with the CEO of ASTCA Fala Sualevai and Attorney General Mitzie Jessop Ta’ase a few weeks ago, however the bill as never reported out of the Government Operations Committee.
The bill also languished in committee in the Senate after it was introduced.
Two director nominees who were approved by the House were never brought up for confirmation in the Senate.
The two are Director of Administrative Services Afalava Eliki Afalava and Acting Chief Procurement Officer Tuimavave Tauapai Laupola.
Meanwhile both the House and Senate have approved a concurrent resolution supporting the request by the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources to suspend or vacate the interim measures imposed by the US Dept of Commerce which limits the amount of bottom fish caught in federal waters immediately outside the territory.
Further the legislature supports the proposal by DMWR to develop a territorial bottomfish management plan that would provide a proper assessment of the bottomfish stock for American Samoa.
NOAA has announced proposed rules for American Samoa limiting the annual catch for bottom fish to 13,000 lbs, a dramatic drop from 21,000 lbs under a precious assessment. DMWR immediately responded to the proposed rule disputing the findings by NOAA that there is overfishing of bottom fish.
In its response. DMWR asserts that there has not been a significant change in the reported catch by local fisherman since the previous assessment.
DMWR further argued that there has been no major event, natural or manmade, which would have affected the supply of bottomfish. In fact, the number of fishing vessels trolling for bottomfish has dropped since the last assessment and therefore, the supply should be unaffected.
In addition, while the interim rules only apply to fishing in federal waters, the limit affects the amount of bottomfish available to locals for both consumption and used in the practice of fa’aSamoa.
The resolution states it is unacceptable that cultural events would be held without fish, particularly species of bottomfish being limited though the interim measures.
The legislature backs the request by DMWR to suspend or vacate the proposed rules on bottomfish and rather than close parts of the federal waters available for bottom fishing, that NOAA work with local authorities to develop a territorial bottomfish management plan to properly assess and address the security of bottomfish for the territory.
Copies of the resolution are to be sent to the US Secretary of Commerce, American Samoa Governor. the congresswoman, the Regional Administrator of NOAA and the Director of DMWR.
