Congress returns from its month-long summer break in September, and Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata has her list of top legislative priorities ready. KHJ New Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
September promises to be another wild month on Capitol Hill as the two parties fight it out over spending bills, as another shutdown deadline looms on the 30th.
But Congresswoman Amata plans to push ahead with efforts to secure the House-passed $900,000 boost for ASG in the Interior spending bill.
The Senate version continues level funding at just over $28 million and will have to negotiate the difference with the House.
Next, there’s the 30a Economic Development tax credit key for the local cannery. Amata, earlier–
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Amata “This tax credit is a priority for American Samoa’s economy…it encourages investment and preserving the jobs we already have.”
The Congresswoman tried to win an extension of the expired credit in President Trump’s huge tax and spending bill he signed July Fourth.
But House rules didn’t allow for 30a’s inclusion, so Amata will now push to have the $8 million a year credit included in a year-end tax extenders bill.
The Senate must still pass Amata’s South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act to make law 2016 negotiated improvements to the 1988 treaty. The House passed the bill a second time this year after it stalled in the Senate last year as part of a larger Coast Guard bill.
And the House last month passed overwhelmingly a Coast Guard measure that calls for a feasibility study of homeporting infrastructure for fast response cutters—opening another window for the Congresswoman to argue for a cutter in Pago Pago.
Finally, Amata will continue American Samoa’s fight against the Trump Administration’s plans for deep-sea mineral mining near the territory.
She wrote Interior Secretary Burgum that such mining, if it occurs, happens more than 50 miles off American Samoa, not three miles, even if that is in the US EEZ.
And the Fono has unanimously approved a resolution formally opposing deep-sea mining without science-driven policies, legal transparency and respect for Pacific Island sovereignty.
