Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that on June 28, 2006 by voice vote the House passed H.R. 5689 to amend the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to make technical corrections which included his provision to make Saole county eligible to receive $2 million for village road improvements.  While Faleomavaega requested $2 million for Saole county in 2004, due to a clerical error, Saole county was excluded from the final transportation bill. 

Senator Tuato’o first brought this matter to Faleomavaega’s attention in a letter dated February 3, 2006.  In a letter dated February 6, 2006, the Congressman responded to the Senator’s letter and assured him he would make sure this correction was made.  For this reason, Faleomavaega wrote Chairman Don Young and Ranking Member James Oberstar of the House Committee on Transportation and requested their assistance on February 7, 2006. 

A full copy of the Congressman’s letter to Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar is included below: 

Dear Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member:

I am writing to request your assistance in making a correction with respect to Saole county in your upcoming technical corrections transportation bill. 

In 2003, I submitted a general request to the Committee on Transportation for $9.4 million for use in the Eastern, Western, Central, and Manu’a Districts of American Samoa.

In 2004, I submitted a more specific request which divided the funding between the districts.  I did this to make sure each district received transportation dollars.  In the case of the Eastern District, I requested a $2 million set-aside in which I identified each of the counties, including Saole.  For your information, I am enclosing these documents.

In 2005, I submitted a request to increase funding for the Eastern District from $2 million to $2.6 million.  In the course of increasing funding for the Eastern District, my staff made a clerical error when preparing the paperwork which was submitted to you and unintentionally omitted Saole among the counties. 

This error was not purposeful and I would appreciate your assistance in including this technical correction in your upcoming bill.  I thank you in advance for your assistance and I look forward to working with you to resolve this matter.

“After receiving this letter, both Members agreed to include the correction for Saole county in the technical corrections bill and I am pleased that the House passed this important measure on June 28, 2006 by voice vote and I thank Senator Tuato’o for bringing this to my attention.  The bill will now move to the Senate and to conference and, once it is signed into law, Saole County will also be eligible to collect its fair share of federal dollars to improve village roads,” Faleomavaega concluded.