Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that he is responding to Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen’s guest editorial published by Samoa News on August 22, 2008 in which she criticizes his work on behalf of the people of American Samoa, including his efforts to strengthen the US tuna industry and protect the jobs of nearly 5,000 cannery workers.

 “Despite the fact that all three US branded tuna companies support my efforts to strengthen the US tuna fishing fleet, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen’s husband, Mr. Fred Radewagen, recently contacted lobbyists in Washington to work against my efforts to keep American Samoa’s canneries strong,” Faleomavaega said.  “In her first public statement on the issue, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen does not deny her husband’s involvement in opposing my work.  Instead, she states that she has been silently ‘watching from the sidelines with great interest.’  In certain circumstances, silence implies consent, agreement, a willingness to go along with, or even participate in, the action being carried out.”

“Whatever the case, I am hopeful that Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen will talk straight with the people of American Samoa and explain why she has been ‘watching from the sidelines’ while her husband has been secretly working to undermine the work of American Samoa’s elected leaders.”

“Hopefully, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen will also be more forthcoming about her understanding of the legislative process, and how Congress operates.  For example, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen states that H.R. 3669, a bill I introduced to strengthen our US tuna fishing fleet, has been ‘rightly’ called a ‘secret amendment’.  She also faults Congress for not holding a hearing on the bill.”

“For Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen’s information, H.R. 3669 was introduced as a bill and like every bill in Congress, it was introduced as a matter of public record and there is nothing ‘secret’ about it.  Furthermore, because of the thousands of measures that are introduced in Congress every year, many bills pass the House and Senate and are signed into law without a hearing ever being held.  In fact, in 2007, only 392 hearings were held while 9,227 measures were introduced and 1,748 were passed.”

“Moreover, due to the thousands of measures introduced every year, it is a common practice for small bills to be engrossed, or included in, larger bills as a way for Congress to pass more bills than would otherwise be possible.  When this happens, the larger bill is amended to incorporate the substance of the smaller bills.  Often this is done through a manager’s amendment.  A manager’s amendment is a package of numerous individual amendments, some of which are based on smaller bills, and which are agreed to by both sides in advance.  Once agreed upon, the manager’s amendment is engrossed in the larger bill.”

 “30A is an example of how this process works.  When I first offered legislation to extend 936 tax credits to our canneries, I introduced the legislation as a bill.  Later, the substance of my small bill was included in a larger bill through a manager’s amendment.”

“H.R. 3669 is proceeding in a similar manner.  After being introduced in the House as a stand-alone bill, the substance of H.R. 3669 was later included in the manager’s amendment to H.R. 2830, the Coast Guard Reauthorization bill, which passed the House on April 24, 2008.  The manager’s amendment included many amendments, one of which was based on my small bill.  And, for Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen’s information, both Republicans and Democrats agreed to the manager’s amendment in advance, on record, in public, and not in secret.”

“Since H.R. 3669 is no longer moving forward as a separate, independent, bill, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen is wrong to state that H.R. 3669 ‘will pass or die on its merits before Congress adjourns in late September.’  Instead, H.R. 3669 has been engrossed, or included, in H.R. 2830, meaning it is only a very, very small part of the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act, and it is H.R. 2830 that now must be considered by the Senate.”

“As the legislative process works, before any bill, large or small, can be signed into law, it must pass both the House and Senate, and the two chambers must agree on the final language.  Since the House has already passed H.R. 2830 on its merits, including the substance of my bill which was included in it, the Senate must now decide if it will take up a Coast Guard Reauthorization bill before Congress adjourns.  While it is likely we will adjourn in September, there is also a possibility we may come back after the November elections.  Either way, if the Senate chooses not to take up a Coast Guard Reauthorization bill this year, then the House will reintroduce the legislation in the 111th Congress under a different bill number.  At that time, depending on whom our people choose to represent their interests in Washington, legislation to strengthen our US tuna fishing fleet may or may not be included in the larger Coast Guard bill when it is re-introduced in 2009.  That will be up to our people to decide on November 4, 2008.”

“Until then, I believe our people deserve to know where Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen and I stand on the issues.  Unlike Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen, I do not believe in watching silently from the sidelines while others work in secret against our people.  Unlike Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen, I do not believe power should rest in the hands of a privileged few.  I believe power belongs to the people, as our Founding Fathers intended it to be and, as my mentor, the late Congressman Phil Burton made sure that it would be for the people of American Samoa.”

“To be clear, in 1951, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 10264 which transferred administrative responsibility for the islands of American Samoa from the Secretary of the Navy to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.  The Secretary of the Interior, in turn, appointed our Governors.”
 
“In 1960, the people of American Samoa adopted a Constitution.  The Constitution was revised in 1966 and was approved by the Secretary of the Interior on June 2, 1967.  In 1967, the Revised Constitution of American Samoa provided for an elected Legislature, or Fono, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives.  However, it did not provide our people with the right to elect our own Governor and Lieutenant Governor and, at the time, American Samoa was the only remaining off-shore area of the United States which did not have a popularly elected Governor and Lieutenant Governor.”

“On June 10, 1976, Congressman Phil Burton, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior and Insular Affairs, took notice of American Samoa’s situation and introduced a bill to make it possible for our Governor and Lieutenant Governor to be popularly elected rather than appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.  As staff counsel to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Congressman Burton instructed me to draft this legislation, which the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed by a landslide vote of 377 to 1.”

“Instead of sending his bill to the Senate, Congressman Burton decided to consult further with the Secretary of the Interior, Rogers C.B. Morton, about American Samoa’s unique political status as an unincorporated and unorganized territory which was and is unlike the organized territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands.  As a result of their consultations, the two agreed that Secretary Morton would issue a Secretarial Order (No. 3009) authorizing the American Samoa Government to pass enabling legislation to provide for an elected Governor and the Lieutenant Governor.”

“Secretary’s Order No. 3009 amended American Samoa’s Constitution to specifically provide for an elected rather than an appointed Governor and Lieutenant Governor.  Secretary’s Order 3009 was also in keeping with the will of the majority of voters in American Samoa who voted in favor of electing their own Governor and Lieutenant Governor in a plebiscite that was held on August 31, 1976.”

“Furthermore, Chairman Phil Burton introduced legislation on August 2, 1978 to provide that the Territory of American Samoa be represented by a nonvoting Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Per Congressman Burton’s instructions, I also drafted this legislation.  This legislation became Public Law 95-556 and was made effective October 31, 1978.”

“As a direct result of Congressman Phil Burton’s leadership and initiative, which made it possible for Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen’s father, the late Peter T. Coleman, to be elected, rather than appointed, as Governor of American Samoa, and Fofo I.F. Sunia to be elected as the first Delegate to Congress, it is disappointing that Governor Coleman’s daughter now wants to strip our people of their hard-won rights to self-government.  This is wrong.”

“For example, Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen states that she has “overriding concern” about the “alteration of our local election procedures” which makes it possible for our military men and women, and other overseas voters, to vote for their Governor, Delegate and Representatives.  However, I believe even her own father, who served in the US Army, would disagree with her concerns.  Like every other American, our military men and women, who fight and die to preserve our freedoms, including our right to vote, also have an inalienable right to vote in federal and local elections, and I fully support their rights, even if Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen does not.”

“I also believe our lowest paid workers have every right to be paid decent wages.  But Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewaen states their rights are an ‘imposition’.  ‘Imposition’ means a ‘burden’ or a ‘nuisance’.  However, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, passed unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in December, 1948 states, ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood.’  Our Samoan culture believes the same.  Why Mrs. Aumua Amata Radewagen believes differently is only something she can explain to the working people of our Territory.”

“Hopefully, she can also explain why she wants to deny our people their right to decide for themselves to be a national or a citizen, to have a federal court or not, or to determine how their federal funds are spent.  However she justifies her reasons for denying our people their hard-won rights, I stand in strong opposition to her views.  Contrary to her views, I stand for self-government, straight talk, and for keeping power in the hands of our people,” Faleomavaega concluded.