Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that American Samoa’s commemorative quarter has been released today by the U.S. Mint to the Federal Reserve banks. 

“This quarter has been 9 years in the making and came about as a result of federal legislation the Congressional Delegates sponsored and cosponsored since 2000,” Faleomavaega said.  “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia championed the cause, and Congressman Jose Serrano of New York included our last bill in the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act.”

“After cosponsoring H.R. 5010, H.R. 4005, H.R. 2993, H.R. 3883 and H.R. 392 from the 106th Congress to the 110th, Congress finally passed our legislation into law, and my colleagues and I who represent the Territories and the District of Columbia are pleased by the outcome.”

“As part of the legislation, we wanted to make sure our local Governors could also participate in this historic process so we made sure our legislation was modeled after the 50 State Quarters Program which included a provision to allow our local governments to design our quarters.  I especially commend Governor Togiola and his administration for the work they did in designing American Samoa’s quarter.”

“While the U.S. Mint and my office had scheduled an unveiling ceremony in Washington this morning to coincide with today’s release of American Samoa’s quarter, Governor Togiola has requested to be part of this Congressional ceremony and, as a courtesy to him, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of Samoan Affairs, and the First Lady who are traveling with the Governor, I have agreed to postpone the Congressional ceremony until Wednesday of this week since Governor Togiola had to cancel the local ceremony he had arranged with the U.S. Mint due to his decision to come to Washington DC this week.  The Governor’s event with the U.S. Mint was scheduled to be held in American Samoa on July 29 but, according to the U.S. Mint, the Governor has now rescheduled American Samoa’s local ceremony for sometime in September.”

“Since the coin was officially released today and because we want the people of American Samoa to be able to celebrate and share in this important moment, the U.S. Mint and my office will issue another statement with photos after we unveil the quarter in Washington this Wednesday,” Faleomavaega concluded.