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US House approves legislation increasing emergency nutrition assistance for American Samoa

Congresswoman Amata testifies before the Rules Committee
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The US House approved last Friday a major disaster relief legislation, the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which includes a provision increasing to $18 million in fiscal year 2019, emergency nutrition assistance for American Samoa following Tropical Storm Gita in February last year.

Both the US House and Senate have their respective versions of the legislation, which calls for $5 million for Gita-related nutrition assistance.

In the House, Congresswoman Aumua Amata offered an amendment increasing assistance to $18 million and had testified last Tuesday on the amendment before the House Rules Committee, according to a news release from the Congresswoman’s office last Friday after the bill was approved and heads to the US Senate.

The House approved increase is in line with Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga’s official request made late last month to US House and Senate committees and its senior members, as well as the Hawaii Congressional delegation, asking them to consider increasing the nutrition assistance from $5 million to $18 million “because of the seriousness of the continuing impact of [Storm] Gita on citizens” of the Territory.

Because of Gita, the territory sustained “a very significant amount” of damage to homes, businesses, island infrastructure, and family and commercial farms. As a result, he said the territory has needed emergency food assistance because of the storm’s severe impact on the local population.

He explained that the need for emergency food assistance is “extremely critical” because:

•     Majority of local families have incomes below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL);

•     Gita damage impacted the availability of local-grown sources of produce, which is a staple for American Samoa families — production of which by families engaged in subsistence/ backyard farming will take another year to fully recover;

•     American Samoa’s remote geographic location, costly and limited incoming transportation options, lack of food bank or similar storage or distribution centers, and limited financial resources of the American Samoa Nutrition Assistance Program, are serious barriers to providing adequate food assistance during the recovery process.

“The greatest areas of loss was to the 2,600 farmers who lost their crops for an entire growing season, valued at $13 million,” the governor wrote. “Most of these are backyard/ subsistence farmers who not only lost their livelihoods for the year but also the crops with which they feed their families.”

According to the governor, a total of 15,600 families were directly affected.

Although it has been a year since Gita, and farmers are beginning a new planting season, “the financial losses sustained over the year continue to place tremendous strain on more than one quarter” of the territory’s 60,000 population, he pointed out.

Lolo explained that further analysis of the territories’ struggle to recover over the past year found that additional assistance is needed, thus the reason for requesting the $18 million, which the he said, “would provide monthly benefits” that will “better meet the needs of our affected population, a great majority of which are under the FPL.”

He said the $18 million would provide “$139 per month, per person, for the 15,600 prospective recipients over eight and a half months of FY 2019”.

The governor is hopeful that funding in the final legislation will clarify that the disaster relief food benefits are for households engaged in subsistence/backyard farming that were documented as having lost food crops as a result of Gita.

He notes that Congressional members, who have visited the territory over the years, understand how remote the territory is from the US mainland and neighboring Pacific islands.

“This remoteness offers challenges to the patriotic US citizens and nationals of American Samoa even in the best of times, but in times of natural disasters such Gita, the challenges are overwhelming for our people, our infrastructure and our government,” he wrote.

In closing, he asked Congressional members to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate disaster relief bills and “consider our revised request for $18 million in FY 2019 emergency nutrition assistance to help American Samoan families and farmers recovering from the devastating blow” of Tropical Storm Gita.

AMATA'S STATEMENT

In a news release announcing the passage of the amended House emergency bill, Amata said the $18 million in food assistance, along with the 100% Medicaid coverage for ASG in 2019 — estimated at $10 million — “will help our people get back and fighting for our community and our country – and that’s what we do best.”

“I was able to once again remind Congress of our islands’ high rate of military service, and the damages, interruptions, and loss of a growing season that powerful Storm Gita caused,” she said.