Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga has issued a call for a Third Special Session of the 33rd Legislature, and among the four issues on the agenda are amendments to the American Samoa Economic Development Authority, which among other things, allows ASEDA to refinance the government’s $35 million long terms debts and issue bonds to raise revenues for infrastructure development.

The governor’s call is for the special session to convene Oct. 14 “for a period not to exceed 10 calendar days”. The call letter, dated Oct. 6, was received yesterday morning by both the Senate and House.

At the top of the agenda are the administration’s proposed amendments which seek to modernize and enhance the bond issuing capability of ASEDA. The Fono is now moving to take final action on this measure before the current 4th Regular Session officially ends this Friday.

In the House, the measure went through final reading yesterday and was approved in a 16-2 vote without any new amendments by the House to address concerns raised on Monday, which hold that the bill lacks Fono oversight and a specific amount of money the government is to spend on refinancing debts and issuing bonds by ASEDA.

(Samoa News erroneously reported that the bill had been voted on during second reading on Monday to return to committee for further review and necessary amendments.

Instead, the bill was voted on and approved in second reading while the motion to return the bill to committee was defeated.)

Rep. Larry Sanitoa had been one of those to vote against the bill, and when asked for comments as why he voted no, Sanitoa said, that ever since he started in the Fono some six years ago, he has always been an advocate of re-establishing ASEDA. He said this was important then, as ASG needed to find alternative revenues to rebuild local aging infrastructure as well as the economy.

He further explained that In January last year, he had written to Lolo seeking his assistance in looking into the GARVEE Bond, a Federal Highway funding program that would advance future federal highway funding for ASG to immediately address debilitating and horrendous roads and drainage.

“Understanding that the proposed legislation is for our government to get a good interest rate, this legislation gives ASEDA the authority to commit up to 25% of ASG revenues to the repayment of bonds without any further involvement of the Fono,” he said. “While the general obligation bonds are a good idea, it is of my belief that a legislative approval of these bonds must be required.

“The due diligence work on ASEDA is greatly appreciated and I fully support the intention of the legislation — but with Fono oversight,” he said, adding that most states and territories require legislative approval. “In fact, California requires approval by electoral vote.”

The other "no" vote came from Taotasi Archie Soliai. When asked for comments on his vote, Taotasi first pointed out that he believes the ASEDA amendments as proposed are good ones and said that the territory is “chronically plagued with limited resources, and we keep having to run to Uncle Sam for funding assistance, so I laud the efforts of the Administration to create other funding opportunities to support our local infrastructure and project needs.

“However, I believe that there needs to be legislative oversight in this proposed statute,” he said and noted two main points of his concern that should be incorporated into the language of the bill.

First, “we cannot and should not incur debt without Fono authorization as that is the authority given to them under our constitution. The bill proposal gives ASEDA the authority to pledge all local revenues to debt repayment,” he said. “Further, ASEDA may issue bonds without ‘further authorization from the Legislature’. This essentially takes away legislative authority to appropriate monies.”

For his second point he explained, “ASEDA claims that they can only commit up to 25% of ASG revenues to pay for the bond, however, this percentage is not in the language of the bill. I believe it should be incorporated into the bill,” he stated.

The House version went through first reading when the Senate convened for its regular session yesterday. The Senate’s version of the bill is pending in committee for further review after senators raised the same concerns as those raised in the House.

After a brief committee meeting yesterday, it was agreed that another hearing with the ASEDA board will be held this morning.

OTHER AGENDA ISSUES

Also on the agenda for the Special Session are proposed amendments to increase the Small Claims limit for banks in American Samoa and proposed amendments regulating the ability of corporations to sponsor foreigners.

(For years lawmakers have argued that the immigration law provision allowing companies to sponsor foreigners is a loophole that has allowed many of these foreigners to enter and remain in the territory. During his testimony before the Senate last month on the Immigration Amnesty bill, Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale said the administration was working on other measures for submission to the Fono to address the loopholes in immigration laws.)

The final issue on the special session agenda is the governor’s nomination of candidates to serve on the Immigration board.

Lolo said he is hopeful that the Fono will appreciate the need for early action on the proposed measures to be submitted for the special session.