U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the Democratic Whip, has requested the Republican leadership to extend voting privileges to congressional delegates from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories to vote in the Committee of the Whole.

In response to Samoa News inquires, Congresswoman-elect Aumua Amata issued yesterday the following press statement:

Although I have not yet received my copy of Rep. Hoyer's letter to Rules Committee Chairman Sessions urging adoption of a rule to enable nonvoting delegates to vote in the Committee of the Whole, I have been provided a copy by the media. While I believe Mr. Hoyer's appeal is well reasoned and would support his proposal if it were part of the Rules package that the Republican Conference will consider, I would not vote against it if this provision were omitted.

While the entire House ultimately will adopt the Rules, as a practical matter the Republican Conference  package will be the Rules the Full House will approve. Other delegates have asked me about this issue; I have had positive conversations about it with several House colleagues; and Chairman Sessions has assured me my request has been received by the Committee, where it is under advisement; but I regret that Mr. Hoyer now has politicized the issue by writing to the Chairman the Friday before Christmas and issuing a press release before the Chairman even has had an opportunity to read the letter. I had hoped to avoid a decision made on partisan political considerations rather than on the merits.

My approach has been to work with my colleagues informally without publicity, particularly since I already have prior relationships with five of the Rules Committee's nine Republicans — Reps. Tom Cole and Rob Bishop, both of whom are my friends from our service together as Republican National Committee members; Conference Secretary Virginia Foxx, who is my mentor as a freshman Member; and Rep. Rob Woodall, who was on the Congressional Delegation that visited American Samoa last August. I also have known Chairman Sessions from his work with the National Eagle Scout Association because both my husband and son are Eagle Scouts and I have attended NESA chapter events in which he has been involved.

However, if this proposal now were going to become a political football, there would be no point in continuing to work behind the scenes, so I am ceasing my efforts on a symbolic gesture when I have such a large agenda of substantive issues that will actually impact American Samoa.  Rep. Bishop, for example, is the incoming Natural Resources Chairman and Rep. Cole is third ranking on Interior Appropriations while Rep. Foxx is Higher Education and Workforce Training Chairman and Rep. Woodall is on the Budget Committee. These committees all are very important to American Samoa.

A Committee of the Whole vote pales in comparison with my vote in the House Republican Conference where I have been warmly welcomed and where the direction of the House will be set. Because I was not a House Member in 1994 or 2010 when this Rule was not adopted, I was not privy to the debate but it should be recalled that both times Rules were being considered for a new House in which all delegates were to be Democrats. So there was no one in the Conference to advocate otherwise.

Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia aside, the issues involving the small island territories tend to be non-partisan in nature so wherever we find common ground, I hope to be a voice in the Conference for my fellow island delegates and look forward to working with them.

(See separate story published elsewhere in today’s edition pertaining to details of Hoyer’s request.)