American Samoa stands to receive close to $30 million in House-passed jobs bill Saturday December 19, 2009

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(PRESS RELEASE)—Congressman Faleomavaega announced Friday that on Dec. 16, 2009, the House passed, by a vote of 217–212, legislation to boost employment and provide fiscal relief to local governments. The “Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010” would cost $154 billion to be paid for with money redirected from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that would have otherwise been used to bail out Wall Street firms.

“I want to thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic House leadership for this bill to provide additional aid to help struggling families make ends meet. In these tough economic times, it is important to recognize the challenges facing many families across the nation,” Faleomavaega said.

“I also want to commend my fellow delegates for their joint effort and hard work to ensure that the residents of the Territories are covered. More than 4 million Americans reside in the Territories and they face the same economic challenges experienced by many across the United States,” Faleomavaega added.

American Samoa stands to receive close to $30 million under several provisions of the new jobs bill. Some of the programs and amounts that would benefit American Samoa are as follows:

•    $4.5 million for highway infrastructure restoration, repair, construction and other activities under the Territorial Highway program

•    $ 411,917 for activities to improve public transportation

•    $ 863,500 under the Clean Water State Revolving Funds

•    $247,500 under the Safe Drinking Water program

•    $19 million under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund for school improvements and other eligible projects

•    $1.9 million additional cap on Medicaid spending

“I am grateful that Congress recognizes the challenges facing families and communities in American Samoa. Especially in light of the current economic downturn this bill continues the road to recovery already in place under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),” Faleomavaega added.

“With the House now in recess for the Holidays, the Senate is expected to take up the jobs bill sometimes early next year. I will continue to follow this issue closely,” Faleomavaega concluded.
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Comments to this story (4)
The Ombudsman  wrote:
22 Dec 2009 07:14 AM

What job bill there Congressman? If so? How come things are still the same as it was? Are the (ASG) employees doing their jobs as they are hiring for to do? Or just sitting around while only one person is doing the work? It looks ridiculous seen many workers, working on a jobsite that takes only one or two person can do it. Why things appeared to be this way? Who are the supervisors that supervise the workforce for the government? Are these guys so called supervisors know what they are doing? Have they actually go out and inspect their workers' work? Or just driving around burning gasoline while the job perform is half complete in its appearance? The Governor was talking about built a strong house foundation by attending college, which I agree. My question is; what college and collegue he is talking about, while the government is a mess? Just mark my word, there will be no different, nor change of heart as far as the way things establishing in the territory, due to our samoan language thesaurus as well as nepotism, and favoritism, and Cronyism is concern, it will be a miracle if those attitude will be able to put to pass. Otherwise, doubt is still legend threshold. Until change of hearts and the culture is amend and revise, before any promise can be made according to change of heart and atmosphere surrounding is concern. According to work application is concern. Should be none of the samoan culture involved within the government. And that is the unforeseen conspiracy should be unfolded and put to pass, before anything can change to better obviously. Otherwise, srupulous should be acknowledged, instead of unscrupulous adherent.
Anonymous  wrote:
21 Dec 2009 05:41 PM
To; "Believer in Truth in Packaging" E te fiu lava e tau fa'aleaga galuega lelei o lo'o faia pea e Faleomavaega ae le vaivai ai taumafaiga lelei a si toeaina. Aua ete soona mateletele ne'i mea ua e malaia e leaga ole tamaloa e mamalu. Talitonu maia oe uso. Fa'amama ia lou loto ae fa'amagalo atu i si toeaina leaga e foliga mai e tele lou to'atama'i po'o le a lava se mea sa fai e Faleomavaega ua e le malie ai. O le upu ole Tusi Paia fai mai "aua ne'i goto le la o e ita pea. Fa'amanuia le Atua ia te oe! Soifua loa. One of Faleomavaega's lackey.
The Ombudsman  wrote:
19 Dec 2009 03:21 PM
The Congressman also need to do something about the immigration law in the territory. Immigration reform law to restricted overstayer, as well as the sponsors should be cited for fail to return whom they sponsors over for 30 days permit. Lots of bad apples in the terriotry already, and its a must to scrutinize and investigate all those who enter our boarder, and our port at any time. Too many illegal immigrants isn't good. These kind of people are not there in the territory for good cause, they are there to destroyed the good image of the U.S. Territory by conducting evil activity leads to criminal act.
Believer in Truth in Packaging  wrote:
19 Dec 2009 04:44 AM
I hope everyone reads this article carefully because the headline is very misleading. One would think the money is already on the way but this bill has only passed the House. The time to make a big deal out of this is when it also passes the senate and is signed by the White House. Faleomavaega quite appropriately has thanked a lot of others because he has had nothing to do with the passage of this bill himself. This money is part of national formula and we would get the same amount of money no matter who was congressman or even if we had no congressman at all, just as Northern Marianas had no congressman until this year. For any of Eni's lackeys or aiga who want to come to his rescue here, I will be glad to provide you a side by side comparison of grant funding for AS and CNMI going back 20 years so you can see how CNMI fared all those years without congressional representation.