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Amata to run for 4th term as American Samoa’s U.S. Delegate

Amata outside in Washington D.C. walking toward her office building.
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In a advertisement in yesterday’s Samoa News, Congresswoman Aumua Amata threw her hat in the ring to continue serving American Samoa in the U.S. Congress.

“I am humbled to serve as your member of Congress. These are challenging times. We know ASG will be in transition next year. I've built on a lifetime of relationships that help me know who to best contact to be effective for our needs,” she said.

“Our team understands and rows together to get things done for American Samoa. It's worth knowing that I have gained in seniority, serving on three Committees that make sense for American Samoa, and in two of them, I am Vice Ranking Member. Finally, I also have built a dependable track record of bipartisan efforts and co-sponsorships.

Amata continues to serve and has gained seniority on three Committees for the 116th Congress: the Natural Resources Committee, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and the Small Business Committee.

In the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, she is now third in seniority among the Committee’s Republican Members, while in the Small Business Committee, she is second in seniority following the Ranking Member.

“I’m humbled by the responsibility of representing American Samoa in these Committees in the 116th Congress,” said Aumua Amata. “In the House of Representatives, much of the important work for our nation’s funding and resources takes place in Committee rooms at the Subcommittee and Committee level long before a bill becomes law.”

These Committees are a good fit with American Samoa’s needs, she says. The Natural Resources Committee oversees numerous areas directly affecting American Samoa and its overall budget, among them the U.S. Department of Interior as a whole, and its Office of Insular Affairs in particular, along with National Parks.

The Veterans’ Committee is also a unique fit for American Samoa, as a high percentage of the population has served in the Armed Forces, and those currently serving will eventually rely on Veterans’ services. This Committee oversees the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA).

Through her role in the Committee on Small Business, she places an additional focus on health-related issues, along with topics in the Committee such as Veteran-owned small businesses, women-owned small businesses and economic enterprise zones. The Small Business Committee has a large oversight footprint through hearings on a broad variety of topics and how they intersect with small businesses.

“My first step in every bill that comes before these Committees is to examine how it will affect American Samoa,” stated Amata. “I will continue to focus especially on the bipartisan efforts that have a better chance to become law under the current division of party power in Washington, D.C.”

Amata believes American Samoa benefits from stability in our islands' representative to Washington, DC. She said, “Despite the challenges all around us, the Lord has blessed us, including important new funding for our Territory. Today, I am every bit as enthusiastic about representing American Samoa as I was on day one, but I've learned from this time in Congress.”

After winning 75.4% of the vote in her 2016, Aumua Amata attained the highest number of votes in American Samoa history. She won reelection with 83.3 percent of the votes in a three-way race in 2018.

She has been the scheduling director for the United States House of Representatives Majority Leadership for eight years. Amata has been the most senior member of the Republican National Committee since 2012. She was a member of both the Executive Committee for the 2016–17 Presidential Transition and the Executive Committee for the 2017 Republican National Committee Chairman's Transition Committee. In 2019, she was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on the President’s Commission for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

She gives credit to the support of her staff saying, “I set the tone for my decision making and the kind of effective office I wanted for our people, with my first hire, Army COL. Leafaina Tavai as Chief of Staff. These often include Veterans and small business bills, but also areas where Islanders or Pacific representatives can team up, and times when Territories work together to be treated like states in per capita funding.”

She is the first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from American Samoa, the first Republican woman of Samoan descent in Congress and the highest elected Asian-Pacific Republican officeholder.

She asked voters for their continued support to serve them.