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Gov lays out the territory’s challenges at virtual Congressional hearing

Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga at desk during virtual testimony
Why Am Samoa needs support for LBJ, climate change and China
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — While thankful for the proposed $9.1 million federal allocation for LBJ Medical Center for the new fiscal year 2023, Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga lobbied a Congressional committee for “a major increase” to help with the territory’s response to the COVVID-19 pandemic and to continue providing care and treatment for other critical conditions.

Lemanu’s request was made during yesterday morning’s virtual testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources for the Office of Insular Affairs oversight hearing on the FY 2023 budget request by the U.S Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs.

Besides his verbal testimony from American Samoa — the governor also provided an official written statement to the committee. Governors from the other U.S territories also gave testimony.

“We have learned much from FY2022, and still face enormous challenges as we plan for FY2023,” he said and expressed “thank you” to the committee as well as Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata for all their work for the territories.

One of the key challenges facing American Samoa, says the governor is LBJ hospital, which he said lacks the physical capacity to appropriately respond to a host of medical conditions, and struggled to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

He explained that the only hospital in the territory is now diverting its limited operating resources to address the pandemic, causing the potential for shortages of medication and essential health supplies, equipment, doctors, nurses, workforce, and all in an overcrowded hospital — which was built in 1968.

He expressed appreciation to the U.S Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for stepping in to support the territory’s COVID-19 response.

Lemanu recalled for the committee, findings by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 2019 — funded by USDOI — that the hospital was not in compliance with current seismic and wind requirements and suggested that, rather than repair or retrofit the current facility, construction of a new hospital would be more advantageous.

Furthermore, the USACE conducted a review and determined that the LBJ facility “is in a state of failure due to age and environmental exposure.” And USACE noted that extensive repair and/or replacement of the facility is required to ensure compliance with hospital accreditation standards and to protect the life, health, and safety of staff, patients, and visitors.

Lemanu pointed out that LBJ facilities also do not have the equipment or personnel to treat cancer, hip and knee replacements, heart and other surgeries, and maladies that afflict the people of American Samoa.

“For those medical conditions, patients are flown off island, via medical transport, to New Zealand for treatment,” he said. “The people of American Samoa need better access to care without having to fly to another country for life-saving procedures and care.”

The governor acknowledged with appreciation the federal Administration’s proposed $9.1 million budget request for hospital operations.

“However, we respectfully request a major increase in our operating revenues to help provide the resources needed to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and, at the same time, continue to provide the care and treatment for other critical medical conditions,” he said, adding that LBJ needs a lot of “monetary support” to build the new hospital.

(As previously reported by Samoa News the new 40-bed facility is proposed for construction in the Tafuna area.)

Lemanu also shared the update on the COVID-19 count, after American Samoa had been free of the deadly virus since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. He noted that ASG worked with limited resources to build quarantine facilities and to retrofit LBJ in preparation for COVID-19.

“Our vaccination efforts have reached more than 80% of our population, and we continue our quarantine operations as we bring back more flights to our island,” he said. 

“COVID-19 has reduced our local revenue because of the decline of domestic and international travel, leading to the closure of businesses and job loss,” he pointed out. “All of these factors make increased Federal dollars more important than ever.”

For the “good news”, the governor reports that ASG’s Shipyard is now able to service larger vessels such as purse seiners and U.S Coast Guard cutters.

“Our efforts over the last year in fully repairing the cradles and revitalizing this shipyard to bring [it] up to standards have made this possible,” he said and thanked USDOI for the funding in order to achieve these goals.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The second-key challenge faced by American Samoa is “climate change” and the governor says the territory is exceptionally vulnerable to sea level rise because a significant portion of the islands’ villages and infrastructure, including all critical ports, are located along thin strips of coastal land.

And the situation is worsened by ongoing subsidence since the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami resulting in shifting of tectonic plates. He informed the committee that American Samoa is subsiding at a rate roughly six times the global sea-level rise average, and experiencing a relative sea level rise of 9.8 inches in eleven years — from Sept. 2009- Jan. 2020.

(Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities, according to Wikipedia.)

“We need to respond to climate change with a matter of urgency by investing in mitigation projects that will reduce the risk of damages to existing infrastructure and ensure community resilience in the aftermath of all hazards’ disasters,” he said.

“The untimely events of extreme weather and disasters are unavoidable and expensive. The rebuild is time consuming especially with limited readily available resources and project related subject matter expertise on island,” he added.

The third-key challenge for American Samoa, says the governor, is the presence of China in the Pacific. And Samoa News will report on this issue in tomorrow’s edition.

CONGRESSWOMAN UIFA’ATALI AMATA’S STATEMENT

The Congresswoman gave a brief statement backing up the governor, emphasizing the need for Operations appropriations along with highlighting climate change funding.

“As I’ve stated to this committee many times, there is no one size fits all solution to the territories’ energy needs, and I encourage OIA to continue working with our Governor and local officials to ensure that any funding provided is used effectively and helps us move away from a reliance on expensive imported oil and gas.

She also obliquely touched on the China question saying, “To conclude, robust funding and oversight of OIA programs is one of our best tools to maintain our presence in the Pacific and push back against the threats to the region. I look forward to working with everyone here to that end.”

Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata took part in the Wednesday hearing of the Natural Resources Committee that received testimony from the governors of the territories, including Governor Lemanu Peleti. Mauga. Uifa’atali  gave a brief statement and she also took part in the Q and A, addressing the DOI witness, OIA Director of Budget Jonathan Dunn. [courtesy photo]