Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Rep. Faimealelei Anthony Allen is the sole sponsor of a House bill which seeks to hike — by $10,000 annually — the salaries of lawmakers.

According to the bill, the annual salary of the Senate President and House Speaker will increase from the current $30,000 to $40,000; while other members of the Fono will increase from the current $25,000 to $35,000 per lawmaker. The Swains Island delegate will increase from $20,000 to $30,000.

Effective date of the proposed law shall be the first day of the next proceeding Legislature in which it is passed. 

Local statutes state that no Legislature may raise its own compensation, but a Legislature may raise the compensation of succeeding Legislatures.

In other words, if the bill is passed by the Fono during the current 36th Legislature and signed into law by the governor, it won’t become effective until the 37th Legislature, which is two years away.

Current law also provides for lawmakers’ office expense allowance, which defrays expenses relating to or resulting from the discharge of their official duties. An accounting of the expenditures incurred by the lawmaker is not required.

For the Fono leaders, it's $40,000 each for the Senate President and House speaker; and $30,000 for each member of the Senate and House.

The law also states that unless the member so elects, the allowance provided in this section is not income and the member is not required to report the amount of the allowance as income for tax purposes. Additionally, a member may not subsequently claim the allowance as non-income once the election has been made to designate it as taxable income.

BACKGROUND

The last attempt to raise lawmakers salaries was in 2016 and the bill was also introduced by Rep. Allen —  at that time it was for a $20,000 annual raise.

However, the bill was undermined by ‘passionate’ public protest at the time by a group calling themselves, United Citizens of American Samoa. They not only held peaceful demonstrations in front of the fale Fono in Fagatogo, but also circulated an online petition against the raise, citing the Territory’s trying economic times.

The bill was eventually tabled, after being fast tracked in the House without a hearing, and not taken up again during the 33rd Legislature, after public outrage over the bill.