Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Senate has given the green light to Governor Pula's nomination of Paopao Kuresa as Director of the Territorial Administration on Aging (TAOA) in a unanimous 16-0 vote.

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Rules Committee on Monday, Paopao revealed that he has served the government for 50 years, and this marks his 51st year. He reminisced that he and Committee Chairman Magalei Logovi'i began their careers together in 1974 at the Treasury Department.

Paopao shared that he has worked in four government departments during his 50 years of service, with 32 of those years dedicated to TAOA.

"The truth is, this is the first time I can truthfully say that I want to be a director," he declared. "I was offered the job before by many former governors, as Governor Togiola can confirm, but I declined due to a personal decision I made. I would only accept if I achieved 50 years of service, and I am happy to inform you all this morning that I am ready to take on the position of TAOA Director."

Senator Togiola T.A. Tulafono expressed his gratitude to Paopao for his many years of dedicated service, noting that this alone is a testament to his commitment and dedication to the government and people of American Samoa. He added that there is no doubt that Paopao is more than qualified and capable of taking on the duties and responsibilities of director.

Senator Tulafono then moved a motion to excuse the nominee while the committee deliberates on his appointment.

The motion was seconded, but other senators expressed a desire to address some issues with the director nominee.

Senator Ma'o F. Gogo requested that the TAOA program which provides cooked food for members be discontinued and instead, members be given vouchers which they can redeem for whatever foodstuffs they want.

Currently, local food catering contractors have been awarded contracts to provide cooked meals for TAOA members three times a week.

Paopao explained that they had discussed with Governor Pula and Lt. Governor Pulu the idea of returning to a voucher system, as it used to be. Unfortunately, he said that a policy signed by their office and the federal grantor has already established the current catered cooked food system until 2027.

He highlighted the advantage of the voucher system, stating that it allowed for a variety of food choices at any time, in contrast to the current system where meals run out by 10:30 a.m. on the three days they are provided.

Responding to inquiries from Senator Magalei, Paopao stated that approximately $76,000 is spent each month on the program, which equates to about $11.75 per person per day, for three days a week.

Senator Togiola explained that it was during his tenure as governor that federal agencies under the Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 9 lobbied to change the program from a voucher system to the current catered cooked food system. HHS Region 9 serves Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and U.S. territories in the Pacific, including American Samoa.

Togiola stated that the catered system works well for the elderly in the states because the food catering industry there is more advanced, with better quality, variety, and pricing of produce for cooked food compared to the territories, which depend on imported produce.

He argued that senior citizens in the territories would benefit more from the voucher system. For instance, $33 could provide a week's worth of food for senior citizens and their families if they purchased a bag of rice and two boxes of chicken.

"I totally rejected what they wanted," Togiola said. "Now, from what I've heard, most of our senior citizens do not eat the cooked food provided by this TAOA program but give it to their children or other family members."

He urged the director nominee to collaborate with the Governor's Office to revive the voucher system.

Committee Chairman Magalei informed the director nominee that if confirmed, he would be summoned again to discuss this matter further and work out a solution.

Samoa News should point out that one of the reasons the voucher system was replaced with catered food was because of federal grant program requirements — it is to provide ’hot meals’ to seniors, not ‘food stamps’, such as provided by federal programs such as ASNAP.

Currently, there is also a question about payments to caterers not being done in a timely manner, despite it being federally funded.