Amata Highlights Possibilities for American Samoa in International Meetings
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata accepted an invite from her House classmate, Chairman Brian Babbin, who leads the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, to take part in a series of discussions in a bipartisan Congressional Delegation to several nations over the weekend at the start of the House’s August work period.
Amata’s visit expands on her service in the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), specifically in the Africa Subcommittee as well as the East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, allowing her to work with another committee’s issues, and she expressed her several purposes in relation to American Samoa:
- In their first stop, Cabo Verde, Members of Congress were briefed at a weather balloon facility and observed a weather balloon launch. Congresswoman Amata conveyed interest in American Samoa being the site of similar research and studies, highlighting key geographic comparisons and suitability. The Republic of Cabo Verde (meaning Green Cape) is an archipelago of ten islands west of continental Africa with a large majority Christian population. Their islands are just inside the Tropic of Cancer in the Atlantic, much as American Samoa is just inside the Tropic of Capricorn in the Pacific, and the islands share similarities in their meridian positions on opposite sides of the world.
- In Tanzania, also a coastal country which includes islands in the Indian Ocean at the far border of the Indo-Pacific region, while American Samoa is relatively near the center of the vast region, Congresswoman Amata and other Members of Congress met with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Wildlife Law Enforcement Attache Kathy Spengler, who is stationed at the U.S. Embassy through the Department of the Interior. They held productive discussions including the state of mineral exploration – which Amata opposes near American Samoa – and Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing in those waters, a shared concern in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
- Finally, starting the return trip with a rest and refueling in Lisbon, Portugal, a U.S. ally known for their own fishing industry focused on sardines, they met with the Portuguese Space Agency, which is actively implementing ambitious national strategic efforts. Amata highlighted American Samoa’s historic ties to the U.S. space program and numerous Apollo missions, and conveyed that, in cooperation with the U.S., American Samoa would make them welcome should a splashdown site on the earth’s opposite side ever be needed in their growing program and activities.
- On a personal level while briefly in Lisbon, Amata was delighted that the U.S. Embassy residence is named Casa Carlucci (the Carlucci House), a restored 1861 manor, in honor of her old friend and former employer, Frank Carlucci, who served there as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, and later served as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, part of his career with four Presidents. Amata worked for him at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
“I value these opportunities to emphasize American Samoa to colleagues and government officials, and build relationships while working with other committees, but my original reason for working with Africa Subcommittee issues is its jurisdiction over the most important religious freedom and human rights global efforts that Congress is involved in,” said Congresswoman Amata. “These efforts have a worldwide impact not at all limited to Africa, including oversight of American-supported international organizations that work in many nations from Africa to the Pacific. I wanted to continue working on these issues with respected Chairman Chris Smith, who has long been the foremost champion in Congress for religious freedom and human rights, and many of these efforts dovetail with issues in the Pacific. For instance, earlier this Congress, the House passed a foreign affairs bill I cosponsored, the bipartisan PARTNER Act, that enhances U.S. relations in both the Pacific Islands and Africa.”
The House-passed PARTNER Act extends diplomatic privileges to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while also extending those privileges to the African Union’s Observer Mission to the United Nations. Amata is an original cosponsor co-leading the bill in a group of three Republicans and six Democrats.
In another example of a global effort with Pacific ties to the HFAC Africa Subcommittee, Amata spoke on the House floor on September 23, 2024, while serving as Floor Manager for House passage of the reauthorization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), S. 3764, a bipartisan effort which then passed by a vote of 365-20. (A four-minute video of her House floor speech is available HERE.)
###