Amata Radewagen: “The amendment that I am offering together with my colleague from the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan) brings…”

“The amendment that I am offering together with my colleague from the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan) brings rationality and logic to the allocation of Territorial Highway Program funds among the four smaller U.S. territories. At present, these funds are simply allocated as the Department of Transportation sees fit using a formula set back in 1992, I understand. That system may have been okay for the last 23 years, but now that I am representing the people of American Samoa, I want to be sure that Federal funds are distributed among the territories in a way that has some rational basis. I cannot say to my constituents that we just have to live with the way things have always been done. I want to say to them that the assistance we get from the Federal Government is based on our real needs. Madam Chair, I also believe that my constituents deserve to have their elected representative participate in decisions like the distribution of highway funds. We elected no one at the Department of Transportation where the decision is now made. The amendment that I am offering, however, does not override the experts at the Department. The amendment simply instructs the experts to use the data they have to set up an allocation based on objective, quantifiable measures that apply to all the territories. If it turns out that American Samoa gets less as a result of that, so be it.…”