Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this legislation is of critical importance to the people of American Samoa. How ironic, Mr. Speaker, that last year, on this very day, September 29, American Samoa was hit by the most powerful earthquake, which struck below the ocean at about 140 miles south of the Samoa Islands. The earthquake, which registered 8.3 on the Richter scale, set off a massive tsunami that ended up with 20-foot waves and causing a lot of villages to be severely damaged. People died, sweeping cars out in the ocean. It was a terrible experience for the people. Mr. Speaker, one day after this, one of our two major tuna processing companies closed its operations in American Samoa, displacing well over 2,000 workers whose jobs were outsourced basically to Thailand, where workers are paid seventy-five cents per hour or even less at that time. Mr. Speaker, today I am asking my colleagues in the House to support this legislation.”