I am going to lean very heavily on Secretary Babauta and the Secretary of the Interior for assistance.

Raising the minimum wage is one way to accomplish that goal.

After three increments of 50-cent increases to minimum wages in American Samoa, a cannery that once employed over 2,000 people closed.

Our Territory of the United States, American Samoa, needs some advice from this Subcommittee and from this Congress.

Forgive me for pausing here, Mr. Chairman, but what company in good conscience in my opinion would suppress wages in a U.S. Territory on the finding that more than 300 Samoan women cleaning fish in the Territory for 27 cents an hour…

We are going to keep listening and watching, as time goes by, so we achieve our goal of keeping people working--while making sure they earn a decent, fair, and dignified wage to support themselves and their families.

Reports are proved to be false.

How much does our government expect us to suffer until we have to stand up for our survival?

It is also my recommendation that we establish one minimum wage rate for American Samoa, rather than the 18 different industry rates to which we are needlessly subjected.

I couldn't agree with the Governor more and I appreciate his comments on this issue.

I support whatever they agree to. But, of course, there are other things I am thinking of, maybe a 25-cent increase.

American Samoa's private sector economy had been nearly 80% dependent... on two of the three major brands.

I am very sorry and I apologize that our officials in the Northern Mariana Islands who went to bed with people like Jack Abramoff...

I have a love-hate relationship with our canneries. I love them because they provide jobs for our people, but I have very serious problems with the way they went about making business.

Why should you be exempted from the national requirements that the minimum wage should be the same throughout America?

I continue to be supportive of our tuna cannery workers being re-trained to become nurses, teachers, or whatever else they might want to be because I believe in their future and the future of American Samoa.

It is still not enough. It is not what I call a dignified wage.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Certainly it is always a welcome sight to see Secretary Babauta and also Dr. Gootnick here from GAO.

Our job market is being torched. Our businesses are being depressed.

I am appreciative of what the U.S. Congress has done, and continues to do, for us and, once more, I ask for your support to halt further increases for 2012.

I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for allowing me to speak on this important resolution. On behalf of our chairwoman, Judy Chu, and our Asian Pacific Caucus, I rise today in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 28, a…

Just last week, the U.S. military carried out a covert operation that ended in the killing of the most wanted terrorist on the planet, Osama bin Laden. The news of Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of our heroic Navy SEALs sent forth a…

While I appreciate the goal to cut spending and reduce the deficit, which is projected to hit $1.6 trillion this year, getting there appears to me the real issue for debate.

I am pleased with the overall approach taken by President Obama. In his budget proposal for FY 2012 and beyond the President makes the case for selectively cutting spending while increasing resources in areas like education and…

We have been talking about nuclear proliferation, we talk about regulatory aspects and the importance of the strategic and military interests that we have.