[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 36 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       TO EXTEND A NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM TO AMERICAN SAMOA

                                 ______


                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 27, 1995
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill to 
provide permanent funding for a nutrition program in American Samoa.
  The American Samoa Nutrition Assistance Program currently in 
existence is funded on an annual basis out of discretionary funds from 
the Department of Agriculture. The national Food Stamp Program is not 
available in American Samoa, and the program in Samoa serves as a 
modified Food Stamp Program in that only the blind, severely disabled, 
and poor elderly are eligible for benefits. Benefits are also limited 
in that they vary between $50 and $125 per month, depending on the 
income of and the assets owned by the recipient.
  Unfortunately, the method of annual appropriations used for American 
Samoa's Nutrition Assistance Program is unsatisfactory in that the 
level of funding, or perhaps more appropriately the existence of any 
funding, is subject to annual appropriations. I can see no reason why 
funding for the Food Stamp programs for the 50 States, the District of 
Columbia, and for all but one of the U.S. Territories should come from 
one source, and the funding for American Samoa's program should come 
from a different source.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe American Samoa's nutrition assistance program 
is a model to be followed by other U.S. jurisdictions in that no 
benefits are available for the able-bodied. As I stated earlier, the 
only recipients are the poor blind, severely disabled, and the elderly. 
The cost of the program for fiscal year 1995 is $5.5 million, a cost 
which could easily be absorbed within the multi-billion dollar 
contingency fund of the national program, and I urge my colleagues to 
join me in addressing this variance in national policy and support this 
bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the bill to be printed in the Record, as 
follows:
                                H.R. --

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM TO 
                   AMERICAN SAMOA.

       The first sentence of section 601(c) of Public Law 96-597 
     (48 U.S.C. 1469d(c)) is amended by inserting before the 
     period at the end the following: ``, and the Secretary of 
     Agriculture shall extend a nutrition assistance program 
     conducted under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et 
     seq.) to American Samoa''.
     

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