[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 93 (Thursday, June 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO INCLUDE AMERICAN SAMOA AND GUAM INTO THE 
                    EXPEDITED FUNDS AVAILABILITY ACT

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleague the 
gentleman from Guam [Mr. Underwood], to introduce a bill to include the 
U.S. territories of American Samoa and Guam into the Expedited Funds 
Availability Act.
  Mr. Speaker, for as long as I have been doing my banking in American 
Samoa, getting access to funds represented by checks drawn on banks 
outside of American Samoa has taken literally weeks. Banking customers 
throughout the United States had similar problems, and in response 
Congress passed the Expedited Funds Availability Act in 1987. The 50 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and 
the U.S. Virgin Islands were included in the act, but the territories 
of Guam and American Samoa were not.
  While Guam and American Samoa are still the most distant territories, 
billions of dollars now move daily around the world at close to the 
speed of light.
  Mr. Speaker, thousands of years ago the Samoans and the Micronesians 
carried their currency across vast expanses of open ocean in heroic 
voyages in wind-driven canoes made of hollowed logs. I have sailed part 
of the Pacific Ocean in a double-hull Polynesian voyaging canoe called 
the Hokuleian from Tahiti to Hawaii for 28 days, and I think I could 
have carried my currency in stones from one port to another faster than 
funds are now being made available by the Banks in American Samoa and 
Guam. This is the 95th year of this country, and I hope the banks in 
the Pacific will enter this century before the rest of us move on to 
the next one.
  I ask that a copy of the bill be printed in today's Congressional 
Record, and, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation.
                                 H.R.--

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
     Expedited Funds Availability Act (12 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.) is 
     amended--
       (1) in section 602(20) (12 U.S.C. 4001(20)) by inserting 
     ``, located in the United States,'' after ``ATM'';
       (2) in section 602(21) (12 U.S.C. 4001(21)) by inserting 
     ``Guam, American Samoa,'' after ``Puerto Rico,'';
       (3) in section 602(23) (12 U.S.C. 4001(23)) by inserting 
     ``Guam, American Samoa,'' after ``Puerto Rico,''; and
       (4) by adding at the end of section 603(d) (12 U.S.C. 
     4002(d)) the following new paragraph:
       ``(3) Extension for certain deposits in guam and american 
     samoa.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any time 
     period established under subsection (b), (c), or (e) shall be 
     extended by 2 business days in the case of any deposit which 
     is both--
       ``(A) deposited in an account at a depository institution 
     which is located in Guam or American Samoa; and
       ``(B) deposited by a check drawn on an originating 
     depository institution which is not located in the same State 
     as the receiving depository institution.''.
     

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