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Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that although the Senate did not get the 60 votes it needs to overcome a Republican filibuster of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, or H.R. 4213, which includes an $18 million request for American Samoa in lieu of 30A tax benefits, he is still hopeful that an agreement will be reached.
“The $18 million request for American Samoa is only a small provision in a $112 billion bill. Democrats have found ways to cover the entire cost of this bill with the exception of the $35.5 billion it needs to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans without jobs,” Faleomavaega said.
“Regrettably, on June 24, 2010, all Republicans in the Senate and one Democrat voted against moving the bill to the floor for consideration citing that they would not support any increase in the deficit, not even for the sake of the unemployed,” Faleomavaega said. “But Republicans had no problem increasing the deficit for unfunded Bush tax cuts aimed at helping the wealthy.”
“When one considers that President Obama inherited about a $1.4 trillion deficit from the Bush Administration, we can clearly see that the Republican filibuster of H.R. 4213 is not about the deficit. It’s about politics, as usual. As has been reported, unless the Republicans change their course of action, a million people every five weeks will lose unemployment benefits, and this is not right.”
“Eventually, I believe our country will pull together and get a tax extenders bill done and extend unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who need help and need help now. This may mean that Congress will re-bundle tax extenders or unemployment benefits in different packages but, whatever the case, I will continue to do everything I can to make sure American Samoa’s $18 million request for economic development moves forward since it is necessary for our recovery efforts in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami and the closure of one our main employers that has outsourced some 2,000 of our jobs to low-wage countries like Thailand,” Faleomavaega concluded.
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![[United States Congress]](congress.gif)
