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Governor requests that American Samoa be part of all
periodic federal surveys
To ensure that statistics are accurate and up-to-date in assisting the territory with its federal needs, Governor Togiola Tulafono has made known his wish that the territory be included in all federal periodic surveys.
This was outlined in a written testimony submitted a few weeks ago by the Governor to a joint hearing by the US House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Insular Affairs and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, which was held to review reasons why the US Census Bureau isn’t collecting data for American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands, and how the lack of such annual surveys presents obstacles for those making decisions concerning the economies and communities represented in these US territories.
The Governor said that American Samoa requires the same services that the US Census Bureau makes available to the 50 states and other territories, and that American Samoa is especially interested in annual economic and demographic information.
In his submission to the joint hearing, Togiola wrote, “As part of the United States, we ask that we be accorded at least the same benefits and programs, Current Employment Statistics, and the Current Population Survey (CPS) that the federal government has made available to the 50 states and the other US territories.”
He explained that the annual information is especially important to our government at this time to adequately quantify the needs of our people before the US Department of Interior and Congress, and added that the information would have been useful in attempts to gauge the impacts of the recent federal minimum wage increases in the territory.
According to the Governor, the lack of necessary data and information, as far as American Samoa is concerned, has been cited in many reports issued by federal agencies, with the most recent being the US Department of Labor’s report on the impact of the minimum wage. In its report, the USDOL explained that research was limited due to the short time frame and the lack of timely labor market data obtained for the territory.
(The second 50-cent minimum wage increase went into effect on May 25).
The second report referred to by Togiola is the “Economic Commission Report” of American Samoa, sanctioned by Congress, which noted that the territory lacks the necessary economical and statistical data necessary to measure economic activity or for comparative studies.
The Governor claims that the absence of such information has prevented American Samoa from creating an annual time series to track economic and population on an annual basis and consequently, where there is a need for information to track major economic conditions and trends, it must be done on an ad hoc basis by splicing together periodic benchmark information.
He recommends that American Samoa be included in all federal periodic surveys conducted by the US Census Bureau and the USDOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which includes monthly surveys of employers and households for economic information. In addition, the Governor believes that laws providing for these programs to the 50 states and other US territories should be amended to explicitly include American Samoa.
Togiola pointed out that “American Samoa remains patriotic to this great nation,” as “our sons and daughters have committed their lives to the protection of American values and a free world, and our local populace remain committed to unconditional support of US policies and troops deployed abroad.”
He concluded, “As loyal people, who have unselfishly served the United States well since 1900, we ask that we be treated just like any other state of the Union and accorded all the benefits and privileges every state so enjoys.”
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