September 21, 2023 — Uifa’atali Amata took part in a hearing Tuesday in the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that examined U.S. waters and the marine sanctuary and monument. The hearing was titled, “Examining Barriers to Access in Federal Waters: A Closer Look at the Marine Sanctuary and Monument System.”

Congresswoman Amata gave remarks and used a visual display of the Pacific waters to defend the need for fishing rights, before asking key questions of the expert witnesses, emphasizing the fact that 51 percent of the two million square mile U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has been designated via presidential proclamation.

“I want to show just how much the Biden Administration is taking from Samoans and other indigenous peoples in the Pacific. By expanding the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument, we will lose nearly all U.S. EEZ’s in the Pacific,” Congresswoman Amata warned. “At this critical time, with China increasingly gaining a foothold in the region, the United States will quickly become nothing more than a passive bystander in the world’s largest fishery.”

Read the full article at Samoa News