Because he is the senior member of the House Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Fish, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs as well as
the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the
Pacific, both panels which have jurisdiction over legislation involving the
Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, one
would think a congressional hearing on those two countries would be a top
priority for Congressional Delegate Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS).
Indeed, Delegates Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU) and Gregorio
Sablan (I-MP) as well as Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), were at the two-hour
hearing on federal compact impact assistance today, but Faleomavaega was
nowhere to be seen. We monitored the
hearing over the Internet and from what we could see Chairman John Fleming
(R-LA) made no note of his absence but at least no one tried to perpetuate the
fiction that all is well with Faleomavaega by submitting “his” statement for
the record.
However, at last local radio station 93KHJ-FM has published
a breakthrough article today on its talanei.com website asking about the
delegate’s health—while inexplicably running a photo of him at the pique of
health (obviously a file photo--although not labeled as such). The only formally new information in it is
that he is confirmed to be in Utah,
which has been unofficially known for several weeks. Whether talanei.com will go further tomorrow
by noting his absence at today’s hearing remains to be seen. There still has been nothing but silence from
the delegate’s office since mid-November.
Meanwhile, it appears that it is business as usual for Samoa
News, which apparently still stands by waiting to be told what to say by the
Delegate’s office. The paper as recently
as New Year’s Day published a story about a National Guard feasibility study,
which said “Provisions for the feasibility study were submitted by Congressman
Faleomavaega Eni, who said earlier this month — in a statement — that the
‘presence of a National Guard unit in American Samoa will be a first responder
to the Governor of American Samoa for disasters and local emergencies.’”
Produced by staff writer Fili Sagapolutele, who is also the
on-island AP correspondent, perhaps he believed he was covering himself by
using the phrase “—in a statement—“ to suggest that he did not personally hear the
delegate say those words, but it is a subtlety that will escape most readers
and flies in the face of the Samoa News webmaster’s comment after a letter to
the editor that the whenever they run a story quoting Faleomavaega, they always
make readers aware they cannot verify the veracity of the quotes.
Last year we speculated that Faleomavaega suffered a major stroke,
which was reported in Samoa News, and to date his office has not refuted our
assertion. We now have heard
from a number of sources--including some people who have talked to individuals
close to the situation--that Faleomavaega indeed has suffered a stroke so
debilitating that he may never be able to return to office. Is his condition so dire that he is
unable to give direction to his staff or are they freelancing under the
direction of Lisa Williams, his chief of staff, who is said to be feared by the
rest of the staff and widely disliked by staff on both sides of the aisle and
in both Houses in the Capitol?
Congressional rules give individual Members wide latitude on
how they conduct their official duties and, if they can get away with it, they
could maintain the fiction all through this next year that Faleomavaega is
still conducting regular business. It is
possible he could even win re-election without showing up to campaign, as
then-Congresswoman Gladys Spellman (D-MD) once did after suffering a massive
heart attack that produced a coma. She
even won re-election but it all came to an end the following January when she
was unable to take the oath to be sworn into another term, forcing the House several months
later to declare her seat vacant and so advise the Maryland governor, who called a special election even while Spellman remained in a coma.
Signs are that his staff intends to keep up the charade as
best they can and there are no signs Samoa News intends to inform the public of
what is going on. There was not a peep
out of the media--not a single word--about Faleomavaega’s December 19 filing
with the Federal Maritime Commission objecting to a shipping alliance proposed
by three major freight lines. His
intervention in the case is most curious because neither any of these lines nor
the proposed alliance operates or plans to operate anywhere near American Samoa. At worst, his intervention may be fraudulent
if not submitted under his direction if not actually signed by him.
The local media have no excuse for ignoring these signs
of Faleomavaega “surfacing.” All they
need to do is set up a “Faleomavaega” Google media alert and the material just
drops into their laps. Again, we beseech
Samoa News to follow Monica Miller’s example and start putting pressure on
Faleomavaega’s office to answer the public.
Congressional Democrats have said they are making a minimum wage raise
their top priority this year. We already
have had our food stamp allocations reduced.
There is an Omnibus Territories bill with provisions for American Samoa
going over to the House from the Senate, there are problems with Obamacare
provisions for the territories that need to be fixed and there are major
decisions on the federal budget that will be negotiated over the next
month. All of these issues require that
we have representation in Congress.
The media has a responsibility to the public in seeing that
we do. Start by asking the Fono
leadership if Eni has been invited to address the opening of this regular session. Tell us what they say whether he has not
answered or declined. Then lay out all
the problems his lengthy absence is causing.
You owe us that.
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