There has been much speculation as to how much American Samoa will get from the ARRA, or the stimulus recovery package.
The newspaper “just announced that in the stimulus funds allocated to states and territories, American Samoa ranks the highest in the whole country with $759 per person, and the state with the highest is Alaska at $599 per person,” Faleomavaega told Samoa News via e-mail from Washington, D.C.
The Washington Times story headlined “States in Need, Not First in Line for Stimulus” reports that President Obama’s stimulus bill was supposed to spend money to create jobs, but four of the top 10 recipients per capita grant aid to date have the lowest unemployment rates in the country and nearly all are below the national average.
And some of the places receiving the most money, per capita, are U.S. territories whose residents don’t pay federal income taxes, the newspaper reports.
Washington Times said North Dakota, with the lowest unemployment rate in the county at 4.2 percent, compared with the nation’s 8.5 rate, and Wyoming, with the second-lowest unemployment, have each received $498 per resident in grant aid from the ARRA, according to the newspaper’s analysis.
The federal recovery stimulus Web site said American Samoa has so far been allocated $43.48 million; U.S. Virgin Islands with $65.36 million; Guam with $52.02 million; and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas with $32.47 million.
The three U.S. Pacific freely associates states of Palau, the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia have been allocated a total of $1.2 million.
The biggest amount of money the four U.S. territories —American Samoa, Guam, CNMI and Virgin Islands — are expected to receive is the $268 million from the U.S. Department of Education under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
Pat Galeai, who heads the American Samoa Economic Stimulus and Recovery Office, told House members last month the territories have requested USDOE split the grant evenly — meaning each territory would receive $67 million.
Governors of the four territories have also written to President Obama to waive provisions of the ARRA and have the secretary of the interior oversee the stabilization fund for the territories, instead of the secretary of education, because they believe the Department of the Interior is more aware of the special needs of each territory.
Responding to several Samoa News questions, Elaine Quesinberry, with the USDOE public affairs office in Washington, said “We have not notified the territories of a decision yet” on the stabilization grant.
Provisions of the ARRA state that USDOE is to distribute the money based on needs in each respective territory to be determined by the secretary of education in consultation with the secretary of the interior.
According to the federal recovery Web site, the highest funding award so far for American Samoa, is $18.5 million, under the state energy program from the U.S. Energy Department, followed by $7.02 million from USDOE for the Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies.
The recovery Web site said the dollar amounts are based on the reports received to date from each federal department/agency and will change as more of the funding announcements become available.
In the local stimulus office report, preliminary figures show American Samoa is projected to receive close to $140 million in stimulus money while the “initial release” is about $19.7 million.
