15 Sep 2011

American Samoa House votes against funding Games team

6:35 am on 15 September 2011

The American Samoa House of Representatives has rejected a Senate bill allocating 100,000 US dollars to Team American Samoa for the Pacific Games which ended in New Caledonia last weekend.

When the bill came up for a vote, Representative Tautolo Charlie Agaoleatu said there was no clear indication that the government had money to fund this measure.

He also argued that the Pacific Games was over and the team returned to Pago Pago early this week.

He said he has a serious concern over reports that some team members were unable to participate in sporting events that they were supposed to complete in due to the problem that they were not U.S. National or didn't hold U.S. passports.

Another member Puletu D. Koko argued that the government didn't spent any money to help the team while other countries spend millions of dollars on their teams, and that is probably why those teams are successful.