Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata on Monday served as Floor Manager during consideration of a slate of bipartisan legislation, including bills she sponsored and cosponsored. The U.S. House of Representatives passed her bill, H.R. 6606, to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 relating to the statement of policy, and a bill on which she was the lead original cosponsor, H.R. 7159, the Pacific Partnership Act, which was sponsored by Rep. Ed Case (D-HI).

PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP ACT

Speaking in the House in support of the Pacific Partnership Act, Congresswoman Amata said, “I was proud to be the lead Republican on this bipartisan bill introduced by the gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case. As a grateful and proud Pacific Islander, I want to remind my colleagues that the United States is a Pacific Nation: From the West Coast of the continental U.S., to Hawaii, to American Samoa, to the Northern Mariana Islands, to Guam. The Pacific is critically important to American interests, American values, and to the Americans I have the privilege to represent.”

“However, in recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has mounted an aggressive campaign to increase its influence among Pacific Island countries. The 2022 security pact between Beijing and the Solomon Islands was seen by many as an alarming wake-up call,” she continued.

“The CCP is pressuring island nations to overturn their recognition of Taiwan, illegally fishing in their exclusive economic zones, and bribing local law enforcement to influence local elections. While Congress has done its job to extend the Compacts of Free Association for another 20 years, those only focus on three Pacific Island countries. There are 11 others who need our attention.”

“The United States has enduring cultural, historic, economic, and people-to-people connections with the Pacific Islands. We just opened up an embassy in Vanuatu, but we must do more,” Amata stated.

“The Pacific Islands are strategically crucial to the United States. For that reason, the Pacific Partnership Act requires the State Department to submit to Congress a ‘Strategy for Pacific Partnership’ that describes our goals for engaging with the Pacific Islands in the diplomatic, defense and economic domains.

She concluded, “It gives Congress the oversight visibility to ensure that the executive branch formulates and implements a strategy that addresses the many shared threats facing Pacific Island Countries. It also requires that we coordinate and collaborate with our allies and partners like Australia, Taiwan, Japan, and New Zealand to ensure that our programs directed toward the Pacific Islands are non-duplicative and complementary. The Pacific Partnership Act will help to better focus U.S. engagement with Pacific Island nations.”

THE HOUSE PASSED AMATA’S H.R. 6606

Congresswoman Amata also gave floor remarks in support of her bill, H.R. 6606.

“My bill was approved by a unanimous bipartisan vote of 43 to zero during markup by the Foreign Affairs Committee. Export controls are an important tool to ensure that American technology and items which are normally sold for commercial purposes cannot be used for nefarious purposes by our adversaries,” she said. “Currently, those adversaries are using technological and economic espionage to steal everything they can from the American people, to undermine our security and our industrial base.”

“H.R. 6606 clarifies U.S. policy to ensure that export controls can be used against those who want to steal America’s trade secrets. It ensures that the most powerful tools we have in our policy toolbox can be used against economic espionage, as well,” she concluded.

“This bill is a clear and important message to our adversaries: We will not allow the stealing of American trade secrets. H.R. 6606 deserves our unanimous support.”