Claim: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is linked to the provision of wage and tax breaks for companies in American Samoa.
MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION
Example: [Collected via e-mail, October 2008]
Facts:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s home district includes San Francisco.
Star-Kist Tuna’s headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi’s home district.
Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi.
Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan workforce.
Paul Pelosi, Nancy’s husband, owns
In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so
Last week when the huge bailout bill was passed, Pelosi added an earmark to the final bill adding
Pelosi has called the Bush Administration ‘corrupt’.
She should know.
Variations: A version which began circulating in
Origins: Prior to 2007, the U.S. territories of Northern Marianas and American Samoa were exempt from federal minimum wage standards; instead, the minimum wage standards in those territories were established by a committee appointed by the
The bill would leave American Samoa as the only territory not covered by the $7.25 rate, and because Samoa is represented by a Democrat, Faleomavaega’s campaign coffers have been well stocked by the tuna industry that dominates his island economy, but Republicans picked up on another issue: StarKist owns one of the largest canneries on the island, and
Under the minimum-wage increase approved by the House this week, employers on the Northern Marianas would for the first time have to pay their workers the minimum wage, which would rise from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. For years, Republicans — with the help of convicted lobbyist
Speaker Pelosi was the Congressional leader of the party that sponsored
The minimum-wage bill was drafted by [House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George] Miller’s committee, and Pelosi had little input on the nitty-gritty details of the legislation, House sources said.
A spokesman for Pelosi said the bill excluded American Samoa at the request of nonvoting Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat who represents the Pacific island territories in the House.
Faleomavaega did indeed strongly advocate that American Samoa be allowed to retain its exemption from federal minimum wage standards:
A “decrease in production or departure of one or both of the two canneries in American Samoa could devastate the local economy, resulting in massive layoffs and insurmountable financial difficulties,” he said in a statement provided to The [Washington] Times. “The truth is the global tuna industry is so competitive that it is no longer possible for the federal government to demand mainland minimum wage rates for American Samoa without causing the collapse of our economy and making us welfare wards of the federal government.”
One person who is concerned about enforcing the federal minimum wage in American Samoa is non-voting
As a result of the controversy, Democrats asserted that American Samoa would indeed be covered in the final version of the bill:
The House of Representatives’ leader, Nancy Pelosi, told reporters she has instructed the House Education and Labor Committee to help get the bill changed to “make sure that all of the territories have to comply with the
Fending off charges of favoritism, congressional Democrats say a just-passed minimum wage bill will be changed to cover all U.S.
(The revised minimum wage regulations for American Samoa are detailed here.)
Whatever the motivation might have been for the initial exclusion of American Samoa from the minimum wage bill, news accounts do not support the claim that the exemption came about because
Democrats involved in the legislation say that neither
We also could find no confirmation for the claim that Speaker Pelosi’s husband owns
The $700 billion “bailout bill” (H.R. 1424) that Congress began working on in September 2008 in response to an economic crisis in the U.S. contained hundreds of various tax provisions typically (but not necessarily accurately) described as “earmarks,” most famously an “exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.” One of those provisions modified the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, which had created an economic development credit for American Samoa, to extend that development credit from applying to the “to the first two taxable years of a corporation” to applying to “the first
(* In late 2008 the Korea-based Dongwon Group acquired the StarKist seafood division of Del Monte Foods.)
Last updated: 5 April 2010
![]() | Sources: |
Lathem, Niles. “Pelosi Bill Blasted As Pork for Tuna.” New York Post. 13 January 2007. Weisman, Jonathan. “Minimum-Wage Hike May Reach to Samoa.” The Washington Post. 13 January 2007 (p. A2). Wildermuth, John. “Pelosi’s Husband Prefers a Low Profile.” San Francisco Chronicle. 1 January 2007. Associated Press. “Democrats Pledge to Extend Federal Minimum Wage to All U.S. Territories.” International Herald Tribune. 13 January 2007. The Washington Times. “Pelosi Moves to Close Samoa Wage Loophole.” 13 January 2007.