American Samoa's Congresswoman has charged the Obama administration with environmental colonialism.
Aumua Amata Radewagen opposes US fishing policy Photo: RNZI correspondent
Aumua Amata Radewagen told the Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, Esther Kiaaina, the Federal Government's decision to wall off a huge part of the ocean that provides the livelihood for American Samoans has been controversial.
She says Mr Obama still ordered a six-fold increase in the size of the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, creating the largest such marine preserve in the world and impacting tuna fisheries formerly open to purse-seine vessels.
"For my part I expect to be supporting legislative proposals that would curtail the Federal Government's authority to take such actions in the future, to take such action with the people most affected - the people of the islands."