Congress quietly makes American Samoa tax break permanent, no strings attached.
H.R. 399 — To permanently extend the American Samoa economic development tax credit. · Filed by Aumua Amata Radewagen (R-AS) · Introduced Jan 14, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill makes permanent a temporary tax credit for businesses operating in American Samoa that was set to expire. Currently, the credit phases out after a certain number of years and ends before January 1, 2022; this bill removes those expiration dates, allowing eligible businesses to claim the credit indefinitely going forward.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to remove expiration dates from an existing business tax credit, converting it from temporary to permanent. This is a straightforward tax-policy amendment with no broader legislative purpose.
What the text implies
- Permanent extension locks in foregone federal revenue with no review mechanism or performance benchmarks; future Congresses cannot easily recalibrate without explicit repeal.
- The credit's economic impact on American Samoa employment, wages, or business formation is not specified in the bill; effectiveness is assumed rather than demonstrated.
- Effective date is retroactive to January 1, 2022, meaning the credit has been operating in a legal gray zone for ~3 years pending this clarification.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill provides ongoing tax relief to businesses operating in American Samoa, which may support local economic development and employment in a U.S. territory with limited economic opportunities. However, it represents a permanent revenue cost to the federal government with no sunset or performance requirement, and the benefit flows primarily to businesses rather than directly to individual citizens or public services.
Who stands to gain
- businesses operating in American Samoa
- employers in American Samoa
Named in the bill
American Samoa, Section 119(d) of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, House Committee on Ways and Means
Where it stands
- Jan 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (482 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress quietly makes American Samoa tax break permanent, no strings attached.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr399 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.