The American Samoa House of Representatives has approved a bill allocating two million US dollars to LBJ hospital to fund the off-island medical referral programme for fiscal years 2007, 2008 and the rest of 2009.
The original bill called for five million dollars, but the House Budget and Appropriations Committee reduced the amount to two million after it reviewed the funding source, the ASG Insurance Proceeds account held off island.
It found the account does not have enough cash available to fund the measure if enacted into law.
According to the committee, most of the 8 million dollars in the account is committed to long term investments and cannot be touched now.
There are, however, several investments that mature in 2009 which the committee believes is enough to fund 2 million dollars for the referral programme.
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.