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Micronesians MORE than 50 Micronesians of all ages gathered peacefully outside a state office building in Kakaako yesterday to challenge unexplained delays in restoring their eligibility for food stamps, housing subsidies and other federal benefits.
demand benefits,
claim state ignoring
federal law
Protest leaders say they lost
the aid last year, although a law
signed in November restored itStroke victim between rock, hard place
By Ian Lind
Star-BulletinCarrying signs urging justice for Micronesians and singing an anthem from their Pacific island homeland, the group later took its protest upstairs. There, it crowded into a fourth-floor office of the Department of Human Services, which handles food stamps and other benefit programs.
Leaders of the group, representing hundreds of low-income Micronesians living in Hawaii who had their benefits cut off last year, say the Human Services Department and other state agencies continue to deny federally funded benefits months after passage of a measure specifically restoring their eligibility.
A food stamp administrator told the group by phone that she had received no information about any new law, said Julia Estrella, an organizer for Island Tenants on the Rise, a tenants' rights organization that supported yesterday's protest.
But many in the group carried their own copies of Public Law 106-504, which states that citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau "remain eligible for all Federal programs, grant assistance, and services" they qualified for previously.
Micronesians qualified for federal aid while the former trust territory was under direct U.S. control, and their eligibility has extended throughout the drawn-out negotiations over the future of the compacts of free association between the United States and the island nations.
Congressional records show the benefits provision was added to a Guam-related bill by an amendment co-sponsored by Hawaii Sen. Daniel K. Akaka.
The measure was passed by Congress at the end of October and signed into law by President Clinton on Nov. 13, 2000, federal records show.
Harry Akamine, head of the food stamp program, told the Star-Bulletin on Monday that he had heard "rumors" about a new law, "but we haven't been able to find it."
Akamine said he did not know how many Micronesians had been cut from the food stamp program. "But we don't think there are are many Micronesians who remain eligible."
The state relies on guidelines provided by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Akamine said, and no updates have been received.
Robert Hall, acting executive assistant to the director of the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, which administers all state public housing programs, said state agencies are waiting for instructions on how to implement the new law.
"Until we get clarification on how to implement it, we are still obliged to follow the current law," Hall said. "That's been a dilemma for Micronesians living in public housing."
After Benito Muritok and his two grandchildren were dropped from the food stamp program last year, he became the first Micronesian to formally appeal the state's denial of benefits. Stroke victim
between a rock and
a hard placeBy Ian Lind
Star-BulletinIt hasn't gone well.
The state cut off his food stamps in October, and a Department of Human Services hearing officer rejected his appeal following an administrative hearing in December.
Muritok has now been hit with a demand to pay back $1,300 in benefits received while his appeal was pending.
In addition, his rent for a unit in Palolo's public housing climbed from under $200 to a "market rate" of $585 after the state ruled he is ineligible for housing benefits.
Muritok moved to Hawaii for medical treatments in 1996 from Chuuk, formerly known as the Truk Islands, after suffering a stroke.
Despite his recent troubles, and the lingering effects of the stroke, Muritok smiles as he holds up a copy of Public Law 106-504 in his good hand. One brief provision in the law appears to restore Micronesian citizens' eligibility for all federal aid programs.
"I know this is very powerful," Muritok said. "It is the law."
The problem, according to Muritok and other Micronesians, is that state administrators have been ignoring the law for months.
He said he submitted a copy of the new law during his appeal hearing Dec. 18, but it was ignored by the hearing officer. "I gave them a copy, and the public law number, but the hearing officer asked for one signed by (President) Clinton." He said he contacted Rep. Patsy Mink's Washington office and was told a signed and certified copy would cost $40 a page for the 13-page document. By the time he had obtained and submitted a signed copy of the bill, he was told a ruling had already been made and it was "too late".
The hearing officer's written ruling noted that the amendment, if signed into law, would mean Micronesian citizens would again be eligible for federal benefits. But the ruling issued Jan. 10 failed to acknowledge the measure became law nearly two months before.
In a letter to Department of Human Services appeals administrator Susan Wong, Muritok said the ruling ignored evidence of the law's passage.
But the state says Muritok's case is now closed, and his only means to appeal further is to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit.