Pacific isle states want
more U.S. assistanceMicronesia and the Marshall
Islands say American plans for
cuts will jeopardize growth
WASHINGTON >> Representatives from two tiny Pacific island states came to Capitol Hill yesterday with a list of complaints they want addressed in legislation that would significantly alter their 17-year-old partnership with the United States.
The compacts with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands -- exchanging U.S. financial support and lax immigration rules for land and waterway access for the U.S. military -- are about to undergo their first major makeover. The Bush administration is proposing a decrease in assistance.
Hawaii and other U.S. jurisdictions in the islands' vicinity also want more assistance in alleviating the financial burden posed by thousands of immigrants from the two island nations who seek better health care and education.
Under the Compacts of Free Association, signed in 1986, the United States provides financial assistance and allows citizens of the countries to freely migrate to U.S. soil in exchange for defense rights to their regions. The financial part of the agreements will expire Sept. 30.
The new agreements are aimed at making the nations more self-reliant, decreasing assistance over the next 20 years. The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated total assistance of $3.5 billion over that time. Inflation and population increases translate that figure into a significant per capita cut from the $2.1 billion delivered over the last 17 years.
Micronesia's chief negotiator, Peter Christian, said his nation's economic growth would be jeopardized by some of the suggested changes. He also said some changes were unilateral.
"When we finally had the opportunity to review the proposal ... we found that the changes went far beyond a simple 'updating,'" Christian testified at a House Resources Committee hearing. One new provision withholds aid until Micronesia develops an immigrant screening system.
Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs Minister Gerald Zackios wants funds fully adjusted for inflation and support for repaving an international airport. He also wants Congress to consider claims from people possibly affected by U.S. nuclear weapons testing decades ago.
Both delegates want the compacts to clarify whether their nations would remain eligible for federal education programs like Head Start and Pell Grants, upon which they heavily rely.
Hawaii's congressmen cited the burden posed by the needs of Micronesian and Marshallese immigrants. The administration has proposed appropriating $15 million annually in immigrant aid to be shared by Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.
That is "woefully inadequate," said Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii.
Case said Hawaii has spent more than $100 million since 1986 on state benefits to citizens of the compact nations but has received less than $10 million in federal aid.