By Pacific Island Times News Staff
The U.S. Congress has provided $5 million in funding for the Marshall Islands as a step toward the fulfillment of the U.S. government's responsibility to the freely associated nation in fiscal 2022, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs announced today.
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The U.S. is providing economic compensation for adverse financial and economic impacts in the Marshall Islands after tax and trade provisions intended to benefit the Pacific nation were removed by Congress from the Compact of Free Association under Public Law 99-239 as amended to Public Law 108-188. Congress has designated that this funding be deposited to the Compact Trust Fund for the people of the Marshall Islands.
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“In taking this step and providing another payment of $5 million to the Compact Trust Fund for the Marshall Islands, we are keeping commitments made by our two nations under the Compact of Free Association,” said Keone Nakoa, DOI deputy assistant secretary for insular and international affairs.
“These funds bring us closer to fulfilling the Marshall Islands' petition to make them whole based on the requisite adverse-impact reports submitted before 2009," Nakoa said.
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The DOI official said with one final $5 million payment requested by the Biden administration in this year’s budget, the United States will soon "settle this matter, so we can both close the books on this mutually agreed solution intended to benefit the people of the Marshall Islands by bolstering the Trust Fund corpus.”
Made available through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, Public Law 117-103, the funds will be deposited to the Compact Trust Fund as required by law and supplement two previous payments of $5 million each authorized by Congress in January 2020 and in January 2021 for the same purpose, DOI said.
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