PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, Oct. 30) - The United States House of Representatives has approved renegotiated compacts with the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, agreements that would provide more than US$3.5 billion in funding over 20 years.

The measure, which must still be ratified by the U.S. Senate, would extend and amend the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and the two Pacific countries.

Part of the agreement spells out a series of new requirements designed to protect workers from the islands who are recruited to work at low paying jobs in the U.S.

The measure also provides for an extension until 2066 of a U.S. lease agreement for the use of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the site of the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Range.

Also included in the pact is US$30 million a year – double the current allocation - in "compact impact" funding earmarked for Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas, which have been burdened by costs associated with the migration of Pacific islanders.

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