U.S. SENATE BILL WOULD BOOST MARSHALLS FUNDING

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

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

U.S. SENATE BILL WOULD BOOST MARSHALLS FUNDING
Annual health grant would jump from $1 million to $4 million

By Giff Johnson

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, April 25, 2008) – Although the political environment in Washington, D.C. is now less favorable for passage of a U.S. Senate bill that would quadruple funding for nuclear test-affected Marshall Islanders, a leading Senate professional staff member said Wednesday the bill "is not dead."

Allen Stayman, advisor to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who introduced the bill in 2007, said the bill could still get U.S. Congress approval despite a January request by the new Marshall Islands government to defer action on the bill.

Bill S. 1756 is not dead, Stayman said.

[PIR editor’s note: The Nuclear Compensation Act was revised in Nov. 2007. Bill S.1756 would provide for a "Supplemental Health Care Grant" in the annual amount of US$4.5 million, on a permanent appropriation basis and adjusted for inflation like other amounts available under the Compact through 2023. The original version of S. 1756 provided the sum of US$2 million annually for healthcare. ]

Bingaman introduced the legislation at the request of then-Marshall Islands President Kessai Note.

Shortly after taking office in January, President Litokwa Tomeing asked Bingaman to defer action on the legislation to give the new government time to review it.

A Foreign Ministry official in Majuro said Wednesday that the government is still reviewing the proposed law and has not changed its position, despite the strong support for the legislation from nuclear test affected islanders.

Stayman, who is regarded as one of the most influential congressional staffers because of his experience with the Micronesian region, said he’s spoken to representatives of the nuclear test affected islands — "who support the bill" — and to a Marshall Islands Embassy official in Washington — "who has said the committee should defer action until the national government develops a position."

The bill, now off the committee’s calendar, proposes to hike funding for a health care program to $4 million annually through 2023, a dramatic change from the current funding of less than $1 million, which is subject to year-to-year congressional approval. The health care program provides services to about 14,000 islanders from islands affected by the 67 U.S. nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak, but has been in jeopardy since late 2003, when guaranteed annual funding of $2 million expired.

It would also make Marshall Islanders who worked at the Bikini and Enewetak nuclear test sites eligible for a U.S. Department of Energy worker compensation program that currently provides compensation to Americans who suffer certain types of illnesses after working at nuclear sites, require regular reports to the U.S. Congress on the status of the nuclear waste dome at Runit Island in Enewetak, and call for additional radiation studies.

"There has been significant delay and the political situation here is less favorable," Stayman said. "But I think progress could be made this year with strong Marshall Islands government support."

Marianas Variety: www.mvariety.com

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