Panel approves $30M aid bill to cover migrants
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The House Resources Committee agreed yesterday to increase substantially the amount of money Hawai'i could receive to offset the costs of migration from the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
The committee voted to provide $30 million a year for 20 years to Hawai'i, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa to cover migration costs. The Bush administration had offered $15 million a year.
The United States has drafted a new compact with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands that would provide them with about $3.5 billion through 2023. The money, part of which would go into a trust fund to help the islands once the compact expires, would be directed at health, education, environmental and public infrastructure programs.
The United States also would continue to have military access to a missile range at Kwajalein Atoll through 2066, with an option for extension to 2086.
Residents of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands are free to travel to the United States under the compact, and thousands have moved to Hawa'i and Guam. The new compact is intended to improve living conditions in the islands, discouraging migration for health or economic reasons.
Congress has the authority to shape provisions of the compact. The House International Relations Committee has approved a version of the bill, but it does not include several changes approved yesterday by the Resources Committee.
The House Rules Committee will resolve differences between the bills before sending the legislation to the House floor. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to debate its bill in mid-September.
Economic aspects of an existing compact with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands expire at the end of the month. Congress likely would approve an extension if work on the legislation is not finished in time.
"Obviously, we have to convince people about changing amounts of money, but that's always an issue," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, who serves on the Resources Committee.
Abercrombie praised committee's chairman Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., for agreeing to amend the bill after consultations with lawmakers and the governors of Hawai'i and Guam. Hawai'i estimates that migrants cost the state $32 million last year and more than $140 million since 1997, amounts not offset by the federal government.
Al Short, a State Department negotiator on the compact, said the Office of Management and Budget would review the Resources Committee bill and assess the new spending proposals. He said the administration's recommended $15 million a year for compact aid is "pretty substantial."
Unlike the administration's request, the Resources Committee bill would extend Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster coverage for Micronesia and the Marshall Islands for 10 years, and continue to ensure that residents remain eligible for Pell grants for low-income students.
It also would reimburse past medical referrals of migrants to hospitals in Hawai'i and Guam, and require military hospitals to accept migrant medical referrals.
Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, said the bill is a "reasoned approach to U.S. foreign policy and the needs of the affected jurisdictions."
Case said even $30 million in compact aid, potentially split four ways, would not be enough to cover migrant costs in Hawai'i, but it is better than the administration's recommendation.
Case, who met with migrants in Hawai'i last week, said many need help making a transition, but he described the community as a "classic immigrant success story in the making."
Meanwhile, Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo, D-Guam, persuaded the Resources Committee to help Guam and the Northern Marianas offset migrant costs through debt relief. Under her proposal, the president would have the authority to forgive debt in Guam and the Northern Marianas as compensation for unpaid migrant costs since 1986.
