Marshall Islands Correspondent
MAJURO, Marshall Islands — After a month of funding uncertainty following the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, the U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands assured island leaders that Washington has confirmed the Compact of Free Association funding will continue uninterrupted.
The Marshall Islands had prepared contingency plans to cover gaps in funding if there were extended delays in receiving treaty-required funding from the U.S.
But on Feb. 21, U.S. Ambassador Laura Stone told leaders there would be no hold up and that both Compact funding and federal programs and services agreed to under the Compact of Free Association would not be affected by the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid funding, Finance Minister David Paul said this week.
“We had contingency plans in place,” he said. This was necessary due to initial holdups in the release of some funding. In one instance, a drawdown on Congressionally approved funding took two weeks to happen when prior to Trump assuming office it rarely took longer than 48 hours, Paul said.
The finance minister praised the government of Taiwan for offering to assist the Marshall Islands with any temporary shortfalls in U.S. funding.
While Compact and Compact-authorized federal programs are safe from Trump administration cuts, the same does not apply to discretionary grants for U.S.-affiliated islands, including Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Fallout from Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. government is beginning to impact the Marshall Islands more directly as the new U.S. administration rolls into its second month.
The week of Feb. 17 it was learned that a major education grant assisting the Marshall Islands and U.S.-affiliated islands in the Pacific was terminated. It shows that the staunchest American allies are not immune from the massive cutbacks being implemented in Washington, D.C.
This former federal education funding was a regional grant that supported work in the Marshall Islands, Guam, the NMI, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and Hawaii, but is now no longer.
The Marshall Islands Chamber Commerce is another victim of grant cutbacks reverberating from Washington.
The chamber was just launching two recently approved U.S. federal grants that are now terminated. The action is jeopardizing a number of chamber staff who have been instrumental in expanding the business footprint of the organization the past several years.
“Chamber has two new grants which we were just hiring for when we got the stop-work order,” said Randel Sylvester, owner of Majuro Computer Services and president of the chamber; in an email update to local businesspeople. “One grant is for human trafficking prevention (through USAID) and the other was for women's entrepreneurship training (through the State Department),” he said. “Total amount of funds on hold is about $380,000.”
Sylvester expressed his worry about the Marshalls economy as a result of the situation in Washington where long-term programs and funding are now on the chopping block.
“The chamber spends almost 100% of this money on island,” he said.
The chamber president acknowledged there is probably waste for the U.S. to cut. “But wouldn't it be more fair to the parents providing for their families working on these types of projects for no new grants to be authorized, rather than cut everyone off who already got an award and began work?” he asked. mbj