MAJURO — Marshall Islands negotiators are worried that a new United States proposal to eliminate disaster assistance through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency could literally be a disaster for this central Pacific nation.
This past week’s tropical storm that devastated Chuuk in the neighboring Federated States of Micronesia — leaving an estimated 40 dead, many more missing and 1,500 homes damaged — is only heightening concerns of Marshall Islands officials who are negotiating continue economic assistance with the State Department.
Guaranteed American funding and services under a Compact of Free Association end in Sept. 2003, and negotiators are discussing a new funding package for an additional 20 years. The Marshall Islands has been eligible for numerous U.S. federal programs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which on several occasions since the late 1970s, has swooped into the Marshall Islands to provide millions of dollars in disaster relief and hazard mitigation funding in the wake of typhoons, high waves and, most recently, the 1998 El Niño-caused drought.
But a new disaster assistance subsidiary agreement proposed by the U.S. late last month would involve FEMA in hazard mitigation only and eliminate the federal agency from other disaster responses. Instead, the U.S. proposal calls for the Marshall Islands to be eligible for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, a U.S. AID program that is available to all foreign nations.
“We’re extremely concerned about it,” said Marshall Islands Compact negotiator Robert Muller said Friday. “We’ve made our concerns known to the U.S.”
