We are also looking into the possibility that the Council can stand in for DOE in the supervision and administration of the Support Program contractor. It is possible that we will be ready to assume that function by October 1, 1989, if not sooner. There are a number of issues to be raised and problems solved before the transition from U.S. to local administration can be completed. The Council seeks to take a leading role in the process. That means we will have to work out the necessary arrangements with DOE, the Department of Interior (DOI) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) offices involved. In the meantime, it is essential that the funds for the Enewetak Support Program be appropriated separately from the funds for other Marshalls Atolls entitled to support under the Compact Act. Keeping the funds separate will enable us to take over the administration of the program without having to disentangle it from the administration of similar programs at the other Atolls. Enjebi Resettlement Trust Fund This year we ask that you appropriate the final $2.5 million installment needed to complete the funding of the $10 million Enjebi Community Resettlement Fund. Last year, as you recall, Congress appropriated $2.5 million to bring the amount currently in the Fund to $7.5 million. The monies have been invested in the manner provided in the Compact Act. We are informed, moreover, that the portion of the trust fund invested before Black Monday has substantially recovered from that cata clysm. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently published the results of its radiation dose assessment study of Enjebi. LLNL and DOE officals explained the report to the Council at a recent meeting in Honolulu. In response to my request, DOE has agreed to provide a Marshallese translation of the report which will be available when the study is explained to the people at a meeting to be held at Enewetak this summer. RUNIT The U.S. cleanup of Enewetak Atoll made use of the nuclear bomb crater on Runit Island, the major island midway up the chain of islands on the eastern side of the atoll, as the site to store the radioactive debris collected in the cleanup. This site, known around the world for its immense concrete dome, contains plutonium and other highly radioactive elements. It is off limits for the next 250,000 years. As you can imagine, there is no enthusiasm on Enewetak for this radioactive reminder of the testing program. Indeed, we would like the U.S. to complete the cleanup of Enewetak by removing the radioactive waste from Runit. Whether or not that is possible, we want to be sure that the DOE continues its Runit monitoring program. The question arises because of the letter DOE recently sent to RMI regarding its - 6 · intention to scale back its Enewetak field program "for the next few years at least." While the letter does not address DOE's plans with respect to monitoring Runit, the letter seems to be subject to the construction that DOE will discontinue those aspects of its present field program which are not funded by RMI or through "an interagency request." My point in raising the issue is to make sure that some one is in charge of keeping watch at Runit. Compact Implementation and Other Matters This is the good news/bad news part of my presentation. The good news is that the RMI officials in charge of Compact Implementation, Chief Secretary Oscar DeBrum, Carl Ingram and Peter Oliver are working hard to see to it that the programs they administer work well and provide the services we expect from them. We appreciate their good work and wish to recognize it here. As you might expect, however, there have been some rough spots. For example, Four Atoll Health Care program patients and patients insured under other programs are required to pay substantially more for health care at the hospital in Majuro than patients who are not enrolled in the Four Atoll Health Care program or otherwise insured. The Claims Tribunal contemplated by the Section 177 Agreement is not yet in operation, and the Act establishing the Tribunal appears to us to be at odds with the Section 177 Agreement in some important respects. 7 Mr. Chairman, I want to alert the Committee to a potential shortfall in the fund established by Congress for the payment of claims to Enwetak, Bikini and the other Atolls affected by the nuclear testing program, and to fund the Claims Tribunal. As you know, the Section 177 Master Trust was originally funded with an appropriation of $150 million. The plan was that the income would be used to make the 15 annual payments of $18 million called for by the Section 177 agreement. To meet that obligation, the Trust, when fully funded, must earn 12 percent per year. In order to make sure that the four Atoll claimants are paid in years when the fund does not earn the 12 percent, the agreement provides that principal may be used to make the required payments. To complicate matters, the first year's payments were made, of necessity, primarily from principal, leaving a fund of only $132 million to cover the remaining 14-year obligation. Black Monday reduced the Fund still further, virtually wiping out all its first year earnings. This exposes the Fund to further reduction of principal to make this year's payments. As matters now stand, no one can be sure that the Fund will be able to meet its obligations or that my people will ever receive in full the payment they were promised. One final note, Mr. Chairman. We have just been informed that Janet McCoy, the former High Commissioner of the Trust Territory, has been selected Assistant Secretary of Interior for Territorial and Insular Affairs. We all know Mrs. McCoy |