- 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. 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 very well from her tour of duty in Saipan. We congratulate her on her new assignment and look forward to working with her. We will be pleased to answer any questions you and the other members of the Committee may have at this time. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Compact of Tree Association Chart Showing Rate of Depletion under Various Assumptions 5.00% 2 1 135,000, 000 119,581,861 121,600,641 123,645,382 127,455,350 121,618,290 126,087,565 113,096,312 110,858,238 119,550,656 124,686,167 117,441,669 111,860,709 115,290,502 109,318,271 106,731,341 123,250,329 121,779,206 120,271,930 118,727,613 104,099,139 108,575,403 117,145,344 101,420,874 106,246,911 115,524,191 6 1 85,524,852 90,617,385 95,922,915 101,449,287 112,161,386 2 82,093,912 110,417,752 |