Hirono, Colleagues Urge Senate Leadership to Move Compacts of Free Association Forward

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono, member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, joined 25 of her Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter urging Senate leadership to support legislation to renew the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. This legislation will protect U.S. interests in the Pacific for the next 20 years and help prevent China’s efforts to expand its influence in the region.

“Our COFA partnerships are critical to U.S. national security,” wrote the lawmakers. “Failure to pass the renegotiated Compacts as soon as possible imperils our relationships with the Freely Associated States and the entire Pacific Island region, who view the COFA as a barometer of the U.S. commitment to the region.”

The COFA legislation is the result of year-long bipartisan negotiations across eight primary committees of jurisdiction in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. The letter—addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME)—also highlighted the importance of the United States’ relationships with our partners in the Freely Associated States and emphasized that the U.S. must maintain strategic control of the Pacific Ocean.

Senator Hirono has been a leading champion for passage of the COFAs and the reinstatement of federal benefits for COFA citizens. Earlier this month, she delivered remarks on the Senate floor calling for the text of the COFA legislation to be added to the national security supplemental bill being considered by the U.S. Senate and introduced a bipartisan amendment to the bill that would have added the text of the COFA agreements. In August, she hosted a roundtable with COFA community leaders and advocates in Hawaii to discuss the challenges faced by COFA citizens and ways forward to ensure that the COFA community receives the support they need to thrive in the U.S. Last March, Senator Hirono also reintroduced the Compact Impact Fairness Act to restore access to a range of federal benefits for COFA citizens who reside in the U.S. The bill builds upon Senator Hirono’s legislation to restore Medicaid eligibility for COFA citizens, which was signed into law in 2020.

In addition to Senator Hirono, the letter is also signed by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), John Barrasso (R-WY), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jim Risch (R-ID), John Boozman (R-AR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Rick Scott (R-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The full text of the letter is available here and below.

Dear Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Chair Murray and Ranking Member Collins:

We write in support of legislation to renew the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, including in any legislative vehicle.

Our COFA partnerships are critical to U.S. national security. Failure to pass the renegotiated Compacts as soon as possible imperils our relationships with the Freely Associated States and the entire Pacific Island region, who view the COFA as a barometer of the U.S. commitment to the region. They ensure that we, rather than a nation hostile to U.S. interests, maintain strategic control of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is engaged in active efforts to undermine Pacific Island nations’ confidence in the United States. Failure to act on COFA opens the door to more corrupting influence and funding by the PRC in the region. The PRC is pursuing military basing and policing agreements in the region and working to undermine recognition of Taiwan, and exerting corrupting influence in several other countries. Without the COFA agreements, these trends would accelerate.

These unique bilateral agreements are the product of nearly four years of negotiations under two Presidential Administrations, and year-long negotiations across eight primary committees of jurisdiction in the House and Senate and multiple others. The resulting bicameral, bipartisan legislation will secure U.S. national security in the Indo-Pacific for the next two decades.

We ask for your support in moving the COFA package forward with the urgency it requires. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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