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Compact of Free Association Host Communities Support Act
12/30/2022, 4:33 AM
Summary of Bill HR 6819
The Compact of Free Association is an agreement between the United States and these Pacific Island nations that allows their citizens to live and work in the US. However, the bill recognizes that these host communities may face challenges in providing services and support to these individuals.
The Compact of Free Association Host Communities Support Act seeks to address these challenges by providing funding to support education, healthcare, and other essential services for the citizens of these Pacific Island nations living in the US. The bill also aims to improve coordination between federal, state, and local governments to ensure that these communities receive the support they need. Overall, the Compact of Free Association Host Communities Support Act is designed to ensure that the host communities in the US are able to effectively support the citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau who are living and working in the country under the Compact of Free Association.
Congressional Summary of HR 6819
Compact of Free Association Host Communities Support Act
This bill authorizes various financial waivers for certain U.S. jurisdictions (i.e., states, territories, or possessions) that host citizens of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, or Palau as residents. (Under current law, citizens of these countries, known as the Freely Associated States, have the right to reside and work in the United States as nonimmigrants or habitual residents.)
Specifically, this bill authorizes a federal agency to, for the purposes of a federal grant, waive any matching funds requirements for a jurisdiction that hosts citizens of the Freely Associated States as residents.
Furthermore, the President may reduce, release, or waive amounts that such a hosting jurisdiction owes to a federal agency, at the request of the hosting jurisdiction. As a condition of receiving such a reduction, release, or waiver, a hosting jurisdiction must report to the Department of the Interior an accounting of the jurisdiction's unreimbursed economic impacts associated with receiving citizens of the Freely Associated States from 2004 through 2021.
