Amata cosponsors House resolution to apologize for US nuclear legacy in RMI

Radewagen

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Delegate Uifa’atali Amata Radewagen (R-A. Samoa) is an original cosponsor of legislation to formally apologize for the U.S. nuclear legacy in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The resolution was introduced on March 1, a key anniversary of the Cold War-era nuclear testing program with the most powerful detonation at Bikini Atoll on that date in 1954.

“The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a close friend to the United States, and dear to my heart,” said Radewagen. “Former [Marshall Islands] president Amata Kabua was close to my father and was like an uncle to me. His mother, Dorothy, named my sister. I know that the U.S. can point to the settlement of known legal claims in 1986, but we have continued to learn and understand more of the human needs and harm to the Marshallese and their island homeland.”

The bill was sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations. Original cosponsors are Radewagen, who is a member of the House Natural Resources Committee and the most senior Republican elected federal office holder of Asian Pacific heritage; Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; and Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation.

A companion bill in the Senate is sponsored by Sems. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

The resolution affirms the relationships between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, described collectively as the freely associated states. The United States is currently negotiating the extension of the international agreements with these allies that strengthen U.S. strategic options in the Pacific region.

The United States conducted 67 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, while the U.S. was responsible for the welfare of the Marshallese people.

The United States is currently negotiating to extend its Compacts of Free Association with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as well as the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. These agreements are key to U.S. operations in an area of the Pacific Ocean the size of the continental United States, an expanse from Hawaii to the Philippines. The U.S. provides economic assistance, and access to certain federal programs that apply to these partnerships.

Radewagen took part in an October 2021 hearing of the Natural Resources Committee regarding the Runit Dome, which contains the radioactive nuclear waste, and the U.S. legacy in the Marshall Islands. In November, she highlighted the need for urgency from the U.S. in negotiating a renewal of the Compact of Free Association. (PR)