Interior Provides $3 Million Compact Grant to the Republic of Palau for FY2018

WASHINGTON (December 20, 2017) – U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Doug Domenech has advanced a partial Compact grant payment of $2.5 million to the Republic of Palau and an additional $500,000 grant to conduct the FY 2017 Single Audit. 

“As long as we continue to operate under a continuing resolution, we can only make a partial payment to Palau, however we are hopeful that Congress will soon finalize a budget for FY2018 and also act to appropriate full funding for the Palau Compact Agreement we signed with Palau in 2010,” said Assistant Secretary Domenech.  “The time has come for Congress to finalize the Compact agreement that embodies our unique and special relationship with Palau.”

While financial grant assistance provisions of the U.S.-Palau Compact expired on September 30, 2009, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-88 Sec. 122) and subsequent discretionary appropriations have continued to provide for an annual $13,147,000 for economic assistance to Palau.  These funds are provided to assist the Government of Palau in its efforts to advance the well-being of its people and in recognition of the special relationship that exists between the United States and Palau.

The Assistant Secretary of the Interior, on behalf of the Secretary, is responsible for coordinating federal policy with respect to the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and administering and overseeing U.S. federal assistance provided under the Compacts of Free Association to the freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.  The Office of Insular Affairs promotes policies and distributes grants under the direction of the Assistant Secretary who strives to foster economic opportunities, promote government efficiency, and improve the quality of life for the people of the insular areas.

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