[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S885-S886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HIRONO (for herself and Mr. Markey):
  S.J. Res. 40. A joint resolution formally apologizing for the nuclear 
legacy of the United States in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and 
affirming the importance of the free association between the Government 
of the United States and the Government of the Marshall Islands; to the 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a resolution 
that affirms the importance of our compact of free association with the 
Republic of the Marshall Islands and apologizes to the people of the 
Republic of the Marshall Islands on behalf of the U.S. Government for 
the United States' nuclear testing program. I am thankful to Senator 
Markey for joining me in this resolution as we seek to strengthen the 
ties between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall 
Islands.
  After freeing what are now the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 
Japanese control during the Second World War, the United States was 
entrusted with administering the islands as a part of the United 
Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Under the trusteeship, 
the United States was charged with promoting self-government and the 
economic and educational advancement of the islands. The trusteeship 
also obligated the United States to protect the health of the 
inhabitants of the trust territory.
  President Harry Truman reaffirmed the United States' ``special 
responsibility'' for the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands 
when he reassured the United Nations that the people of the Marshall 
Islands ``will be accorded all rights which are the normal 
constitutional rights of the citizens under the Constitution.''
  In many ways, the Government of the United States failed to live up 
to that special responsibility. From 1946 to 1958, the United States 
conducted 67 thermonuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The tests 
contaminated at least 11 of the Marshall Island's 29 atolls. These 
tests destroyed their land and led to their displacement. Nuclear 
testing also exposed the Marshallese to radioactive fallout, 
contributing to increased cancer rates, birth defects, and other 
serious health conditions. The nuclear testing program has caused 
irreparable harm to the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
  That harm and our collective failure to live up to our nation's 
responsibilities have similarly failed members of the Armed Forces and 
civilian contractors that were tasked by our government with cleaning 
up nuclear waste in the Marshall Islands. In the 1970s, the United 
States sought to clean up Enewetak Atoll, where the United States 
conducted over 40 nuclear tests. In an effort to contain radioactive 
material on Enewetak, members of the

[[Page S886]]

Armed Forces and civilian contractors constructed the Runit Dome, an 
unlined nuclear waste containment structure that stores approximately 
110,000 cubic yards of radioactively contaminated soil and debris. 
Thousands of servicemembers were exposed to radiation and nuclear waste 
as they worked to clean up Enewetak Atoll.
  To this day, those servicemembers remain ineligible for health 
benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs that other 
``radiation-exposed veterans'' receive. I am thankful to Senators Smith 
and Tillis for their leadership on this issue, as they seek to secure 
health benefits for these servicemembers through the Mark Takai Atomic 
Veterans Healthcare Parity Act.
  The Republic of the Marshall Islands is one of the United States' 
strongest allies and one of its most important partners in the Indo-
Pacific region. Since entering into a Compact of Free Association with 
the United States in the 1980s, thousands of Marshallese have migrated 
to the United States to live and work. The Marshallese have made 
invaluable contributions to my home State of Hawaii and have enriched 
communities throughout the country. The compact also protects U.S. 
national security interests by providing the U.S. military with 
exclusive access to the territorial waters of the Marshall Islands and 
serves as host to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site 
on Kwajalein Atoll.
  While our relationship with the Republic of the Marshall Islands 
remains strong, they are in jeopardy. U.S. economic assistance under 
the Compact of Free Association to the Marshall Islands is set to end 
in 2023 while near-peer competitors threaten to undermine our 
alliances. Additionally, climate change poses an existential threat to 
the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
  But in order to continue on with our relationship with the Marshall 
Islands, we need to reckon with our past. The United States has never 
apologized for its nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands. The 
harm caused by the United States' nuclear legacy in the Marshall 
Islands cannot be taken back or undone. But as the Republic of the 
Marshall Islands memorializes today, March 1, as Nuclear Victims 
Remembrance Day, we can show our contrition and endeavor to build a 
stronger relationship based on correcting the wrongs of the past and 
strengthening the special ties that bind our two nations.

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