When President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 into law on March 9, it dramatically altered the relationship between Compacts of Free Association (COFA) citizens and the federal government. The act legislates full access to federal benefits for COFA citizens residing in the U.S., which has been wrongfully denied them since 1996.

The budget act also directly benefits Hawaii by committing the U.S. to provide funding for a full array of benefits to as many as 30,000 COFA residents in this state. Providing alternative aid to COFA residents has cost Hawaii more than $180 million annually in past years, according to U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who with U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono co-sponsored the Compact Impact Fairness Act (CIFA), legislation righting this wrong.

To take full advantage of this overdue reform, it’s imperative that Hawaii take action immediately to match COFA residents with benefits they now qualify for, conducting outreach, modifying application processes and seeking reimbursement from the feds for state expenditures, where proper. At a Tuesday news conference, Hawaii Department of Human Services (DHS) benefits division administrator Scott Morishige said the state is coordinating with federal agencies to “implement this as quickly as possible.”

This necessary federal legislation could and should have been implemented late last year, when Biden renewed COFA agreements with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, extending international agreements between the U.S. and the Pacific Island nations. Congressional deadlock on budget negotiations delayed action until this month, negatively impacting Hawaii by leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to deny disaster aid to COFA citizens who have been displaced by last year’s deadly Lahaina wildfire. Still, the legislation will enable FEMA to reimburse Hawaii for costs reaching back to the Aug. 8 fire disaster, Case said.

FEMA can now be expected to pay for temporary housing, housing units, home repair or replacement, hazard mitigation and other disaster-related aid provided to displaced COFA citizens. That should provide hefty relief against about $360 million committed from the state for survivors’ shelter that FEMA had previously refused to pay.

The act opens COFA citizens’ access to the full range of federal benefits available to lawful U.S. residents, including food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Aid for Needy Families, the current iteration of cash aid often referred to as “welfare”; and Supplemental Security Income, for disabled workers.

Outreach will certainly be required, given COFA citizens’ uncertain status over the past decades, despite their legal residence in the U.S. In 1996, the Welfare Reform Act removed eligibility for public benefits for COFA citizens by defining them as “non-citizens,” although they could live, study and work in the U.S. legally, pay taxes and collect Social Security based on earnings. Medicaid health care benefits for low-income COFA residents, which Hirono said had cost the state more than $40 million annually, were enabled by legislation in December 2020.

The current U.S. relationship with COFA nations stretches back to World War II, when they were island battlegrounds, and then were subjected to extensive and highly destructive nuclear testing between 1946 and 1958. Beginning in 1986, Congress approved a COFA agreement, promising citizens of the “Freely Associated States” the right to reside in the U.S. in exchange for military access to their islands. Tens of thousands of COFA citizens have migrated to the U.S.

These islands have continuously been strategically important to the U.S., and the nations’ close ties justify American aid to COFA citizens. CIFA rights a long-standing wrong, and must be implemented with vigor.