{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sablan.house.gov/press-release/kilili%E2%80%99s-work-palau-compact-pays", "Kililis work on Palau Compact pays off", "2017-12-14", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 President Trump signed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act today, including an extension of the Compact of Free Association with the Republic of Palau. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan has been working for several years to get the fifteen-year extension enacted into law. It was originally negotiated by the U.S. and Palau in 2010, but never formally approved.\n\u201cBecause of the strategic importance of Palau to the security of all of us in the Western Pacific, I have worked hard to win approval of the extension of the Compact of Free Association,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cPeace and stability are the underpinnings for the economic health of our region.\n\u201cAnd because I am the only Micronesian in the U.S. Congress, I also feel a special responsibility to help people throughout the island Pacific, whenever I can.\u201d\nThe annual Defense bill emerged as a route to approval of the Compact in 2016. Sablan had introduced legislation approving the Compact and authorizing multi-year funding. He arranged hearings for his bill before House Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources subcommittees. Then, working with Pacific representatives Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawai\u2019i), he was able to win the support of the Defense Department for inclusion of the Compact approval in the 2017 Defense bill.\nAlthough last year\u2019s effort was not successful, Sablan again introduced Compact legislation this year, again got a hearing on the bill, and won approval in the House Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). Bishop is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which writes the annual Defense authorization.\n\u201cFocusing on Compact approval as a matter of strategic importance to the United States was key, I think, to getting it through Congress and signed into law today,\u201d Sablan commented.\n\u201cAlthough Congress has appropriated the funding amounts negotiated with Palau year-after-year, we were not giving Palau the assurance of long-term commitment that approval of the Compact provides.\n\u201cFrom Palau\u2019s point of view\u2014and to other nations in the Pacific region\u2014it seemed as though America was not good for its word. America could not be trusted.\n\u201cThat is no way for our nation to maintain influence in what is becoming every day a more strategically important\u2014and contested\u2014area of the world,\u201d Congressman Sablan said. \u201cBut today we showed America is committed to the Pacific.\u201d\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sablan.house.gov/press-release/kilili%E2%80%99s-work-palau-compact-pays"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6099801287055016, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}