 Good morning, everyone, or good afternoon. My name is Nancy Lin from the president of the US Institute of Peace, and I'm delighted to welcome you this morning for yet another in our bipartisan Congressional Dialogue series. I'm pleased to have with us two congressional leaders, Congressman Ed Case from Hawaii, who is with us now, and Congressman Ted Yoho from Florida, who will be joining us in just a few moments. And they are here to talk this morning about the next era of US Pacific Island's engagement. And what I especially love about this series, and I'm so pleased to have both of them join us this morning, is that it really enables us to highlight the importance of bipartisan problem solving, especially when it comes to tackling important foreign policy challenges, which is exactly what brings us here today. The United States has long historic ties to the Pacific Islands, and that includes US territories and independent countries. But for many decades, this region has taken a backseat to a lot of other concerns. This is starting to change. We're seeing US policymakers, members of Congress, and many other countries increasingly pay more attention to the region. And the US has wide-ranging interests in the area, from governance, to climate issues, to fisheries. But China's recent diplomatic and economic push into the region has focused attention within the US administration, which has recently expanded high-level diplomacy and taken steps to increase development and security assistance and promote people-to-people ties. In the past two years, Australia announced a Pacific step-up policy, and New Zealand launched a Pacific reset. Interest has also been rising in Beijing, Tokyo, Jakarta, and other capitals. So last year, Representative Case and Representative Yoho joined with some of their colleagues to form the Congressional Pacific Islands caucus to educate members of Congress and their staff about the importance of the Pacific Islands, demonstrate US commitment to the region, facilitate communication and cooperation between the US and Pacific Islands, and aid in the development of a sound national policy in this important part of the Indo-Pacific. So altogether, we're seeing levels of focus on the Pacific Islands that haven't existed since the end of the Pacific War in 1945. We last hosted Congressman Case just over a year ago, I believe, in the USIP headquarters for a discussion on the Indo-Pacific region. So I'm delighted to welcome him back on what is now our virtual platform. And we're also pleased to have Congressman Yoho join us to share his insights from his position as a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and non-proliferation. Congressman Case represents Hawaii's first district, which given its location on the Pacific, has a vested interest in the economic and security stability of Asia and this region, and his district is also home to the US Indo-Pacific command. Congressman Yoho represents Florida's third district, which includes Gainesville, parts of Northeast Florida. He has been a leader in promoting effective and sustainable US global engagement strategies, especially through the Development Finance Corporation. So each of them brings rich expertise to the US Pacific relations issues and the broader arena of international affairs. In just a moment, Congressman Case will offer remarks. We hope we'll be joined by Congressman Yoho, who's been detained on the Hill for his comments. And then after that, I'll ask a question or two and then take questions from our online audience. So viewers can participate in the live Q&A using the YouTube chat box function on the YouTube page. And please join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag bipartisan USIP. With that, Congressman Case, welcome back. Delighted to have you and I'll turn things over to you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Nancy, and good morning and a fond aloha to everybody that is watching in today. It's really great to be back with USIP. As you noted, I was privileged to be with you a year ago with my friend and colleague, John Rutherford from Florida for colleagues on the Appropriations Committee. And we had actually just returned from a congressional delegation with the Appropriations Committee to Asia, the Pacific, a fascinating trip. First time for some folks on that codel, I've spent a lot of time in the Asia and the Pacific over my life. But that was a great discussion that we had, as you mentioned on the end of Pacific, but really focusing on China continues to be a very topical discussion, of course. And this year, I'm really honored to share the stage with Ted Yoho who will be with us shortly who's just been a really stalwart member of Congress on our foreign policy with a focus on Asia Pacific through his ranking membership on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific. So it'll be great when he joins us. And I would be remiss Nancy if I didn't recognize you in the great work you've done for USIP and I wish you every best fair wins and following the sea as you go forward. It's speaking of the end of the Pacific. I'm really happy today to spend a little time with Ted as Nancy mentioned on a part of our world which the US has been a part of for two centuries plus now in many different ways, shapes and forms. And yet we don't really talk enough about the Pacific Islands which have now been highlighted by many things that are happening in our world. And when we talk about the Pacific Islands we're really talking about that incredibly vast area on the globe, if you take a look at a globe that stretches all the way from Rapa Nui Easter Island on the east, which is a province of Chile to Hawaii in the north to New Caledonia and Palau in the west and to the countries of the South Pacific encompassing the great areas really of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. And when you take a look on a map you see ocean but when you dig down underneath it if you take the land areas of these jurisdictions and their exclusive economic zones and you take a look at that map of the land and the exclusive economic zones there's a lot of overlap and you come to an area of our globe that's larger than the land mass of Russia and China put together. So this is a huge area, a huge area of jurisdiction for the collective Pacific Islands which make up 24, 25 depending on how you define the Pacific Islands jurisdictions many of course independent countries some of them in free association with some of the Pacific Rim countries the United States in free association with the Republic of the Marshall Islands the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau and then other parts of the Pacific Islands that are parts of other countries for example the United States, Hawaii of course Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa. So this is a huge part of our world that encompasses an incredible really common values common history, common interests the Pacific is all of our backyard so to speak or front yard if you live in Hawaii and this is an area that is increasingly critical to our world. And as I mentioned earlier from the United States perspective we are a Pacific country. When I'm here in Washington which is 2,500 miles away from the Pacific Ocean and off the coast of California and 5,000 miles away from my home sometimes you tend to see Euro centrism or Atlantic centrism or Middle East and of course those are all incredibly important parts of our foreign policy but when you take a look at the big picture of the world and where the real choices are being made in the world that are gonna determine not only the world's future but especially our country's future I would submit to you that that's the Pacific the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific from the East Coast of Africa to the West Coast of the United States and everywhere in between is for us a critical area. We've been involved in this area for centuries now the US Navy first the fledgling US Navy coming into the Pacific Ocean at the very beginning wailing such a rich history in the Pacific which influenced many parts of the Pacific. Many of the great religions of our world's outreach into the Pacific Islands with lasting influence to this day. Of course the period of however you wanna describe it imperialism, manifest destiny, great white fleet the United States is annexation of the Philippines and Hawaii for that matter in the late 1800s. World War II of course an incredibly difficult enterprise involving many, many countries throughout the Pacific and of course 75 years ago just about next month the end of that war but not of our involvement the United States continued on with many, many countries. We actually had the trust territory of the Pacific Islands through the United Nations other countries also had trust responsibilities until in the 50s and the 60s many of these countries struck out on their own and it forged their own identity. And of course we, our country have alliances and friends throughout the region Australia and New Zealand, Japan who are very, very much involved in the Pacific Islands as are we and we have focused on the Pacific Islands for the last 50 years quietly but steadily and in volume $5 billion or so invested over the last 10 to 20 years major investments by USAID of course the Peace Corps one of the most successful enterprises in our country's history of outreach to other countries very active in the Pacific Islands and the Pacific Islands have not been sitting here just interacting with us they've been forging their own identities their own regional infrastructure their own agreements their own views about how what their role is in the world and how to interact with the world of large representation the United Nations for example where they've certainly been very, very influential and so there's been a real kind of a whole series of events and interactions that have been going on but in all honesty I think our policy towards the Pacific Islands has been a little haphazard a little play it as we go at least for the last 10, 20 years maybe some of that is understandable given our focus on other critical areas such as the war on terror and Iraq and Afghanistan but we now need to start to focus more directly on the Pacific Islands we have not only old challenges of maintaining economic sustainability but new challenges the Pacific Islands themselves are at the forefront literally the forefront of climate change and they have taken climate change more seriously than anywhere else in the world because it's a matter of survival to them economic development has been a critical area for the Pacific Islands with aging infrastructure with the struggle to find economic sustainability with an increasing population and limited resources natural disasters a COVID-19 where the Pacific Islands have done some of the best work in the entire world but at great cost to their economies which are in many cases a tourism reliant and of course the expansion of China into the Pacific Islands and the question of what China's aerial motives are and really presenting many of the Pacific Islands with a very, very difficult choice which they don't want to be presented with they want to interact with the rest of the world in a way that will facilitate what they need for their peoples and I believe in large part to advance the values that they share with the United States and other members of the world who are looking for a free democratic peaceful interactive sustainable world so the response some has been as I said haphazard some of the best work in the Pacific Islands is going on actually through our military specifically Indo-Pacific command had ordered in Honolulu Indo-Pakum interacts regularly with the Pacific Islands on a whole range of issues other parts of our country have been overlooked for example the Coast Guard has done incredible work with the Pacific Islands in terms of trying to enforce their exclusive economic zones which are under threat from illegal and unreported fishing extraction here in my home state of Hawaii some of the foundations such as the East West Center at in Honolulu which has been working in the Pacific Islands for two generations now along the Asia Pacific Center for security studies all very, very good constructive outreaches but we think we need more than that from a country perspective and so as Nancy mentioned Congressman Yoho and I and a number of others including Brad Sherman of the foreign affairs committee Ami Berra who is now the chair of the subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific as well as Don Young who is also a Pacific representative in Alaska and the senior member of the house all came together to form the congressional Pacific Islands caucus with a focus on the Pacific Islands that's our desire focus policy on the Pacific Islands we're about to introduce our first major piece of legislation which we refer to as the boosting long-term U.S. engagement in the Pacific Act that's the Blue Pacific Act if you want to remember it in short that's really a testament to many of the ideas that have come out of the Pacific Islands nations themselves through the Pacific Island Forum where they said look this is how we would welcome an increased interaction with you the United States this is what we need this is how you can help us and so we really in the Blue Pacific Act are trying to tick off the areas that we think we can interact with on a constructive basis they range from assistance on climate change law enforcement maritime security critical to the Pacific Islands to straight up economic major increases in economic development which is what many of the countries need the most to promotion of common values such as protection of women gender identity and on we're going to introduce this in the next couple of days we're going to try to advance it as far as we possibly can in this Congress and then if you know we don't get there we'll pick it up in the next Congress but it serves not only as a policy statement but as a vehicle for this discussion the bill that we're introducing would carry with it significantly increased authorization for funding for all of these programs somewhere in the range of a billion a year which is roughly three to four times what we are spending in these areas today so all very good I think you know there's a lot of work to be done we have we're playing a little bit of catch up in the Pacific Islands but we want to catch up and be that full partner that we think we already are and we need to be going into the future of the Pacific Islands recognizing their desire to forge their own direction their own identities so this is about a true partnership you know not about a return to a hundred years ago or anything like that I think for us I would conclude by just saying this I told this story yesterday on the phone with a number of leaders from from ambassadors from the Pacific Islands which was a very very constructive phone call and I told them the story of talking with young leaders in my office through a program sponsored by the East West Center which is called the Pacific Island Young Leader Program or something of that effect and I asked them all what do you most want from the United States what is it that's missing here you know tell me and they said just show up just show up a little bit more you know we we tend not to show up enough and so we're aiming to fix that in this in this bill and in this caucus and we're trying to you know work with anybody that wants to work with us towards the advancement of the Pacific Islands broadly and the relationship of us and our allies and friends with the Pacific Islands so thank you very much for the opportunity to share all of that with you and happy I hope I talk long enough for Ted to join us but not quite Well let me let me start with a few questions thank you for that very thorough lay down and a bit of a historical sweep as well is this the first time that Congress has had a caucus focused on the Pacific Islands yes this is the first congressional Pacific Islands caucus that said that's that's been created and and just just so folks you know because sometimes we assume that everybody knows so in Congress a caucus is a collection of members of Congress that come together for a common purpose that's what a caucus is there's a lot of different kinds of caucuses some of them are fairly partisan and some of them are very very non-partisan it really depends on the issue depends on the focus depends on what the members of that caucus want to accomplish so you we have for example a congressional diabetes caucus for folks that want to focus on cures for diabetes we have a congressional U.S. Australia caucus for those that want to focus on that relationship and you know I could go on and on and on there's a fair number of caucuses but this is the first time that we have focused exclusively on the Pacific Islands and there aren't you know there aren't hundreds of caucuses there are maybe I would say 75 recognized caucuses so this is a formal recognized caucus of of Congress completely bipartisan and you will you will take a look at the membership of our caucus and there are there are members of the caucus that I probably don't vote with very much but we have a common goal and the members of the caucus come to the Pacific Islands caucus for different reasons but they're all motivated by the same overall goal which is to increase focus for some it is a little bit more about the great power competition with China for some it's a little bit more about you know the USAID side we've got members that as I recall served in the Peace Corps in the Pacific Islands or in the Indo-Pacific and have a special place in their hearts for it I think one or two members had had fathers that fought in the Pacific War and have carried that with them so there's a lot of different reasons it doesn't really matter everybody is there for the same reason Well you answered my question which is you know obviously you coming from Hawaii have a special connection to that region but have you found it to be a harder sell across the country and I think you just answered that in part with that list of various interests Well a little bit to my earlier point I think the goal of the caucus is to highlight the Pacific Islands and our relationship of the Pacific Islands and to strengthen it and so emphasis on highlight first because I do find coming from Hawaii and my family is four generations deep in Hawaii so we've you know we've been in the Pacific for a long time my orientation is to the Pacific and to the West that's my natural orientation my constituency is an Asia Pacific Islands constituency not a you know mainland United States constituency very very diverse roots throughout the Pacific Islands 80% of my constituents are their heritage lies somewhere in the Pacific not in Europe so for me it's a natural orientation but again coming to Washington that's not the natural orientation of Washington you've got to you've got to have a reason or you have to care for some reason or maybe you've you've decided as I have that from a pure national perspective this is where our future is going to get charted so you focus there but you do need to highlight it and many of the areas that we've talked about members members are focusing on it for the first time and that's good you know you you mentioned the role of the Pacific Islands in the UN and collectively they do carry considerable weight there it are are you looking at some of the ways that we can work more closely with the Pacific Island countries at the UN or other multilateral fora absolutely I mean I think that's critical to our overall role with the Pacific Islands is just engagement engagement across the board as I said earlier the Pacific Islands have forged their own regional identity they forged their own regional organizations where they they act collectively they have decided rightly that when you are a collection of jurisdictions spread across a very vast ocean with very limited resources your your best your best approach to the world is is a collective approach not not a go it alone approach so they're very very much focused on it and of course you know they they they have they have common concerns across the board they have each of the Pacific Islands has its own distinct culture Melanesia Micronesia and Polynesia have their own distinct cultures which you know archaeologists and anthropologists study all the time and but you know collectively the point being that that they they need to where they can act together and I think that's exactly the right thing to do and so our our role is to respect all of that to interact with their their chosen organizations their chosen fora but also not to forget bilateral relationships because as one of the ambassadors on the phone yesterday pointed out the question was asked of her you know would you prefer you know multilateral or bilateral and she said bilateral so she wants you know she wants the direct connection between her country and the United States and I I don't think it's a choice that has to be made and the the the the decision is across the board multilateral bilateral interacting with you know formal Pacific organizations there are many fora throughout the Pacific Islands that that the United States shows up at sparingly if at all sometimes not even as as an observer to what the Pacific Islands regard as major a collective organization so I think we need a little bit more focus from a from a you know from a from a representation perspective and of course it always helps when when our Secretary of State actually does visit the Pacific Islands as he did credit to him and it does help when our president hosts members of the Pacific Islands community at the White House as he did so credit to him on that so that kind of stuff needs to continue and so you talk about the bilateral multilateral but what about the particular relationship with New Zealand and Australia you know who have long taken the lead on many of the issues related to Pacific Island nations well our relationship with New Zealand and Australia and Japan I would say because people people most people recognize New Zealand and Australia's engagement in the Pacific Islands which has been stellar but they sometimes overlook Japan which has also been stellar Japan has been has been very active in assistance to the Pacific Islands Japan has a huge foreign aid budget one of the biggest in the entire world from a per capita perspective and they've invested that in the Pacific Islands and so where they where they have their own ties of course predating the war under a different history but there's still in parts of the Pacific Islands quite an influence from Japan and of course Japan has been quite engaged and I think those interactions with New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are are and Japan to coordinate our own interaction with the Pacific Islands is really critical I think the only thing I would say along those lines is that if you listen to the Pacific Islands sometimes how they feel about it is that that the interaction is more specific from a country to regional as opposed to each country to all so for example the criticism would be that the United States tends to focus more on Micronesia because we have much closer historical ties with Micronesia through the trust territory of the Pacific Islands whereas we don't interact as much with Melanesia because you know New Zealand and Australia have well more accurately Australia more specifically Australia has a closer tie to Melanesia and New Zealand and Polynesia so you know what they don't want is is an interaction where where we kind of pick and choose in the Pacific Islands they want a they want to interact with all of us on a multilateral bilateral relationship and not and not in a in some sense that you know hey you take you know you're primarily responsible for interacting and helping in in in Micronesia and we'll you know we'll talk somewhere else that's that's not that's not from from their perspective and I agree with them that's not the right way to do it so we've kind of got a we have to very closely coordinate and I think we've done a good job so a lot of credit again to those countries they're actually carrying relatively speaking a much heavier load than we are in the Pacific Islands so let's let's go to the topic of China which has you know obviously the whole discussion with China has changed substantially over the last several years China clearly has a lot of influence in the region and many of the Pacific Island nations look to China as a as a friend as a source of development and investment how do you see the U.S. competing with China how does that relationship go forward and not put the Pacific Island nations in a in a really tough place in the middle well of course this is a much much much bigger discussion than you know any one country or any one of the Pacific Islands or them collectively or for that matter any of the rest of the world the the issue is is relatively and roughly the same as to our relationship with China if you talk about you know Africa for example or South America or Latin America the same basic discussion is is going to occur China is interested in in expanding its power and influence and is is is using every tool and its toolkit to do that whether it be whether it be you know economic development whether it be you know major infrastructure whether it be very straight military expansion they've got you know a little bit of a velvet glove on it but they're doing it nonetheless and so their goal is to is to expand their power and influence and control that's that's China's announced goal so do we think that's a good idea no we don't we we have no problem with with a with a growing China we have we have no problem with a China that takes its place in the world we would really like it obviously if China would would view it as in their best interest to to participate in a in a in a regional world or not regional but a world order that respected the role of law that understood countries desires to maintain sovereignty that respected basic democratic values so the the the the the the forks in the road that we face with China over the next 10 or 20 years are going to influence every part of the world and the Pacific Islands are at the forefront of that because China is directly interested in expanding its power and influence up and I would submit creating in the Pacific Islands and I don't think that comes out of any sense of of humanitarian concern for the Pacific Islands I think it comes out of a sense of competition with the United States so I'm I think I'm pretty clear in terms of my understanding what China is trying to accomplish now that puts the Pacific Islands in a terrible position because if what they really need is the United States saying talking less about you know democracy and how good we are and more about helping them with economic development but China is offering that economic development that forces them to a very difficult choice because I think that they prefer to have that partnership in future with the United States and our friends and allies I think that's far more consistent with their values I think that's far more consistent with where they want the future of their countries to go but if we are going to ignore the need their needs for infrastructure and economic development which is number one number one to them along with climate change and China offers that and that puts them to a terrible choice and we have to be very very realistic about that in many parts of the the Pacific you know to include some of our friends and allies like Australia where China is their largest trading partner at least so far but their alliances are with the United States that's a that's a difficult tightrope to walk Australia is big enough to walk walk that tightrope it's a lot more difficult for a small country that has very very limited resources to do that so the bottom line is you know you've you've you've got to you've got to not only engage the Pacific Islands but understand exactly what their needs are and and ask how can you help and that's what we're doing in the blue Pacific bill is okay fine you're telling us that you need these things here it is and I want to ask you one more follow up question on that but also remind our viewers that if you have a question and you go to the chat box on the YouTube page we're starting to get a number of questions and I'll turn to them in a moment but just to follow up on that conversation case is there much interest from U.S. private sector to invest in the Pacific Islands region and you know in addition to economic assistance and military aid are you finding it difficult to entice businesses to invest in that area you know well first of all I haven't really been far down that road yet in terms of the private sector but we're clearly in our country trying to incentivize that development through the Development Finance Corp aria aria these are these were major initiatives by the United States to to up our game in the world from an economic participation and infrastructure development perspective and and recognizing the reality that China offering in these areas was again creating this very very difficult choice and it was creating leverage which China has no problem in exercising in the United Nations and elsewhere to its own to its own game and so whether it be infrastructure or economic USAID assistance or incentivizing our private sector to participate in the Pacific Islands we've got to kind of do all of the above I think that there are there are almost by definition some limitations on what kind of economic development the private sector would participate in in the Pacific Islands but they certainly would participate in infrastructure development they certainly would participate in sustainable tourism I think that they would certainly participate in sustainable energy development and administration so there are you know there are there are definitely areas for the private sector to participate in responsible sustainable fisheries be one of them and that's a that's a really critical issue to many of the Pacific Islands who have plentiful fisheries but they okay well as I mentioned earlier I think Indo-Pacom has done some of the best work in the Pacific Islands I think what the US military understands is is that that our country needs to engage across the board with the Pacific Islands so the US military through through Indo-Pacom but not just Indo-Pacom but that's where the focus is because that's their area of our own internal jurisdiction I think that I think that from a from a from a defense posture for our country what the US military is trying to accomplish is that our potential adversaries primarily China do not gain a foothold in the Pacific where they can which they can utilize as a as a base from which to threaten our national defenses and more importantly and this is part of our our announced international strategy which I agree with and that is to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific in other words there is freedom to transit the Indo-Pacific for for trade and for other purposes and you know we see for example in spades China China's effort in the South China Sea if you want to look at evidence of kind of where China what China's game plan is in terms of in terms of influencing some of the Pacific Islands then look at the South China Sea for the goal the goal in the South China Sea is to assert sovereignty over the South South China Sea and influence free and free and open Indo-Pacific that being one of the major sea lanes in the entire country so use that as a model China would use the same model out of the Pacific Islands and that would be detrimental not only to the Pacific Islands but to our national defense and to our allies as well and so the military from a military from a purely military perspective that would be a principal goal which would would be to deny China the ability to do that because in our long-term interests that's that's not a good thing but the military then has has a clear sense that if we are only if we are only interacting with the Pacific Islands for this purpose if that's our only reason to be there that's not a good enough reason it's not a good enough reason for our country and it's certainly not a good enough reason for for the for the Pacific Islands because they don't want to be upon in a big old military you know chess game who does and so I think that our Indo-Pacom recognizes in in you know crystal clear that although we do have national security concerns in the Pacific Islands that cannot be exclusive and we cannot simply you know assert our power there and expect everything to be okay that this has to this has to be paired with with very strong non-military engagement with the Pacific Islands what if you want to call it soft power you can but I don't particularly like that term in this in this context I I think engagement is far better that we recognize their needs and recognize our needs and see if we can have a mutual set of needs in in interaction with our allies and partners around the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Islands themselves whether those needs are economic which is the primary need or assistance of climate change which they themselves have said collectively is their number one threat the existential threat of rising sea level and climate change to again of maintaining the sovereignty of their countries to include primarily their exclusive economics on the the US military is very cognizant of that and they have been very supportive for that reason of of the development of the Blue Pacific Act so they're there they've been involved in our discussions and they've said this is what we think you should do on the non-military side well here's what might be a good follow-on question we clearly have some some very informed viewers the question is with the compacts for the federated states of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands being renegotiated how does Congress balance the need to support allies without creating dependence and what's the outlook for renewing these compacts expeditiously and maybe for those those of us who are less familiar with these compacts you can say word as to what they are and why they matter okay so so the compacts of free association are agreements with the independent countries of the federated states of Micronesia with the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau the two separate compacts yeah two separate compacts three countries the the these were these were countries that were under trust administration after the Second World War through the United Nations and became their own independent countries and chose together with the United States to enter into free association with the United States which essentially what it comes down to at the end is an agreement under which the United States would be responsible for their defense and for the well for their defense and in return the compact countries were entitled to compact payments so from the United States which were to build up a corpus over time with which which they could draw upon for sustainable economic support and development and also that their citizens would be entitled to come to the United States to live and work without being citizens per se but without restriction and so that has been going on for decades now and these compacts come up for renegotiation every 20 years is it? I think it's 20 years and they are up now one of them has already been renegotiated and now we've got the next one which is under negotiation right now I think these compacts are critical to our country it is critical for us to maintain the relationship with these countries I believe that both the United States and these countries would say that the compacts have been critical to both sides for that relationship and by the way not just not just the compact countries I think they've been critical to the Pacific Islands and to our engagement in the Pacific Islands because it is a very demonstrated you know partnership between us and those those countries that has also benefited other Pacific Islands there are clearly issues with the compacts that need to be worked out in a renegotiation the corpus that we've we had hoped to you know build up over time has has not and so they've they've been you know the compact monies have been have been used more for operating expenses as opposed to being built up immediate operating expenses opposed to being built up in in a corpus that's been a function of difficulties and sustainable economic development but there's nothing there that can't be worked out there's nothing there that would would call into question the basic agreement that we have and and continuing that agreement so to answer your question I think they're of critical importance to both all of us and to the Pacific Islands and our engagement of the Pacific Islands number one and number two I'm not sure I can say expeditiously in the sense of you know six months from now we'll be done with it I don't think that's going to be quite that these things you know people have to kind of go through a process right and I think that we're going to have to take a little bit of time to get through that process but they're supposed to be done within a couple of years so it's not like they're going to drag on I know the last one did but nobody wants that to happen again nobody wants to get into a situation where we're operating on on an expired compact here's a question that follows on the several mentions that you've made of climate change being perhaps the number one concern of the Pacific Island nations and the question is is receptivity in Congress to the concern around climate change among the Pacific Island nations you know I've got to say that in all honesty I don't think Congress as an institution in general understands the impact of climate change on island nations around the world but especially in the Pacific you know in Congress we come from many different places and most of those places are not by the seashore and perhaps they're at elevation so people do not tend to focus on the plight of a Pacific Island nation that whose maximum elevation is 10 or 20 or 30 feet whose population has lived at the shoreline for generations forever and that shoreline has now disappeared where you lived for generations with your family it's gone and it's not stopping and that I don't think people fully appreciate the existential threat that presents to these nations whose international airport may be falling into the ocean and who doesn't really have a good solid alternative and so I've got to say that you know one of the challenges here is to highlight why when the Pacific Islands Forum and other Pacific islands organizations say that this is their number one issue their number one threat their number one concern why that is so true and we see the Pacific Islands beating in this area in the world they have led at the United Nations for example in terms of trying to highlight the crisis of climate change they have led in terms of urging the United States to stay in the Paris agreements and and to engage with the world by the way they should say the same thing to China which is you know our partner in number one carbon emissions in the world so I think that they have led not only out of necessity but with great you know moral moral authority on this subject and I think I think that our challenge is to listen and to take heed because as they go so do so do you know not not just them which is critical which is a critical issue for us in the in the totality of the world but it also indicates what is is in store for parts of our country as well in Hawaii we're dealing with climate change we're an island nation we happen to be more mountainous than many of the Pacific Islands so we can go upland a little bit but our shorelines are eroding Florida same thing you know throughout our country so I think we ought to listen to the Pacific Islands a little bit more in this area we have another question that says a former delegate from Guam Bob Underwood once told them that he had never had a member of Congress a fellow member of Congress express an interest in the islands obviously before you arrived Congressman Case on this point could you share how delegates from the U.S. Pacific Island territories contribute to the conversation in Congress well I mean being from Hawaii which you know which which when you're a representative or a senator from Hawaii you also represent the Pacific so you do you do encompass within your your Kuliana as we say in Hawaii your responsibility the responsibility of understanding and assisting with with in particular our our brothers and sisters in the Pacific so American Samoa Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mary on the islands all of which I have been to so you know and I have I have I have talked to my my my fellow delegates both previously and my prior service in Congress as well as currently on their issues so we do talk we do try to help each other on these issues one of our issues for example especially for Guam and the CNMI and and Hawaii is that although we support the compacts the the citizens of those countries that come to the United States to live and work have many needs from education to health etc and they live primarily in Guam and Hawaii we have the largest populations yet we are not compensated by the United States for that or at least we are very very minimally also for me that's a major issue from a compact negotiation I clearly discussed that on a regular basis with you know you know Mr. Son Nicholas and Mr. Sablon we try to help very much with economic development for American Samoa probably has one of the most difficult situations because because they're they're fishing which has supported them for a very long time is problematic now because of overfishing CNMI and Guam heavily reliant on tourism tourism heavily impacted by COVID-19 so they have critical challenges as is true of the all of the Pacific Islands because of COVID-19 these are countries by the way that we failed to recognize have done some of the best work in the entire world on COVID-19 they have very very low rates from a public health perspective but they did it by by the extreme move of shutting themselves down and if you're dependent on tourism and interaction to that extent that's going to really hurt your economy so they need immediate help and we've been we've provided that in our emergency assistance in Congress through the CARES Act and the HEROS Act which is the second wave of emergency assistance that we hope to pass in the next 10 days literally some of that money is allocated clearly assisting our our partners in the Pacific but to your point it is very much a collaborative relationship Congressman Underwood was a great representative of Guam he's missed and I think his his assessment because he served for a long time and he has a good sense of the institution his assessment was accurate but again I would say we're trying to change that and and I go back to my earlier comment which is you you know you you just show up a little bit more one of the things that COVID-19 did by the way is to cancel a a I think probably first ever congressional delegation to the Pacific Islands which we had arranged for later this year where we meant to take the members of the caucus and colleagues to to many parts of the Pacific to engage personally as members of Congress with the full cooperation of of our Department of Defense and Departments of State so they were very very excited for us to do that because that hasn't happened really so we're going to have to pick that up as soon as we get through COVID-19 but we look forward to doing that then then then nobody can represent that you know no member of Congress has ever been to you know whatever it might be well probably a great number of them have been there for those who were Peace Corps volunteers as you've noted that seems to be a primary way that Americans other than Hawaiians engage with that part of the world I mean there's a whole there's a whole alumni group of Peace Corps volunteers out there from through the generations that served in the Pacific Islands and who are familiar with them passionate about the Pacific Islands many of them actually have stayed in the Pacific Islands I know folks for example in Palau who have who went out there as Peace Corps volunteers and are still there certainly that's true in Hawaii and I would say also the other area that and I made quick mention of it earlier the other area of significant interaction with the Pacific Islands and our country is still in the religion area where there are there are religions the Mormons for example very active in the Pacific Islands and very interactive back with the United States in Hawaii in particular so there are there are there are you know webs of connections to the Pacific Islands that have been created over the generations that we can can tap into and really re-energize for our overall engagement so one final question and then I understand that Congressman Yoho may join us for a quick cameo before we close out but I will ask you in the meantime and because we have a number of questions stacked up and that is how does the Blue Pacific Act align with and differ from efforts underway in the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee such as the Pacific Deterrence Initiative in the Indo-Pacific Reassurance Initiative clearly very knowledgeable viewers here it's completely coordinated first of all many of those provisions in both the NDAA and in the appropriations bill so for that very knowledgeable viewer check out not just the NDAA but go check out state and foreign ops approves and also check out defense approves and you will see in their coordination between NDAA and the approach side of things in terms of the Indo-Pacific Initiative in terms of our reach on areas such as again I mentioned the Coast Guard many of those provisions were advocated by me and other members of the Pacific Caucus so this was with Melissa Fortha and we're not just you know we're not just introducing the Blue Pacific Act and calling it a day we're also working in the defense authorization in the non-defense authorization for me personally because I'm a member of that committee in appropriations itself to fund these initiatives so from my perspective if we can achieve a big Congress approach to the Pacific Islands through the Pacific Islands Caucus both officially and unofficially because members of the Pacific Islands I'm going to stop right now because Ted has joined us and we're running out of time anyway if we can do that and I think we are doing that it's going to be a very successful effort wonderful thank you and welcome Congressman Yoho we understand you were delayed but delightful delighted that you're able to join us for the last few moments I am too conversation and you've been introduced so I'd like to just turn it over to you if you'd like to make some comments on this I'll just make some brief comments because I know this is at the close and I do apologize for being late and my good friend Ed Case I know covered the issues he and I are pretty well aligned in this and I can't thank him enough for his leadership and stress the importance of that whole Pacific Island region it's critical for all of us us being a Pacific Island nation we know the importance of that and I don't want to focus just on military and defense of things like that you know we need to go beyond that and the way we go beyond that is economies and we passed last Congress with the Development Finance Corporation this is something that we are serious about the money's been appropriated and this is something that we look forward to going into a country or we can go into a region and we can partner up with other DFCs whether it's Canada the UK Japan Australia any country that has a DFC and make a significant impact in that country for the benefit of that country and develop the county economy they want so that out of that economy those investments come in jobs are created so you increase the lifestyle of the people in those regions and by doing that trade happens and we become good trading partners and if we do that the world will be safer and national security will be stronger and I know America's got a lot of faults but the one thing we can do is we can invest in our rule of law as far as businesses and things like that and honoring contracts and pledges we will do that and I hope the people on this call understand that and I look forward to working with you and again I appreciate Chairman Case for putting this together he is a great leader in this and I look forward to working with him thank you for letting me come in at the very end well thank you for joining us and we did talk a little earlier Congressman Case talked about the development finance corporation which of course you were a good he did a good job champion of I tune it up for you one of the things I encourage people out from those nations is reach out to Adam Buller at DFC he's the CEO I mean there's some incredible things that we're looking to do and one of the big things too is to remove our secure supply chains and get them redistributed around the world from APIs we've got new technology handling waste where you can go from waste to synthetic gas to methanol and feel free to reach out to our office I'm passionate about this and look forward to building strong economies thank you great thank you for for joining us I know you've had a busy morning but we appreciate your joining us Congressman Case any final words before we close up here well I think again just really appreciate USIP sponsoring us I'm I'm really honored to be to be a part of this with Ted Yoho who's been really really critical to the East Asian the Pacific takes a passionate a view of it I think he's exactly right we've talked at length before he arrived on on the importance of our economic outreach our economic development our economic support that's what is critical to the Pacific Islands and if we don't deliver in that area then the rest of it is is not gonna you know mean a lot because we have to understand what our mutual needs are again and if we can get into a relationship of of truly listening to and helping each other and re-engaging from that perspective I think the future is quite quite good for for the for for our country and our world's re-engagement and and increased engagement with the Pacific Islands so you know the opportunity to highlight my backyard is always wonderful but the the passion that Ted brings to that being being living on the Atlantic side of the country I think is is is truly remarkable from my perspective so I'm just really I really appreciate serving with him and and his service especially on foreign affairs Congressman Yoho you of course have been a vigorous champion for more effective global engagement and so this is well within the legacy that you lead any final words you'd like to make as we close out you know we've been blessed in this country with the phrase the American Dream my wife and I are products of that you know without a long boring story you know my house my parents got divorced at 13 my house got repossessed at 15 I was out on my own at 18 my wife was out on her own at 16 we started from zero and we worked and we were able to achieve by getting a good education that we paid for but it was the opportunity that led to us in a system that protects your rights as a as a citizen and if that can happen for us it can happen for any country around the world it can be the plow dream it can be the total dream I mean there's so many places that it's not unique to them it is unique to America but any country can accomplish that if they have rule of law and opportunity and that's what we want to extend so that you can be successful in your country and that next generation will have something to look forward to and build to make the world a better place and again you know I just got the utmost respect for your organization for Ed Case and the leadership he has and we will do whatever I can with my remaining time in Congress to help any of these countries that reach out to us you know and if we can formulate a game plan of what's best what do you need in your country let's get to work and let's look at the results Wonderful, well I want to thank both of you again for joining us thank you for the master class we just had on the Pacific Islands congratulations to both of you for forming an important new caucus we're already having a significant impact and I want to thank all of our viewers for joining us and please tune in again for our next bipartisan congressional dialogue series thank you both have a have a wonderful day thank you Aloha bye bye see you guys