The Marshall Islands Compact Trust Fund had over $1.3 billion in it as of last week.
The trust fund is divided into three separate accounts, according to Finance Minister David Paul, who provided the update on the fund amount.
He said Account 1, which is the originally capitalized account under the second Compact funding agreement, is $875 million.
Account 2, which is being capitalized by the third Compact funding agreement, is at $442 million.
Lastly, Account 3, which is the fund into which Taiwan provides an annual contribution, is at $11.3 million.
The third Compact’s funding agreement provides that over the first four years, the US will inject $700 million into the trust fund. A total of $200 million was provided the first two years — FY2024 and FY2025 — and after the upcoming fiscal year starts on October 1, another $200 million will be deposited into Account 2. In FY2027, the final amount of $100 million will be deposited into Account 2.
Last week, Minister Paul introduced the FY2026 budget — the largest-ever Marshall Islands national budget at $766.2 million.
Here are some miscellaneous items spotted in the FY2026 national budget:
- Majuro landowner electricity subsidy has escalated to $6.2 million. This is a 250 percent increase over the FY2017 budget when the landowner power subsidy amounted to $1.8 million.
- This year’s budget includes special appropriations for medical referral “shortfalls” in both FY2025 and FY2026 (although 2026 hasn’t happened yet) totaling $2.1 million and $3.5 million, respectively. Finance Minister Paul said medical referrals have been budgeted at about $3 million each year. But this amount does not reflect the actual costs of the medical referral program, which have been about $6 million the past several years. The hope is to allocate the actual funding needed for the program to stop the need for “special appropriations” and emergency reprogramming in the face of overseas hospital debt.
- Dock infrastructure projects for Namdrik, Kili, Mejit and Mejatto are listed at $2.3 million each. Other infrastructure items for the outer islands include $300,000 each for Aur and Jaluit airport terminal buildings. A seawall for Ujae is also budgeted at $1.2 million. Jaluit High School is slated to get a cafeteria for $2.5 million.
- The Ministry of Public Works is scheduled to get $6 million to pay for a dredge machine.
- Although the RMI just had a referendum on Constitutional convention-passed amendments — which featured the lowest voter turnout in the history of RMI — there is $1.5 million listed in the FY2026 budget for a Constitutional Convention.
- A new public school breakfast healthy snack program is to be funded at $3.2 million.
- Kwajalein Culture and Community Center, $3 million.