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U.S. Territories

TexasTowelie

(117,584 posts) Wed Sep 15, 2021, 05:06 AM Sep 2021

U.S. Responsibilities in Freely Associated States

On June 25, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) addressed her colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to speak about the impact and implications of nuclear testing conducted in the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, during which time 67 tests of nuclear weapons were conducted on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls.

See Rep. Porter’s Complete Statement on Facebook.

“We deceived the Marshallese, using them as guinea pigs to study the effects of radiation. We turned ancestral lands into dumping grounds for nuclear waste. And we still haven’t done the bare minimum to make this right,” Rep. Porter stated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We established a tribunal for compensation,” she explained, “but provided less than 10% of the money owed.”

“We don’t even translate environmental studies into Marshallese,” she added.

“Our nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands is at the nexus of President Biden’s top priorities: racial justice, healthcare, climate change, U.S. global reputation, countering China through diplomacy,” Porter said as she ended her floor speech. “We must commit across party lines to make this right.”