PALIKIR, POHNPEI. With a quorum of eight Members, the Twenty-Third Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia convened in Palikir for the current body’s Sixth and final Regular Session on Friday, January 10, 2025.
Speaker Esmond B. Moses convened the session and duly appointed the Committee to Wait on the President with Vice Speaker Robson U. Romolow of Chuuk State as the Chairman, with members comprised of Senators Merlynn Abello-Alfonso representing Pohnpei State, Johnson A. Asher representing Kosrae State and Joseph J. Urusemal representing Yap State. The committee met with President Wesley W. Simina and Vice President Aren B. Palik to get the Executive Branch’s issues for consideration during the session.
The President initiated the substantive portion of the meeting by outlining his issues of discussion along with several pieces of proposed legislation for priority consideration during the session. He started with the time-sensitive resolutions on the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) and the Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP), the Nation’s agreed to plans for long-term priorities and goals in development and infrastructure. President Simina noted that the plans were endorsed during the State and National Leadership Conference (SNLC) in December 2024 and were critical to the availability of the Compact Sector Grants. The President requested the Congress’s priority consideration for the two resolutions to ensure the ‘plans’ meet the submission deadline of March 2025.
Other issues flagged for priority consideration for the Congress included proposed measures on:
- an FSM Maritime Spatial Planning Act, to strengthen measures for conservation and protection of the nation’s marine resources;
- nominations still pending before the Congress;
- pending grants, namely for the Single Audit and one for United Nation’s Multi-Country Office in the FSM; and
- a forthcoming supplemental budget.
President Simina wrapped up his issues of concern by thanking the Congress for its recent passage of an independent prosecutor bill and noted that certain amendments to the bill are forthcoming.
Following the Executive’s issues and updates, the Committee shared a list of concerns from the Congress side and started with issues on transportation, specifically the services and scheduling of FSM’s two service ships: a medical evacuation from Chuuk outer islands that ended up in Pohnpei; the rushed schedule to Pohnpei outer islands; and finally, an issue discussed at length was the pilotage fee charged to a charitable medical vessel that visited Chuuk. The President assured the Committee that appropriate departments will work with the Department of Transportation, Communications and Infrastructure to review and address the raised concerns.
The Committee to Wait concluded its meeting with the President with mutual agreement to move forward on the expressed issues in a timely and cooperative manner.
All Regular Sessions of the Congress are for twenty days and open to the interested general public.
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