Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. This is notVS, I in the world. I'm John Battlest with Gordon Chang at

Gordon G Chang, my colleague and co-host friend. We welcome Cleopascal

the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy's who's traveling

and helping us follow a story that is far away and at the same time immediate.

This has to do with the Compact of Free Association, three sovereign states in Oceania, the Vass

Pacific, that are stepping stones between Wahoo, which is the headquarters of the Indo-Packcom, to the Philippines onto Asia. Bang, bang, bang. They are the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau, bang, bang, bang. They are due

a update by the U.S. Congress, having to do with money and pledge of security.

That update, I understand, was originally in the bill that we now considered to be the

compromise bill about the border, about funds for Ukraine,

funds for Israel, funds for the border, that compromise bill out of the US Senate except

Cleo a very good evening to you thank you when last we spoke

we were waiting for the house to move on the bill that included money and Pledge of Security for the Compact of Free Association.

Now the emphasis in Washington is on the Senate bill which remains contested but that's the nature of making

sausage. However, what about the Compact of Free Association? Where is that? Good

evening to you. Good evening. So it was in that Senate draft that you mentioned along with the border Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.

And at some point in the two or three days before it was put out publicly it got

Taken out and we don't we don't know why so

That means that it currently has no legislative home at all.

And in the House side they did put forward, of course it failed, the standalone bill for Israel,

but there was no standalone bill for the compact.

So as of now, the renewal, it's the renewal of the financial and services components of the compacts.

These, these, they've been negotiated over

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