Interior Provides $853,590 for Former Trust Territory of Pacific Islands Employees through Prior Service Trust Fund Program

WASHINGTON – U.S. Interior Assistant Secretary Insular and International Affairs Doug Domenech has authorized a payment of $853,590 in FY 2019 funding for the Prior Service Trust Fund (PSTF) Administration, which distributes benefits to former employees of the post-World War II, U.S.-administered, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) in the Western Pacific. 

“The United States continues to meet its commitment to 771 beneficiaries who previously served in the U.S.-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands,” said Assistant Secretary Domenech. “The Prior Service beneficiaries are elderly persons who rely on these monthly checks in varying amounts from $25 to $65 to pay for medicine, food, utilities, and even telephone service.”  

Employee benefits provided through the Prior Service Trust Fund represent a responsibility assumed by the Federal Government following the dissolution of the TTPI in 1986.  The program serves beneficiaries with five years or more of prior service.  The four jurisdictions to emerge from the TTPI were the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. 

The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for coordinating federal policy with respect to the territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and administering and overseeing U.S. Compact federal grants provided to the freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. On behalf of the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, executes these responsibilities through the Office of Insular Affairs.

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