House subcommittee hearing spotlights Pacific Islands influence as U.S. aid and programs face freezes

Chairwoman Sharon Kim opened the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific hearing saying the session would "evaluate the last 4 years" of U.S. policy in the region and identify opportunities for the new administration.

The hearing focused heavily on U.S. engagement with Pacific Island nations, where members and witnesses said diplomatic presence, small development projects and regional partnerships matter far beyond their dollar amount. "We have to show up because if we're not, the PRC can show up with bags of cash and demonstrate influence," Ranking Member Representative Ami Bera said.

Nut graf: Witnesses and members said recent administrative freezes on aid and democracy programs—cited during the hearing as including pauses in USAID funding and programs run by the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute—have created openings that China can exploit. They urged rapid, targeted restoration of critical projects and sustained presence through embassies, investment and diplomatic outreach.

Panelists described concrete examples. Richard Fontaine, chief executive officer at the Center for a New American Security, noted the Biden administration had "established the embassies in Solomons and Vanuatu and Tonga," and warned that those diplomatic gains must be maintained. He said access to the U.S. market is a particular advantage the United States can offer small Pacific economies.

Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the committee that Pacific nations themselves have clearly stated what they want from the United States: "They make clear to us directly what they want from us... market access, economic engagement is the missing link today." Singleton and other witnesses recommended using Development Finance Corporation authority, smaller-scale aid and public-private partnerships to sustain influence.

Representative Brad Sherman and other members pressed witnesses over recent policy choices. Sherman criticized an across-the-board pause on development programs, saying it had suspended a $21 million economic support arrangement with the Solomon Islands and citing the $500,000,000 Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with Nepal as an example of projects that the freeze could imperil. Jack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said Nepal had committed $200,000,000 toward that compact and warned that freezing compacts creates an opening for Beijing.

On specific tools, members and witnesses discussed several low-cost, high-visibility options: reopening or sustaining small embassies, targeted development projects (for example, fisheries management and seabed mineral partnerships), and regional cooperation with Australia, New Zealand and Japan. "If you're President Trump and you're looking for areas where a little bit of money goes a long way, what better place than the Pacific?" Fontaine said.

The witnesses and members also repeatedly urged clearer congressional review and speedy decisions rather than indefinite freezes. Several members asked for an expedited, item-by-item assessment rather than blanket suspension, arguing that a quick restoration of effective programs would blunt Chinese outreach.

Ending: Committee members said they would continue oversight and urged the new administration to make a sustained Pacific strategy a priority, emphasizing diplomatic presence, market pathways and small-scale development assistance as the principal levers to preserve partner countries' sovereignty and counter coercive offers from Beijing.