Less Compact money for NMI

The CNMI will be getting $2 million to $3 million less in Compact Impact funding in Fiscal Year 2010 because of lesser migration of Freely Associated States citizens to the islands due to the economic slowdown, according to Nikolau Pula, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.

Pula also said that federalization is unlikely to change travel requirements for FAS citizens entering the CNMI.

“Right now, Freely Associated States citizens can travel to the United States without having to acquire visas because of the Compacts so I think that’s the same way they’re coming here or to Guam. I don’t think that’s going to change,” he said, adding that lost job opportunities in the CNMI resulted in lesser FAS citizens coming here compared to Guam where the military buildup is starting to grow the economy.

The CNMI saw a 41 percent decline in the FAS citizen population, now at only 2,001, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 survey.

Guam, however, saw an 86 percent growth in FAS citizen population, from only about 10,000 in 2003 to 18,305 in 2008.

Survey figures suggest that the increase could have been triggered by the intermigration of FAS citizens from the CNMI, which has seen an economic slowdown due to the demise of the garment industry and weak tourism.

Pula, who is currently on Saipan to follow up on the status of Interior-funded capital improvement projects and the island’s power situation, said he does not have the exact figure yet as to how much the CNMI stands to get in Compact Impact funding for FY 2010.

“All I know is, as far as money goes, the CNMI is going to lose between $2 and $3 million. They used to receive about $5 million,” he said.

Pula said the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a survey of FAS citizens every five years.

“The count of the enumeration basically came out that more people from the Freely Associated States migrated to Guam, then Hawaii, then CNMI. Because of the decrease in the amount of Micronesians here, CNMI is going to lose some of the money for Compact Impact that used to come here because the enumeration result is based on the count that was done,” Pula added.

Under a Compact between the United States and FAS, citizens of FAS are free to travel, work and study in the U.S. and its territories without U.S. visas.

Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa and the CNMI share $30 million in Compact Impact funding that the Interior Department releases every year. The federal funding goes mainly to health, social service, public safety and education agencies for accommodating or providing services to FAS citizens.

Guam gets the lion’s share of the funding. The annual appropriation is reviewed every five years for possible realignment of allocations among recipient jurisdictions.