Kilili: Another $1M for CNMI food stamps

The Commonwealth will receive another $1 million for its local food stamp program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan yesterday.

The extra funding comes as a result of the commitment made to Sablan by Food and Nutrition Services Administrator Audrey Rowe at a congressional hearing five weeks ago. The money may only be used for benefits; none may go to administrative costs.

“Ms. Rowe called this morning to let me know that she was following through on her commitment to me to address the food stamp shortfall in the Northern Marianas,” Sablan said. “The Food and Nutrition Service is increasing the food stamp block grant for fiscal year 2012 by $1 million. So, instead of the current $12.148 million, we will be getting $13.148 million.”

Sablan said the extra money will help to keep the benefit levels up. “And if there are people who haven’t applied because they heard there was a wait-list, this should encourage them to come in and register for help,” he added.

Sablan pointed out, though, that the “real goal” is to get the Northern Marianas into the national Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, “so we don’t have to go begging whenever economic conditions in our islands force more people to need help getting food.”

Sablan confronted Rowe with the stark reality that thousands of people in the Northern Marianas are not getting enough to eat, during a House Nutrition Subcommittee hearing on July 21. Rowe promised to help.

The hearing was not the first time that Sablan raised the issue with the Department of Agriculture. Last October, he alerted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the CNMI government was cutting the hours of government workers and that food stamp rolls would swell as a result.

In May, when the CNMI government cut food stamp benefits to accommodate the new enrollees and when some people eligible for help began to be turned away, Sablan again contacted Vilsack, asking for more money for the local food stamp program.

CNMI officials negotiate the food stamp funding level each year with the Department of Agriculture, but the negotiated block grant does not provide the same level of assistance as people receive in Guam and the states. And the grant is fixed, so that when more people enroll, benefits have to be cut.

Sablan has been successful before at getting additional money for the program. When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act upped national food stamp benefits by 13.86 percent, Sablan negotiated with Vilsack to do the same for the Northern Mariana Islands. That effort boosted the local program from $10.7 million annually to $12.1 million. And Sablan was able to keep that same funding level in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

Now the grant will go up again in fiscal 2012—this time to $13.1 million. And, Rowe told Sablan, none of the money may be used for administrative overhead. It all has to go to help the hungry.

Previously, Sablan has called the extra funding he has gotten from the Department of Agriculture a “stop-gap” solution. His ultimate goal is to get away from the CNMI negotiating its grants every year and to get into the national food stamp program.

“We are not done yet,” Sablan said. “Even though it is great to get the extra $1 million, we cannot lose sight of the larger goal: inclusion in the same national program that other Americans have access to.

“We have already demonstrated to Secretary Vilsack that he has the legal authority to include the Northern Marianas right now,” said Congressman Kilili. “And Secretary Vilsack has shown before that he recognizes the Northern Marianas has to get more help than the negotiated block grant provides. So I am hopeful.”

Sablan has also introduced legislation, H.R.1465, the AYUDA Act, that would include the Northern Marianas in the national program. He is a member of the House Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over food stamps and which is expected to write its five-year bill on farm and nutrition programs during the current Congress. So Sablan is well-positioned to get his bill included in that larger legislation and passed into law.

“You have to attack a problem with as many different solutions as you can,” he said. “But I view the legislative solution as Plan B.

“The Secretary could give Americans in the Northern Marianas the same help that Americans elsewhere receive – today, if he wanted to – using his administrative authority.
“It’s hard to tell people who need food to be patient and wait for Congress to act,” Sablan added. “When you’re hungry, tomorrow is a long time away.” [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]