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Pretty good
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Posted on Feb 21 2012
President Obama has proposed that the Northern Mariana Islands get $6.7 million for EPA water and sewer projects next year. That’s six times more than the $1 million we were getting when I first went to Congress. The reason for this huge jump in funding is that insular area Members of Congress have worked together to change the percentage of the EPA money that goes to our areas from 0.33 percent for water and 0.28 percent for sewer to 1.5 percent for each in the President’s budget. So, even though nationally the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Funds are proposed to go down by 32 percent in fiscal year 2013, the Northern Mariana Islands cut reported is only 17 percent—the smallest cut for any of the insular areas. (NMI loses $1.022M in FY’13 EPA budget, Marianas Variety, Feb. 20, 2012.) Another important fact: the $6.7 million in the President’s budget is $124 of federal taxpayers money for each and every one of us here in the Northern Mariana Islands. That is 18 times higher than the national average of $7 per capita for EPA water and sewer grants.
The reality is that our nation has to get spending under control, so we will see cuts in programs. But let us not forget how well the Northern Mariana Islands is doing. Because of the changes to the funding formula, beginning in Public Law 111-88, and with some help from the Recovery Act the Commonwealth will have received $30.1 million over the four years since we gained representation in Congress. That is pretty good compared to the $1 million annually we were getting before and it is one of the reasons that we are closer to 24-hour water for the people of Saipan.
