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Bordallo raises concerns on Compact impact during DOI’s budget hearing
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo attended Thursday last week a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources to discuss the President’s budget proposal for the Department of the Interior for fiscal year 2016. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel testified before the Committee.
During the hearing, Bordallo raised strong concerns over the DOI’s request to decrease discretionary Compact-impact for fiscal year 2016. The President’s budget requests a decrease in discretionary Compact-impact though the Office of Insular Affairs from $3 million to $1.3 million for fiscal year 2016; $30 million in mandatory spending remains intact. Bordallo successfully worked with the Appropriations Committee to reject a similar request last year and restore funding to $3 million for discretionary funding. She recognizes that the impacts the Compacts have had on Guam’s treasury, and she has urged the DOI to make Compact-impact a higher priority for the territories.
“I remain very concerned about the Administration’s request to decrease Compact-impact discretionary funds from the $3 million enacted last year to $1.3 million in the President’s request,” said Bordallo. “I was disappointed to see this decrease again in the President’s budget, when Congress rejected a similar proposal last year. This decrease does not address the many challenges that the affected jurisdictions face in providing social services to COFA migrants, nor does it reflect the sense of priority that we get from Interior’s leadership and that Congress has insisted on. COFA population trends have made the cost of providing services to COFA migrants unsustainable, and Compact-impact should explicitly remain a top priority for OIA. I will work with my colleagues to address this matter in the annual appropriations process.”
