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Kilili updates Rotary Club on federal aid, Congress initiatives
So far, the federal government has already given more than $17 million in Federal Emergency and Management Agency aid to some 3,000 households, $6 million to get people back to work, $4 million in loans for businesses, and $3.5 million in emergency food stamps, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP).
In a presentation yesterday to update members of the Rotary Club of Saipan about typhoon relief initiatives being done by his office and the federal government, Sablan also cited the help provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Most of this assistance comes automatically once our local government requests federal help. But your congressional office alerted federal agencies to expect those requests and made sure they got prompt reply,” Sablan said, “from the White House, a disaster declaration in 30 hours, from [Department of] Agriculture, release of food stamp funds in two days.”
Sablan said they pushed FEMA to reconsider when it decided that unemployment compensation could not be offered in the CNMI after the disaster.
“And now the Commonwealth has put together a proposal, and some people who cannot get work may get temporary financial assistance,” he said.
Sablan also shared with Rotary members what’s going on in the 114th Congress and some of his initiatives there.
“I was very glad to get back to the Education Committee this Congress,” Sablan said, where they will be reworking the No Child Left Behind Act.
“PSS is already getting about $4 million more every year from the Act than when I was first elected. But I want to change that funding formula so PSS does even better,” Sablan said.
He is also keeping an eye on the food stamp program as well as health care.
“Republicans cut food stamp nationwide in last year’s Farm Bill. But as a member of the Agriculture Committee, I was able to get them to add $33.5 million for the Northern Marianas,” Sablan said.
“We got an extra $109 million in the Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—for the Commonwealth’s Medicaid program,” he added.
