Kilili: Farm bill money will feed more needy families

“At last, the $32.5 million I put into the 2014 Agricultural Act will be fully used to feed needy families.”

Thus said Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) yesterday, responding to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ announcement that the income thresholds for food stamps have been raised, making more Marianas families eligible for food stamps.

Sablan has been urging the governor to make more families eligible for assistance since March, when House Agriculture Committee staff and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported to Sablan that the Commonwealth had $22.5 million in unspent food stamp money.

Commonwealth officials ridiculed Sablan at the time and denied there were excess funds.

“We made the information public and that transparency angered some officials,” Sablan said. “What is important is that now, because we gave people the facts, at last, more families will get the help they need.”

On May 1, in response to Sablan’s public revelation that the Commonwealth had millions unspent, the local ENAP office did raise benefits significantly. On Saipan, monthly benefits for a family of four went from $686 to $944. For Tinian and Rota, the increases were from $744 to $998 and from $897 to $1,150.

Some 2,600 families benefited from the increase.

‘I can take the personal attacks, if it means more people get help’

Sablan publicly congratulated the governor at the time for the benefit increase. But the congressman said the Commonwealth still had $20 million on the table. He urged that income thresholds be eased so more families would be eligible.

“The way to use these funds is to make more families eligible for assistance,” Sablan wrote Torres in June. “By my calculation, based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture data, you could add 2,000 more Marianas households to those already receiving food aid, if you used all the Agricultural Act money you have available now and the block grant Congress appropriates annually.

“Who am I talking about? These are households earning more than the current maximum income for a family of four, $17,412 per year, and less than $25,000. They are families earning minimum wage, on fixed incomes, and retirees.”

Again, Commonwealth officials scoffed at the Marianas congressman. But this week’s announcement quotes Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter as doing exactly what Sablan had recommended. A family of four will now qualify if they earned up to $2,050 per month, or $24,600 annually.

“No one likes being attacked in the press or social media, as I was when I asked the governor to spend the money and make more families eligible,” said Sablan.

“I can take the personal attacks, if it means the people I work for get the help they need.”

Delay creates a problem in Congress

Despite the good news, Sablan also said that the spending delay creates a big problem in Congress.

“I raised this issue with the governor six months ago, when the next farm bill was being written in Congress,” Sablan explained. “I was working to get an extension of the ENAP program for another five years.”

It was at that point that Republican staff on the Agriculture Committee informed Sablan of the Commonwealth’s $22.5 million spending backlog and blocked his effort to extend ENAP.

“Now, both the House and the Senate have passed their versions and the five-year farm bill is in conference committee,” said Sablan. “That train has left the station.”

The missed opportunity means Sablan will have to get a standalone bill passed in the next Congress to put the Marianas into the national food program, SNAP, or get extra money for the Marianas in the annual Agriculture appropriation.

“Either way it will take everything I have learned in Congress over the last 10 years to be successful,” Sablan said.

“The easiest way would have been to piggyback on the farm bill, as I did in 2014. But that is no longer an option, because of the delayed spending by the Commonwealth.” (PR)