Kilili: NMI eligible for reconstruction funds

Money to fund reconstruction of facilities and other infrastructure that were damaged by Super Typhoon Yutu are readily available to the CNMI based on Public Law 116-20, the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019.

P.L. 116-20 was introduced by New York Democrat Rep. Nita M. Lowey as H.R. 268. President Donald J. Trump signed H.R. 268 into law early this month—a move that Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said the people in the Commonwealth greatly appreciates. Several Republicans in the U.S. Congress tried to block the passage of the bill but garnered a 354-58 vote in the House and an 85-5 margin in the Senate.

Sablan said his office in Washington D.C., has done its share in helping the bill clear its hurdles in order for it to reach the desk of Trump at the White House.

“Public Law 116-20 contains over $129 million in set-asides we added specifically for the Marianas and makes our islands one of the disaster areas eligible to apply for billions in reconstruction funding,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune.

“The congressional office has been at work since the days immediately after Super Typhoon Yutu to get the Marianas covered by this recovery bill. And our work continues, making sure that set-aside funds get to the Marianas quickly and help the Commonwealth access the other grants for which we are eligible,” he added.

P.L. 116-20 appropriates $19 billion in federal aid and provides all U.S. jurisdictions,—both states and territories—with funds to recover after being hit by natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, storms, typhoons, and wildfires.

The law also provides medical assistance where Sablan said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already released almost $15 million for the CNMI last week, Thursday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the first $14,278,981 of the $36,000,000 set-aside for the Marianas Medicaid program, he said.

Sablan added the grant award documentation was already sent to CNMI Medicaid Agency administrator Helen Sablan. “Ms. Sablan made the case for future Medicaid funding at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Health of the Energy and Commerce Committee. She and I also discussed the disaster funding and how to use it quickly at the hearing.”

P.L. 116-20 could give the CNMI additional disaster relief funding of $129.6 million where it will be available through Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery Grants, and other federal grants.

At least $50 million is expected from the CDBG-DR, aside from the $100 million already allocated to the CNMI from previous legislation that was passed last year.