Domenech: Next round of federal funding is coming

In two months, the U.S. Department of the Interior will start asking the CNMI and other territories to submit applications for the next round of federal funding, according to Doug Domenech, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s assistant secretary for Insular and International Affairs.

Domenech

During a radio briefing last Friday, Domenech, who appeared in a Zoom meeting from Washington, D.C., said they will pretty much divide the federal money among the islands.

“No, it’s not really completely equal but it depends on what the needs are,” he said.

Domenech said they are trying very hard to work not only the normal funding that they do on brown tree snakes, but also on things like invasive species.

He said the rhinoceros beetle outbreak on Rota is a very serious thing that they’re trying to work on right now.

“And I know we have more funding going in that direction. Other than that, I’m not sure I can say specific projects,” Domenech said.

With respect to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Domenech said they’re trying to get funding out from a lot of federal agencies. He said President Donald J. Trump activated 40-some agencies and Congress passed funding.

“So all those agencies are providing the funding to the different islands,” said Domenech, adding that his office got about $55 million in CARES Act funds. He said they allocated that funding out to all the islands, including the CNMI. He said they gave the CNMI over $4 million of that funding.

Domenech said they work closely with the government and particularly Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in looking at the Commonwealth’s priorities on the best way to spend that money. “We were very busy doing that even if we’re teleworking from home. And we hope that we can be helpful and you’ve been helpful to us. So it’s a two-way street,” he said.

Domenech said they’re coming to the end of the fiscal year for the federal government. “So we’re just at the tail end of giving out all of our grant money,” he said.

Domenech said the funding that Congress gave them was specifically allocated for preparing for and dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. He said when they got the funding, they asked each territory to come up with a pandemic plan. He said CNMI did that, figuring out how they wanted to allocate the money and so they gave them the portion of the funding. “And then they draw down based on how they want to spend it,” he said, adding that they gave a grant to the CNMI very early on for the purchase of personal protective equipment, masks, gloves, ventilators for the hospital and for front line workers.

“We actually have more available if it’s needed. That $4 million has not been spent down yet, but I’m sure it will eventually,” he said.

Over the last couple of years, Domenech has been in the CNMI four times. “And it’s a great joy every time I came either to visit with the governor, or to travel up and then to all three of the major islands,” he said.

Domenech said he’d been to Pagan, but of all the insular areas that they deal with, his favorite is Rota.

The Office of Insular Affairs works with the four U.S. territories in the Pacific—American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and CNMI— and three Freely Associated States: Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. Of these seven insular areas that they deal with, four of them actually have no cases and so no fatalities and that they’re very grateful for that, Domenech said.

“And we’re up to about 3,600 cases across the three territories and 59 fatalities,” he said.