Kilili breaks down Interior funding for CNMI in FY 2013

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) has helped break down President Barack Obama’s proposed U.S. Interior funding for the CNMI in fiscal year 2013, including $12.5 million in Office of Insular Affairs technical assistance grants and $8.7 million in capital improvement project funding.

Sablan said the specific amount for CIP is not set by Congress, “but is the result of a performance-based competitive system.”

Annual CIP funding for the CNMI has been on a steady drop in the past few years.

In FY 2005, the CNMI’s CIP funding was $12.5 million. Five years later or in FY 2010, it was $11 million, before going down to $10 million in FY 2011, $9.5 million in FY 2012, and then to $8.7 million in FY 2013.

Sablan, in a separate letter to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, said the Section 702 CIP grant represents only about 5 percent of all federal grant funds that the CNMI has been receiving. He said in FY 2010 alone, the CNMI received a total of $190 million.

“Nevertheless, we can ill afford this 30 percent drop in Covenant Funds between 2005 and 2013 so long as the need for 24-hour potable water, affordable power, solid waste facilities on Rota and Tinian, and adequate schools remain,” Sablan told Fitial, as he warned the governor about the risk faced by the CNMI in losing CIP money if it continues to have a CIP funding expenditure rate of below 50 percent.

The CNMI’s rate of CIP money expenditure is at 36 percent, a slight improvement from 32 percent the previous year but still below the 50 percent threshold.

The Interior’s proposed FY 2013 budget for the CNMI also includes $3 million for brown tree snake control and $1 million for the coral reef initiative. Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs Tony Babauta asked Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to exempt these two programs from the austerity measures or the 16-hour work cut every two weeks.

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos said on Friday that the Fitial administration has yet to make a decision on exempting federal-funded positions from work hour cuts. Fitial is currently off-island and won’t be back until March 5.

Interior funding also includes $3 million for the Empowering Insular Communities initiative.

The $12.5 million for OIA’s technical assistance grants is proposed for the following: Close Up, $1.1.million; Junior Statesmen, $350,000); Prior Service Benefits Program, $1 million, the Bureau of Economic Analysis for continuing its work on island gross domestic product, $600,000; Judicial training, $320,0000; and the CNMI Ombudsman’s Office, $250,000.

“In general these funds are shared among the four smaller U.S. insular areas,” said Sablan.

There is also a new $5 million set aside for the impact of Freely Associated States immigrants on education systems in American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, and the CNMI under Obama’s proposed budget submitted on Monday.

Two days later, the House Natural Resources Committee, on which Sablan sits on, held an oversight hearing on Interior’s budget.

“Among other issues, Secretary Ken Salazar and I discussed working together to find solutions to the critical needs of the Commonwealth Health Corporation, and how the Department will fulfill its commitment for a Marianas Trench Marine National Monument visitor center,” Sablan said.