Palacios bats for federal grants office

The CNMI ranks last when direct federal expenditures among the territories are compared on a per capita basis. In 1999 alone, the CNMI failed to receive an additional $14 million dollars in 1999 that it was qualified for.

In light of this, Rep. Arnold I. Palacios has introduced a measure Wednesday that would create an Office of Federal Assistance and Programs, whose primary purpose would be to consolidate all the information and application for federal grants among the different agencies within the Commonwealth government.

Under House Bill 13-120, the Office of Federal Assistance and Programs would be under the Office of the Governor.

“A Department of Interior study showed that the CNMI was eligible to receive an additional $14 million in 1999 but did not apply for the funds. It is estimated that this could have translated into an additional 300 to 500 good-paying public and private sector jobs and could have provided numerous social, educational, and economic opportunities and services to the Commonwealth,” Palacios said.

The creation of this office, he explained, would enable the CNMI government to: establish a database of those federal grants currently received; research all federal grants which the CNMI is eligible to receive; develop grant applications for federal grants which the CNMI has not previously submitted applications but are eligible to receive; research those grants which the CNMI is not currently eligible to receive but might reasonably be made eligible for; and train staff in grant writing, grant administration and compliance and best practices in federal grant implementation.

At the same time, Palacios said that developing stronger partnerships with the federal government is one of the themes that he and his fellow Republicans included in their platform and the administration has stated its support for this endeavor.

Palacios stressed that setting up the office will not cost the CNMI government a bundle since a certain percentage of all federal grants are automatically allocated for grant administration.

“Funding for the office staff and office operations costs will be drawn from the pool of indirect costs received from the federal grant funds given to the CNMI government,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that, in this time of economic uncertainty, it is vital that the CNMI government take full advantage of all the federal programs that are made available to the Commonwealth.