Senate wants Compact funds for DPH, DPS

Aside from passing a $206-million budget bill, the Senate adopted yesterday a resolution asking the governor to allocate all Compact Impact funds for fiscal year 2006 to the departments of Public Health and Public Safety.

If approved by the House of Representatives and Gov. Juan N. Babauta, Senate Joint Resolution 14-11 would increase the Senate-approved budget for the two departments by $5.1 million and bring the Commonwealth’s overall budget to $211 million.

Sen. Joseph Mendiola, chair of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, introduced the resolution during yesterday’s Senate session.

The resolution received a unanimous vote from the upper house. It will now go to the House of Representatives and later to the Governor’s Office for action.

The resolution noted that the departments of Public Safety and Public Health were among the Commonwealth agencies most affected by migration from states that are freely associated with the U.S. government.

ÅgThe total budget under Public Law 13-24 continuing appropriation is [$218 million] versus [$206.5 million] of resources identified under H.C.R. 14-3, HD1, available for appropriation for Fiscal Year 2006, a shortfall of approximately $11.5 million,Åh a portion of the resolution read.

The resolution said that the governor could supplement local appropriations by allocating all of the CNMI’s Compact Impact grant funds to the departments of Public Safety and Public Health.

Babauta had earlier announced that he would commit over $20 million in Compact Impact funds entirely to the Public School System over a four-year period beginning fiscal year 2005.

The Compact funding of $5.1 million is the CNMI’s share in the $30 million federal appropriation to compensate territories on FAS migration-related costs.

The Compact legislation provides that $30 million be divided each year for the next 20 years among the CNMI, Guam, Hawaii, and American Samoa to help these jurisdictions deal with the effects of migration from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands, which are commonly known as the freely associated states.

The funds are to be divided proportionally among the jurisdictions on the basis of the number of people in each jurisdiction who migrated from FAS after 1986, when the original Compacts of Free Association between the United States and the island governments went into effect.