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US House junks NMI’s $140M bailout request
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Posted on May 09 2006
The U.S. House of Representatives has rejected the CNMI’s petition for $140 million federal assistance.
Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio said yesterday that the House did not include the CNMI’s submission for consideration.
“The House did not act on our request because there’s too many earmarks. I heard there were 900 earmarks but only about 38 were entertained. We’re not really singled out. It’s just that there are so many competing requests for funding,” said Tenorio in an interview yesterday.
He said he would bring the request to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
“ We have not given up yet. We will go up to the Senate. …We are now contacting the Senate to see if the request could be inserted. We will try it in the Senate and just continue on working hard,” Tenorio said.
Last March, Tenorio submitted the bailout budget plan, asking Congress to appropriate $140 million for the operations of the CNMI government for fiscal year 2007.
The proposed funding would be for operations of the central government, the Public School System, and Corrections; repairs to the Commonwealth Health Center; and fuel for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
Some funding would be used to close the Puerto Rico dump and for construction of landfills on Rota and Tinian, expansion of the Marpi landfill, reconstruction of the Tinian harbor, and reconfiguration of the Rota Harbor.
