Kilili warns of ‘difficult’ food stamp program conversion

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan warned that a proposal to ensure that CNMI residents get the same food aid as their fellow Americans would be “difficult at best, if not impossible” without the Fitial administration’s full agreement and cooperation.

Sablan, in an Aug. 4 letter to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, said it is “disheartening” to hear reports that the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs secretary does not support the delegate’s H.R. 1465, which the delegate said was supported by the governor.

Sablan’s H.R. 1465 would allow the CNMI to be covered by the national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, instead of by the nutritional assistance block grant that the CNMI annually negotiates.

“This change will mean that everyone in the Northern Marianas who needs food aid will get it, and that the help they get is the same as their fellow Americans throughout the nation,” Sablan told Fitial.

The Fitial administration has yet to respond to Sablan’s letter, and comment on media inquiries.

Sablan said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack also has the statutory authority to extend SNAP on his own without congressional action, but this also needs the cooperation and agreement of the CNMI government.

The delegate said the DCCA secretary has direct, day-to-day interaction with the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service “and if he is not agreeing with you [governor] and working toward the goal of bringing the Northern Mariana Islands into the national program, then Agriculture officials are going to be reluctant to advise Secretary Vilsack to agree to my request and move forward on including our people in SNAP.”

“If we are to succeed at helping everyone who is hungry, then we need for the Commonwealth government to engage with the Department of Agriculture on a serious and professional level,” Sablan told the governor.

DCCA Secretary Melvin Faisao said some 500 individuals have been on the food stamp waitlist because of lack of funds since May, the same time when DCCA announced a reduction of 34.6 percent in food stamp benefits to enable the program to accommodate more beneficiaries.

This early, Sablan is asking the Fitial administration to consider some of the changes that will be necessary when the CNMI is included in SNAP either through legislative or administrative action.

One of the needed changes is the use of an electronic benefit transfer system, not the paper coupons that the CNMI now uses.

Sablan said the Congressional Research Service has estimated that the conversion to SNAP will bring an additional $12 million to $24 million into the CNMI economy.

The delegate also asked the governor to provide him with all of the data regarding the current food stamp program that the DCCA secretary employs in his negotiations with USDA.

“You can understand that having this official information at my disposal will allow me to be more persuasive in arguing for an immediate short-term increase in the block grant and for our long-term inclusion in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program,” he added.

Sablan also said in his four-page letter that despite his letters since 2009 pointing out ways to improve the food stamp memorandum of understanding between the CNMI government and USDA, he has not received a reply.