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‘Grant is 3 times more than minimum funding for territories’
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Posted on Jul 03 2023
Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan
The $80.8 million awarded to the CNMI for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program is more than three times the U.S. territories’ minimum funding allocation of $25 million, which Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) credits to the work of the Palacios-Apatang administration.
In his e-kilili newsletter over the weekend, Sablan said that, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration last Monday, the CNMI’s Broadband Policy and Development Program will receive $80,796,709 over five years to develop and expand broadband infrastructure for unserved and underserved communities in the Marianas.
He said the BEAD Program was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that the U.S. Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.
Sablan said that Glen Hunter, who is the administration’s special assistant for Broadband Policy and Development, briefed his (Sablan) chief of staff, Bob Schwalbach, Wednesday on the BEAD grand and other funding opportunities the congressional office and the Palacios administration can work on together to improve broadband speed, reliability, and coverage in the Marianas.
Meanwhile, Sablan disclosed last week that the U.S. Congress is providing $12.06 million to pave and widen Mount Tapochao Road on Saipan.
He said funds for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Act were first included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and augmented in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2023.
The delegate said the construction work paid for with this grant to the CNMI Department of Public Works should end the wash-outs and allow vehicles traveling in opposite directions to pass each other safely on the mountain road. Part of the plan are sidewalks, new guardrails, and warning signs.
