OIA releases $1.7 million for territories, FAS

The Office of Insular Affairs approved three technical assistance grants totaling $1.7 million to the four United States territories and Freely Associated States—the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

The money is part of the fiscal years 2016 and 2017 budget of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This is not on the Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2018 that slashed $1.5 billion from Interior’s funding.

“These funds demonstrate, in part, our support commitments and important programs [that] continue to benefit people in the U.S. territories and FAS,” said OIA acting Assistant Secretary Nikolao Pula.

“We continue to work closely with the governors of the U.S. territories and presidents of the FAS to make sure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are used correctly and in the nation’s best interests.”

The three TA grantees are the Prior Service Trust Fund; the Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrik Atoll Health Care Program; and the All-Island Tax Administrators Association.

The PSTFA amounted to $865,800 and it would continue to fund employee benefits under its terms. The federal government took full responsibility of PSTFA after the termination of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

The governments of the three FAS—FSM, the Marshall Islands, and Palau—and the CNMI pay the benefits of former TTPI employees, aside from covering PSTFA expenses under the program.

Marshall Islands received $697,387 that would provide continuing healthcare program to the people of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrik atolls.

The OIA, through the program, provides full time services of physicians and nurses to about 3,000 residents of the atolls who have been affected by the more than 10 years of nuclear weapons testing on the islands.

The CNMI, together with American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the three FAS will be receiving a grant of $139,500 for the All-Island Tax Administrators Association.

AITAA gives the tax agencies of the four territories and three FAS the chance to address the concerns and promote tax laws of the Interior, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service. The 2017 AITAA conference would take place in June in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Pula said the OIA had given out a total of $605 million in funding, with the money part of the fiscal 2016 budget and continuing resolutions for fiscal 2017. The FAS had received about $200 million in mandatory funding while Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands got $231 million.

“The money for Guam is more for the military and federal employees working there. American Samoa receives an average of $23 million. The CNMI received from other federal agencies that also helps with the local budget,” added Pula.

The CNMI received almost $50 million in funding from the OIA, part of which was used for the refuse transfer station in Lower Base ($4.3 million) and the Marpi solid waste landfill ($16.6 million).

A total of $29 million was used to close the Puerto Rico dump and develop it into a park—the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park—that was unveiled on March 17. Pula said the park is the largest infrastructure funded by OIA in the CNMI.