Previous Story
‘Cuts in national budget could impact CNMI’
|
Posted on Feb 10 2005
The CNMI government is not certain yet what programs would be affected by the proposed federal budget cut, but is hopeful that the U.S. Congress would eventually restore them.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta said yesterday that significant federal budget cuts would mean the phase out of certain domestic programs.
“If it does, we’d need to phase out programs and try other ways of funding, but we don’t know yet,” he said, noting that the national budget remains a proposal.
President Bush has submitted a $2.57-trillion spending plan for fiscal year 2006, which NMI Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio has described as “the most austere domestic spending plan in over 20 years.”
Tenorio said in a Feb. 8 letter to Babauta that among the federal agencies that will be hardest hit by the new budget cuts include the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Education. The CNMI receives significant assistance from these agencies.
“While it may be impossible to know in this early stage the overall effects…I was hoping that individual organizations might be aware how the potential budget cuts may affect their programs. I assume that there will be some agencies that will have to struggle with the proposed decreases,” said Tenorio.
Babauta said the CNMI government would closely work with the Department of the Interior, the White House, and members of Congress in lobbying against cuts affecting the CNMI.
“We are going to ask our contacts in Washington, D.C. to lobby against those cuts. The elimination of programs is not a forgone conclusion. Congress may reinstate those programs. It’s a matter of identifying those programs and lobbying for it,” said Babauta.
The Bush administration’s proposed budget includes a $392 million assistance to all U.S. territories and Freely Associated States. It includes $313.3 million in permanent funding that reflects long-term commitments made to the territories and FAS, as well as $79.1 million in current funding for assistance to insular areas.
