US House OKs DOI budget for FY05

The federal bill that outlines the proposed fiscal year 2005 budget of the Department of the Interior appropriates close to $75 million for assistance to the insular areas, including the CNMI.

House Resolution 4568 or the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act has reached the U.S. Senate’s committee on appropriations, following its introduction at the U.S. Congress last June 15. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives on June 17—just two days later.

The measure outlines proposed appropriations for the DOI’s agencies and programs, which the CNMI could also avail assistance from.

Of the proposed $74,935,000 budget for the insular areas, some $6,563,000 would be available for salaries and expenses of the department’s Office of Insular Affairs.

The measure earmarks some $68,372,000 for technical assistance, which includes maintenance assistance, disaster assistance, insular management controls, coral reef initiative activities, brown tree snake control and research, and grants to the governments of the CNMI, Guam, Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

“Covenant grant funding shall be provided according to those terms of the agreement of the special representatives on future U.S. financial assistance for the NMI,” states the draft legislation.

The CNMI renegotiated for Covenant funding early this year and had struck an agreement with Washington DC, which could provide the Commonwealth up to $13 million in capital improvement funds for six years beginning FY2005, subject to the approval of the U.S. Congress.

Under the agreement, the CNMI would be allocated a baseline target of $11 million per year for at least the next six years, but could receive as much as $13 million or as little as $9 million in any year depending on the CNMI’s performance with respect to fiscal management and specific project proposals compared with those of other insular areas.

Earlier reports said the Bush administration would be batting for $12.423 million in capital improvement funds for the CNMI for this coming fiscal year.

“Any appropriation for disaster assistance…may be used as non-federal matching funds for the purpose of hazard mitigation grants provided pursuant to section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act,” the bill states.

It also provides for sufficient funding for the Pacific Basin Development Council from amounts allotted for technical assistance.