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Commonwealth gets $16M in federal funds
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Posted on Nov 29 2005
Deputy Interior Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen has signed the Commonwealth’s share of Compact Impact funds for fiscal year 2006, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs announced yesterday.
The CNMI government will receive the $5.2-million grant, in addition to $11.2 million in grant funds under the capital improvement program.
“The CNMI will…receive $5,171,900 in Compact Impact grant funds for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Under the terms of the grant, the CNMI government will use the funds to help offset the costs associated with migration from the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau under the Compacts of Free Association,” read a portion of a statement issued by acting OIA press officer and CNMI desk officer Roger Stillwell.
OIA has also approved Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s proposal to use the entire amount of Compact Impact funds for education, including rehabilitating public schools.
The outgoing Babauta administration had vowed to use the entire Compact Impact funds from 2005 to 2008 for the Public School System’s infrastructure needs and other education-related projects.
This is the third Compact Impact grant that the CNMI has received, Stillwell noted.
Compact Impact funds are provided under legislation that provides $30 million annually in “Compact Impact” funds to be divided among Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas.
The federal government has also awarded the CNMI a grant of $11.2 million for its capital improvement projects.
CIP funds are awarded on an annual basis for work on major projects in the Commonwealth.
The Governor’s Office has announced plans to use these funds for the Garapan revitalization project, work to repair Saipan’s water system, closure of the Puerto Rico Dump, a landfill in Rota, and a Tinian wastewater project.
