Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter last week said Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) failed to reach out to his office regarding numbers of the Enhanced Nutritional Assistance Program and the Nutritional Assistance Program.<\/p>\n
Hunter, said in a retort to Sablan\u2019s claim that his office reached out to DCCA to request for information was ignored, that NAP staff received only a three-line email requesting to include Sablan\u2019s office in the forwarding of an upcoming quarterly ENAP report last October.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was it. I never received a letter from the congressman\u2019s office spelling out any timeline on the new Agriculture Bill and letting us know what they would need to aid them in the effort to see us transition into [the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program] in that bill,\u201d Hunter told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Hunter added that over the last six months, he has not received any single \u201csubstantial piece of communication\u201d from the delegate\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Sablan in a previous press conference said that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Food and Nutrition Service, carried over balances from fiscal year 2017 ENAP and NAP could hinder the CNMI from receiving more funding out of the Farm Bill grant. According to Sablan, $18.4 million leftover ENAP funding was carried over from fiscal year 2017 while $4.1 million of the $12.1 million NAP block grant was carried over. The ENAP funding for fiscal year 2018 started at $27 million. Sablan added that he believes DCCA is biding NAP and ENAP funding to stretch out the funds.<\/p>\n
In response to the claims of DCCA penny-pinching funding for it to last longer, Hunter reiterated that the ENAP is carried out as a plan approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have carried out that plan meticulously. We have been commended by the FNS for our exemplary implementation of the plan,\u201d Hunter said, adding that the delegate even lauded their handling of the program.<\/p>\n
The ENAP, which just began implementation last June, is specifically designed not to expend all of the funds in a short period, unlike a previous proposal from the delegate\u2019s office attempting to secure SNAP pilot funding, said Hunter.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing in the responses to the congressman\u2019s questions to the USDA, the FNS\u2019 parent department, notes that there is any threat to the NAP or ENAP, or that there is any misadministration of these funds, despite the congressman\u2019s effort to paint that picture. That misinterpretation is the creation of the congressman,\u201d the DCCA secretary said.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026As the congressman knows (or should know), the ENAP is a living plan. That plan is based on projections produced by the FNS, not the CNMI NAP. We are bound by their projections and we are bound by their approvals for specific implementation,\u201d explained Hunter. He added that DCCA recently met with the FSN to discuss their projections, which they acknowledged \u201cwere off\u201d due to nott aking into account the level of growth experienced by the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad the congressman extended us the courtesy of real communication with our offices, we would have let him know that we had revised the ENAP income eligibility levels and benefits post-FNS meeting, raising both. We would have let him know that these changes would be made as soon as approval was received. The Department of Agriculture response to the congressman mentions this, but I\u2019m not clear that he understands what it says, \u2018CNMI is currently considering, with FNS technical assistance, modifications to the ENAP intended to expand participation. Primary among the changes are further increases to income eligibility and benefit levels as well as additional ENAP promotion.\u2019 Now again, if he\u2019d had enough courtesy to contact us, we could have told him that we are more than \u201cconsidering\u201d, as we have submitted amendments to the plan that are being considered by the FNS,\u201d said Hunter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all political<\/strong><\/p>\n Hunter in his retort to the delegate\u2019s claims added that though unconfirmed, Sablan\u2019s actions is personal and \u201cpetty politics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[Sablan\u2019s] supposed concern and hit-piece came only a few days after I posted a pointed critical statement and accompanying illustration as address to a comment he made on social media,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cHis concern wasn\u2019t the ENAP, or those that really depend on food assistance\u2014or he wouldn\u2019t be putting a well-run program in jeopardy with the clearly skewed public statements he made about the program. His concern was retaliation for the criticism I posted.\u201d <\/p>\n Hunter said the DOA did not respond to his \u201cpointed questions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe DOA didn\u2019t bite and provide him with the information he was hoping to get, even though he was already set in his course to smear the ENAP handling in some attempt at retaliation. So when he says this isn\u2019t personal or petty politics\u2026 That is all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter last week said Delegate Gregorio Kilili…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,34,20627,6687],"class_list":["post-273525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-dcca","tag-enap","tag-fns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}