{"id":283319,"date":"2018-08-29T06:06:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T20:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=283319"},"modified":"2018-08-29T06:06:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T20:06:04","slug":"torres-increase-in-income-eligibility-for-enap-okd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-increase-in-income-eligibility-for-enap-okd\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres: Increase in income eligibility for ENAP OK\u2019d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Secretary of the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Robert Hunter and Nutrition Assistance Program administrator Walter Macaranas with the\u00a0the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Region IX during their recent meeting in San Francisco.\u00a0
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Food and Nutrition Service has approved an increase in income eligibility with ENAP funding for the CNMI, allowing more families to avail of food assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres announced the approval yesterday, crediting the work of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter, Nutrition Assistance Program administrator Walter Macaranas, and \u201cour hardworking staff\u201d at the NAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe successfully negotiated for an increase in income eligibility so that more families can avail of food stamps,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis increase in eligibility standards will go a long way in helping our man\u2019amko, our children, and families who do not have enough food. Fulfilling our families\u2019 basic nutrition has been a critical priority of this administration, and increasing income eligibility allows people to receive food benefits while increasing personal income, growing skills, and participating in our economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI commend the work of our employees at the DCCA and NAP, who truly were the ones who accomplished this for our families in need,\u201d Torres said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NAP completed its annual budget negotiation and discussions about ENAP with the USDA-FNS on Aug. 23, 2018.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The negotiation was led on the CNMI side by Hunter, Macaranas, and NAP accountant Telly Olkeriil; Jesus Mendoza, regional administrator USDA-FNS, Dennis Stewart, SNAP director, and Maribelle Balbes, disaster assistance coordinator, on the FNS side.<\/p>\n

Hunter said a major result of the meeting was the approval by the FNS of the NAP\u2019s pending request to increase income eligibility with ENAP funding in the CNMI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FNS approved an increase in the CNMI\u2019s NAP income eligibility standards to that of 100 percent of poverty level guidelines recognized in the national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This means a qualified single individual would be eligible if they earned $1,005 or less per month.\u00a0As it follows, a family of two could bring in earnings of $1,354 and qualify, a family of three $1,702, a family of four $2,050, and a family of five $2.399.\u00a0This is an increase from the current $841 per month cap on earnings and the NAP\u2019s normal earnings cap of $541.\u00a0The increased income eligibility level will go into effect beginning Oct. 1 of this year,\u201d Hunter said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macaranas noted that the ENAP plan was designed to increase benefits and transition the NAP to operate more similarly to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including the development of an eligibility system that can accommodate an EBT (card)-based system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the intention of the plan that there would be a high possibility of the NAP seeing a transition into the SNAP through the new Agricultural Bill (Farm Bill). However, the FNS reported to the NAP that the window to see that language in the bill is likely closed. There was no language placed in the bill in Congress to see the CNMI transition into the SNAP.\u00a0This will mean that the next opportunity for the CNMI to get into the SNAP will be in five years, and that beneficiaries receiving the increased benefits and increased income eligibility will be stepped down from those after 2019,\u201d Macaranas added.<\/p>\n

The NAP was informed that because the CNMI is in a unique position, one of only three territories operating under a block grant, that increased funding necessary to continue the current or forthcoming income eligibility and benefit levels can only be authorized by Congress to increase the CNMI NAP block grant to levels that will accommodate that. As the CNMI transitions into SNAP was not included in the current Agricultural Bill, this is the only avenue to see current levels maintained or increased.<\/p>\n

With the NAP benefits at the cap, this recent approval for an increase in income eligibility will make more families with a higher monthly income, eligible through 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NAP is improving people\u2019s lives with compassion day in and day out. We commend their hard work and dedication,\u201d Torres said. \u201cMore and more people are following their dreams, entering our workforce, and stabilizing their families because we have put in place programs within the system for them to become self-sufficient while meeting their basic nutrition. I believe in the power of social support systems to provide a\u00a0hand up\u00a0to those in need. Increasing the eligibility will help in achieving this goal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Additional information regarding the increases made to the income eligibility standards and other changes will be provided at a later date. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Food and Nutrition Service has approved an increase in income…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":283330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,42,1907,22496],"class_list":["post-283319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-food","tag-snap","tag-torres-increase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283319","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}