{"id":365680,"date":"2022-04-05T06:01:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T20:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=365680"},"modified":"2022-04-05T06:01:36","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T20:01:36","slug":"bidens-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-invests-in-us-territories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bidens-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-invests-in-us-territories\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s bipartisan infrastructure law invests in US territories"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU<\/strong>\u2014This week in Hawai\u02bbi, Department of the Interior leadership convened a workshop with federal partners and teams from several of the U.S. Territories \u2014American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands \u2014 to discuss strategies to support the successful implementation of projects supported by President Biden\u2019s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the U.S. Territories.<\/p>\n

The three-day workshop covered key infrastructure topics, including water, broadband, energy, legacy pollution, and built and natural infrastructure needs. Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Winnie Stachelberg and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Keone Nakoa helped lead the events, which further explored Territorial infrastructure needs and identified ways to work together to deliver significant climate and infrastructure support provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.<\/p>\n

Throughout the workshop, Department leadership highlighted ongoing efforts to ensure efficient disbursement of infrastructure funding to U.S. Territories, including for the\u00a0WaterSMART grant\u00a0and Ecosystem Restoration programs. These efforts will help ensure U.S. Territories have the investments they need to develop a long-term plan to facilitate conservation, resiliency, and economic growth.<\/p>\n

In an effort to further support the Territories, Senior Advisor Stachelberg announced the Department\u2019s intention to designate a Territorial carve-out targeted to ecosystem restoration infrastructure needs. In addition, Deputy Assistant Secretary Nakoa also announced that the\u00a0grant application deadline\u00a0for Technical Assistance Program activities, including general Technical Assistance, Maintenance Assistance, and Coral Reef and Natural Resources, will be extended an additional two weeks, to April 15, 2022.<\/p>\n

During the visit, Infrastructure Coordinator Stachelberg also met with Native Hawaiian Community leaders from Native Hawaiian-serving agencies and organizations to similarly explore their infrastructure needs and ways to access significant climate and infrastructure support provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. She and city and state representatives specifically explored how the Department can continue to support the infrastructure needs for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act\u2019s homesteading program.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Secretary Deb Haaland, agency leadership, and representatives from the White House\u00a0convened\u00a0Territorial leadership at the Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA) to discuss the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and how any programs administered through the Departments of the Interior, Transportation, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency could address needs in the U.S. Territories. This week\u2019s workshop was held as a follow-up to the IGIA and furthered those efforts. (PR)<\/p>\n

Participants at the Climate Infrastructure Workshop in Hawai\u02bbi included agency leadership, congressional staff, and senior White House officials representing:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of the Interior<\/p>\n

\u2022 White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Agriculture<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Commerce<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Energy<\/p>\n

\u2022 Environmental Protection Agency<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Transportation<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Treasury<\/p>\n

\u2022 Department of Veterans Affairs (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU\u2014This week in Hawai\u02bbi, Department of the Interior leadership convened a workshop with federal partners…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":365678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[367,320],"class_list":["post-365680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-honolulu","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365680","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=365680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}