Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has yet to decide whether or not to attend two meetings in Washington, D.C. that will take place in the last week of February.<\/p>\n
The next meeting of the Interagency Group on Insular Areas is planned for Feb. 21, less than a week from today. Members of the National Governors Association are also scheduled to convene for its winter meeting on Feb. 25-28, 2006.<\/p>\n
Both meetings will be held in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been no official word yet as to whether the governor will go,\u201d said press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney continues to be an issue. We have frozen all travel. As important as these meetings are, the governor is reluctant to travel. It\u2019s probably unlikely,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Fitial has been on two CNMI-related travels since he won in the November 2005 election. He paid for both trips using his personal money.<\/p>\n
IGIA is a federal interagency group that President George W. Bush created in May 2003 to coordinate federal policy toward the U.S. insular areas, which are the CNMI, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs, the IGIA consists of the heads of each department in the executive branch and the heads of those other agencies that the Secretary of the Interior designates, although IGIA duties may be delegated to other high-ranking officials. The group is responsible for identifying issues that affect the insular areas and will make recommendations to the President and other appropriate officials regarding those issues.<\/p>\n
The NGA is an organization of the governors of the 50 U.S. states and five U.S. territories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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