WITH the enactment of the American Rescue Plan of 2021, the CNMI government will receive over $740 million in federal assistance.
Ralph DLG Torres
This includes a direct payment of $498 million, $160 million for education stabilization, $30 million for the Nutrition Assistance Program, $25 million for the earned income tax credit program, $9 million for the Commonwealth Ports Authority, $7.8 million for emergency rental assistance, $5.1 million for childcare entitlements, $4.1 million for homeowners assistance, and $20,000 for the Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority.
The Public School System will also receive additional funding.
“With the additional funds, I know PSS is in great hands,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. We are finalizing our expenditure plan,” he added.
He said discussions are ongoing among the three branches of the CNMI government, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
What the administration wants to do, Torres said, is to use the incoming federal funds to address the CNMI deficit, including what is owed to CUC, CHCC and vendors.
The remainder of the funds will then go toward other priorities, including funding for each municipality, bringing all government employees back to 80 hours, as well as addressing the reduction-in-force or RIF.
Torres said some of the funds will go toward airline incentives to bring tourists back to the islands.
“How to go about doing that is a whole new conversation in itself,” the governor said, noting that discussions are ongoing with the Marianas Visitors Authority.
“We’ll be giving more information as we finalize these decisions,” he added.
He noted that the CNMI is also receiving other federal funds awarded earlier, including the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds through the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.
“There’s quite a few grants for infrastructure, and other funding opportunities for the CNMI. [The Department of] Finance and [the Office of Management and Budget] are looking into the total breakdown,” the governor said.
As to when the American Rescue Plan funds will be received, the governor said, by law, within the next 60 days.
He said this will give the CNMI government enough time to work on its expenditure plan.
As with funding the CNMI government received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act last year, the governor said the incoming funds do not require local legislative appropriation.
“We do have, of course, a list of priorities, and we had met with the cabinet [recently], and we’ll be meeting again next week regarding the priority programs,” the governor said.
The governor added that the administration is also trying to obtain more information regarding funding for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
“We want to roll it out as soon as we can. I know that it’s taking a little longer, but I just ask for [the community’s] patience. Once we receive those funds, then we’ll roll them out,” he added.
“I wish that we had extra funds that could be reimbursed later, but we don’t have them, so we’re hoping that once [the federal government transfers] those funds, we’re able to just disburse them immediately.”
The governor said the administration is also looking into the Lost Wages Assistance, or LWA, program.
“We have a lot of funds that we need to spend in the next couple of years. We want to make sure that we address all of our pending issues and pending deficit…. We want to really try to clear all of our books…and this is a great opportunity for us to do it,” he said.
