THE Torres-Palacios administration held a cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss the American Rescue Plan Act, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday.
He noted that the ARPA is over 2,000 pages long with several sections and subsections, including Section 602, which establishes the State Fiscal Recovery Fund and only applies to states, territories, and tribes.
The governor also mentioned Section 603, which establishes the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.
He added that the CNMI needs more grant writers to look into possible federal funds for different departments, divisions, entities, and non-governmental organizations.
“I hope that departments and semi-autonomous agencies [such as the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and the Commonwealth Ports Authority] will be able to do that,” he said. “We want to make sure that we don’t lose those opportunities.”
The governor said the administration wants to determine how much funding is available for each local government entity through the ARPA.
He reiterated that ARPA funds will help retire the CNMI government deficit, recall furloughed government employees and fund the salaries of government personnel, among other things, in accordance with federal and local laws.
He said ARPA funds can also be used for tourism enhancement, universal garbage collection, retirees’ pension and municipal governments.
The governor placed great emphasis on ensuring that retirees continue receiving 100% of their pensions.
As for the municipalities, the governor said his administration has been discussing special projects with the mayors, such as enhancing farming on Rota, ranching on Tinian, and fishing in the waters of Saipan and the Northern Islands.
“This way it will give each island [an opportunity] to showcase the love of our land and our waters. I hope that this will also provide more opportunities for our youth.”
He said he has also discussed the expenditure of ARPA funds with legislative leaders and the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.
The governor noted that the CNMI has yet to receive official guidelines from the federal government regarding the expenditure of the funds.
“There are a lot of moving [parts] in the expenditure plan,” he added.
Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig, for his part, said, “We have four areas we must spend the money on…[and] we expect to have more detailed [federal] guidelines on the dos and don’ts of these funds, like [the guidelines for] the CARES Act.”
He said the main focus of the cabinet meeting last week was to make sure that all departments and agencies take advantage of the other funding opportunities within the ARPA.
“We did focus mainly on the different areas of the ARPA and…how to navigate through the Act — the many hundreds of pages of it,” he said.
The Office of Grants Management and State Clearinghouse, he added, will conduct workshops this week to provide guidance on how to apply for grant funding not just from the ARPA, but also from the CARES Act, Atalig said.
“The CARES Act still has funding opportunities for our agencies,” he added.
The governor earlier said that he would allot $122.5 million of the CNMI’s $515 million in ARPA funds for the Commonwealth government’s operations in fiscal year 2022.
It was also announced that the Public School System will receive $160 million in ARPA funds.
Ralph DLG Torres
