“The Recovery Act is bringing about $100 million to the commonwealth,” said Sablan. “That is so much money — almost the equivalent of an entire year’s budget for the CNMI government — that it is hard for people to understand where it is all going and how it affects their lives.
“So, it’s important to get information out about the funding that Congress provided, how it’s being used, how many jobs are being created, and how people can take advantage of the opportunities, by contracting or finding a job.
“The new Recovery office website is a big step in the right direction and adds to the resources that people can find at the federal government’s recovery.gov website and that we have had at Sablan.house.gov, keeping track of all the ARRA grants awarded in the NMI.”
Sablan’s office has recently added a Google maps element to the tracking effort. Sablan has also added a link to the revised CNMI Recovery Act website to Sablan.house.gov.
“If someone wants to see how much Recovery Act money was going to Kagman Elementary, for instance,” Kilili said, “they can click on the Google map we created and see the $1 million dollars going to Kagman and the breakdown of the spending at that school.”
Although total awards to the CNMI government, or to private individuals and businesses is $100 million, only about 20 percent of that money has been spent as of July 30, according to the federal government’s reporting site.
“Of course, there is always some lag between the local agency report to the federal agency, but 20 percent is fairly accurate and up-to-date,” Sablan says.
“It’s a good news/bad news situation. We have lots of money still to come. And that is going to have a stimulative effect on the Northern Marianas economy; it’s going to put more people to work. We just all wish that it could happen faster.
“But, of course, taking care in how the money is being used will produce the best results over the long term and will also help avoid any fraud or other problems.
“That’s one more reason why having the data available online for everyone to see and keep track of us is a very worthwhile development.”
Some of the first votes the Northern Marianas congressman made in the U.S. House of Representatives were for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1, in February 2009.
“We had to beat back Republican attempts to gut the bill during the amendment process on the floor of the House,” said Sablan.
No Republicans voted for final passage of the Recovery Act, which to date has created or preserved 375 jobs in the Northern Marianas.
