UNSPENT Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds must be returned to the federal government, CNMI Labor Secretary Vicky I. Benavente said.
Of the more than $700 million that the CNMI received in PUA funds, CNMI Labor disbursed over $300 million to eligible applicants, Benavente told House members during a Ways and Means Committee meeting last month.
Although the application period had ended in October last year, U.S. Labor gave CNMI Labor until June 2023 to administer PUA benefits. There are still 1,900 applicants who stand to receive their PUA benefits.
In an interview on Tuesday, Benavente said CNMI Labor is disbursing between $500,000 and $1 million in PUA benefits every week.
But “we must return the funds that we have not expended for those benefits because we no longer have people applying for them,” she said.
Benavente said PUA is designed to help those who lost their jobs, were furloughed, or had their salaries reduced due to economic hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But now, people are going back to work, she added. “Thankfully…employment in the CNMI has gone up.”
Asked if the CNMI or other territories can ask the federal government to use the unspent PUA funds for other programs that will also help people affected by the pandemic, Benavente said since PUA was created through an act of the U.S. Congress, it is the U.S. Congress that must approve such a request.
As for CNMI DOL, Benavente said it is important for them to keep track of what they have spent for PUA and then return what was not spent so they can apply for other federal grants.
CNMI Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente, second right, Workforce Investment Agency Director Frances Torres, center, WIA staffers Colleen Diaz, third right, and James Villacrusis, right, pose with Rotary Club of Saipan President Wendell Posadas, left, Vice President Jessy Loomis, third left, President-elect Irene Holl, fourth left, and Sgt.-at-Arms Mario Valentino during the Rotary Club’s meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant on Tuesday.
