Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela was in Washington, D.C. where he attended the winter meeting of the U.S. conference, an participated during the deliberation.
The approved congressional appropriations include:
1) The energy efficiency and conservation block grant in the amount of $2.8 million. This is a huge victory for a program conceived and championed by the U.S. conference of mayors. In addition to this appropriation, another $400 million in competitive energy grants to be administered by the U.S. Department of Energy;
2) The Highway Program at $27.6 billion, with 30 percent to be sub-allocated to local areas through the surface transportation program;
3) For airports improvement grants at $1.1 billion; the housing and urban development’s community development block grant programs at $1 billion; for the public housing capital funds (modernization) at $4 billion; for public housing capital at $4 billion; emergency shelter grants at $1.5 billion; for the safe drinking water revolving funds at $2 billion; for the community oriented policing services at $1 billion, and it waived the $75,000 cap and the $75,000 matching requirements; the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant a block grant for public safety at $2 million, which has more than doubled the funding ever provided in one year; and for the workforce training program at $3.95 billion — with 1.2 billion for youth training, including summer jobs.
Restoration of the summer jobs program has been a key priority for the nation’s mayors since the stand-alone program was eliminated in the passage of the workforce investment act in 1998.
For the schools’ modernization, $8.8 billion was earmarked.
This funding includes the $39.54 billion available in state general fiscal relief for schools, and each governor of states will have discretion on how the funding will be sub-allocated.
The national endowment for the arts will receive $50 million to provide grants to state and local arts agencies to assist nonprofit agencies create or retain jobs in the arts community.
Tudela noted that without the strong leadership of Conference President Manny Diaz of Miami, Florida, and the hard work of all the mayors, all these funds would not have been possible, and the mayors will not be victorious to obtain direct funding for their cities and local governments in the largest funding bill in American history.
The agreement provided the mayors with an opportunity to create jobs, invest in sustainable infrastructure, and increase energy efficiency while reducing climate emissions.
Tudela looks forward to seeing that the CNMI government will maximize every opportunity to apply for these grant monies for programs that have been implemented all year round here in the commonwealth.
