UNDER the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA, the CNMI’s central and municipal governments are receiving a total of $492 million, with $481,876,521 allocated to the central government; $449,840 to the municipality of Rota; $9,355,170 to Saipan; and $609,131 to Tinian.
These funds mark the largest federal grant to ever be awarded to the CNMI, according to the office of U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan.
Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig on Friday said the bulk of the ARPA funds has been spent on restoring the government employees’ full 80-hour pay period.
Because of the pandemic, many government employees were furloughed.
“People forget that prior to ARPA, we were operating on an austerity when we were at 64 hours,” Atalig said. “ARPA allowed us, it is allowing us, to provide 100% hours to all of our essential workers, all of our government agencies, and all three branches of government. That’s the bulk of the ARPA spending.”
He added that local revenues are still $100 million lower than the pre-pandemic level.
“The ARPA funds help [us] deal with this loss of revenue, allowing us to keep government services going, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.
“I hope the public understands that yes, [the central government] received $481 million, but that’s not allocated for a single item,” he added.
He noted that there are a lot of programs that are funded by ARPA, including more food stamp assistance, housing assistance, and rental assistance.
A mortgage assistance for homeowners is currently in the works and will soon roll out, he added.
“There are a lot of other programs in the community that people can avail themselves, and not just directly from the Department of Finance,” Atalig said.
He noted that the House has passed a joint resolution requesting that the administration provide another round of local stimulus.
“In our ARPA spending plan, we’ve identified a local stimulus, which we did roll out for over $25 million. We also included as assistance to all households the utility stimulus,” he said.
“If there is a need to make some changes to our [current] spending plan, [that would] obviously [be] made under the guidance of the U.S. Treasury…. I know that they’re asking us to reprogram or revise our spending plan, and I’ll review and look at it,” he said, referring to the House resolution.
“We’re looking at different ways to help our community, and we’re doing it. We’ve said in the beginning, we’re going to help households, and we have.”
Secretary Atalig has also been requested to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee to update members about the CNMI government’s financial status and the ARPA funds.
The U.S. Congress has specified four purposes for the ARPA funds: to pay for government services cut back because of loss revenues during the pandemic; to assist households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or the tourism industry; to provide premium pay to essential workers dealing with the health emergency; and to invest in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure projects.
Recently, the U.S Treasury Department issued its final rule on the use of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act.
The 44-page summary of the final rule can be accessed at https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/SLFRF-Final-Rule-Overview.pdf
The 437-page final rule can be accessed at https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/SLFRF-Final-Rule.pdf
