GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Thursday thanked U.S. lawmakers for the “significant resources” they provided the CNMI so it could rebuild and repair following devastating typhoons, but he said there is also a need to “break the bottlenecks holding up” federal assistance.
In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, the governor said the CNMI needs “fixes in federal policy to help us move hundreds of millions of federal dollars in stalled projects.”
He noted that many federally funded projects are still in various stages of implementation, which include the following:
—$248 million to fund critical housing and infrastructure projects throughout Saipan, Rota, and Tinian through the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program.
—$81 million for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., $8.9 million for the Commonwealth Ports Authority, and $53.3 million for the rebuilding of the educational facilities within the Public School System, from the FEMA Public Assistance Program.
—$21.9 million for the design and construction of a modern cultural facility and sports complex, $19.6 million for the design and construction of an Economic Resiliency Center, $11.2 million for the revitalization of Saipan’s main tourist district in Garapan, and $23.5 million for the Northern Marianas College and the Northern Marianas Trades Institute, from the Economic Development Administration.
“We are grateful for the federal investments that have been made in projects such as these which will go to support the long-term economic recovery of the Marianas,” Palacios said.
“But what we have found is that in the years that have lapsed since the disasters occurred, these projects have encountered significant hurdles in execution, ranging from limited local capacity and labor shortages, to cumbersome federal environmental review process, rigid deadlines, and inflexible grants that do not take into account costs that have skyrocketed from the time that projects were approved for funding.
“For example, long before the pandemic and soaring inflation, when Northern Marianas College, our sole institution of higher education in the Commonwealth, applied for and secured EDA and other grants to rebuild its campus that had been destroyed by Super Typhoon Yutu, the estimated cost of construction on the high end was approximately $375 per square foot. Today, that cost per square foot has jumped at least 40%, and the college must now scale back its project plans significantly to stay within its means.”
The governor said he would “welcome the opportunity to have a conversation with our federal partners about how we can break the bottlenecks holding up hundreds of millions of federal dollars awarded to support the Commonwealth’s economic recovery and development, and provide greater flexibility and consideration of the contingencies that so dramatically impact our ability to complete these critical projects. Moreover, I believe with the climate crisis bearing down heavily upon us and more frequent and severe weather events anticipated in the future, we need the federal government to seriously consider establishing a permanent FEMA presence in the Marianas.”
Arnold I. Palacios
