Faisao said funding has been increased from $10.187 million to $12.148 million.
The increase is not part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or federal stimulus, funds provided to the CNMI, he added.
According to Faisao, DCCA is confident that once the CNMI Department of Commerce completes the survey on the commodity price index and the consumer price index feasibility on Saipan, Rota and Tinian, the new data will show the price disparities on the three islands caused by shipping and skyrocketing fuel prices.
As of May this year, DCCA records showed a total of 2,733 household cases and 7,848 household members being served by the food stamp program, which is administered by the department and operates under a block grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
