Babauta capped his four-day visit in the commonwealth with a brief signing ceremony yesterday afternoon for $1.2 million in federal grants for the CNMI.
Of this amount, $800,000 is for a new water and wastewater system master plan, while the rest will help protect the islands’ environment from the invasive brown tree snakes.
Babauta also authorized the reprogramming of $1.9 million in federal funds to finance different CNMI infrastructure projects.
With Babauta were Office of Insular Affairs Director Nik Pula, Federal Labor Ombudsman Pamela Brown, OIA field representatives Jeff Schorr and Keith Aughenbaugh and CNMI desk officer Frank Taitano.
Babauta used to be the chief of staff of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs.
Last year, President Obama appointed him as assistant secretary for the Interior, and the U.S. Senate subsequently confirmed his nomination.
Babauta said during his meetings with the governor, Fitial spoke about cooperation with his department and the Interior official agrees that is needed to ensure that the Northern Marianas achieve economic development.
“I am new in my position. This position is a new one created by President Obama and it’s my first trip here [in that capacity] and listening to the governor and knowing what I was out to do here, I agree that we need a new series of cooperation in order to move forward. And in order to ensure that the laws that have been recently applied to the Northern Marianas are done so in a very smooth and flexible manner,” he told the media.
Babauta said he hopes to establish a good working relationship with Fitial, who was sworn in for his second term on Monday.
“We will try to assist the Northern Mariana Islands and its leaders in developing a more prosperous future for you. It’s a unique situation. He will be the only governor to have a five-year term. So we have some five years to make some necessary steps forward to make a lot of progress, I hope to be a part of that,” Babauta said.
“I hope to have a very good working relationship with the governor. We may not agree on certain issues on how matters may be resolved but I think between the two of us, we agree that we can always talk to each other and find a middle ground to resolve things,” he added.
Fitial for his part thanked Babauta and noted that communication is very important to ensure good working relations between the local and federal governments.
“I believe in communication Mr. Secretary,” said Fitial. “Effective communication involves emphatic listening so I will be very emphatic to you when you talk.”
