Office of Insular Affairs Releases Compact Grant Award to the Northern Mariana Islands

November 23, 2009
For more information please call
Tanya Harris Joshua (202) 208-6008

Washington, D.C. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Anthony M. Babauta awarded a $1,930,443 Compact Impact grant to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Section 104 (e) of Title One of the amended Compacts of Free Association describes Compact Impact assistance committed by the United States to the State of Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. The goal of this financial support is to annually provide, through 2023, $30 million in grants to these affected jurisdictions to aid them in defraying costs incurred as a result of increased demands placed on health, educational, social, or public sector services, or infrastructure related to such services, due to the residence of citizens from the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or Palau.

"Though the Commonwealth's fiscal year 2010 funding level reflects a decrease in the residence of Freely Associated States citizens on the islands, we feel that it is still important to mitigate their impacts and assist the local government as much as possible" said Babauta.

The $30 million distributed among the recipient areas is based on a ratio allocation to the government of each affected jurisdiction on the basis of population data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. The most recent enumeration was completed in fiscal year 2009 and the results were used to determine the distribution of the $30.0 million for fiscal year 2010. Hawaii's and Guam's share of the funding increased while American Samoa's and the Commonwealth's were reduced based upon the results.

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