{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://sablan.house.gov/press-release/major-breakthrough-liheap-funding-nmi", "Major breakthrough in LIHEAP funding for NMI", "2013-11-14", "2013", "2013-11", "Independent", "Senate", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan received word today that years of effort to increase the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) grant for the Northern Mariana Islands have paid off. The Department of Health and Human Services informed Sablan that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had decided to provide the maximum amount permitted by law for the NMI and the other U.S. territories, almost four times more than they have been receiving since 1981. The change goes into effect on January 1 and will continue indefinitely.\nLast week, Sablan announced that the Department was releasing $50,000 in LIHEAP funding to the Northern Marianas for the current fiscal year. But at the same time the Department informed him that it was nearing completion of its analysis of the long-standing request by Sablan and other territorial representatives to raise the grant to the maximum the law allows.\n\u201cWe knew that the Secretary would be deciding whether to keep us at 0.135\u00a0percent of total national funding or give us the maximum of 0.5 percent,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cAnd we knew electricity rates and fuel costs in our islands made a strong argument for her to increase the grant.\n\u201cToday we found out that those arguments were convincing.\n\u201cI am very grateful to Secretary Sebelius and everyone on her staff, who took a long, hard look at the cost of energy in the Northern Mariana Islands and agreed to help our poorest families.\u201d\nLIHEAP grants can be used to pay for electricity, make home improvements that save energy, and, in a crisis, prevent service interruptions. As many as 300 families in the Northern Marianas have in recent years received up to $58 in monthly assistance from the federal program.\nThe number of NMI families who are eligible and the monthly aid amount can significantly increase now.\nYears of effort and persistence rewarded\nSablan identified LIHEAP funding as an opportunity to improve funding for the Northern Mariana Islands early in his congressional career. Year after year he has been among members of Congress active in defending the national program, which has been a favorite target of budget cutters.\nAt the same time, Congressman Sablan has worked to find ways to increase the specific grant to the NMI. In 2011 he wrote legislation, H.R. 3063, requiring the HHS Secretary to allocate at least 30 percent of national home energy grants, called Leveraging Incentive Grants, to the U.S. territories to supplement the LIHEAP grant. Sablan\u2019s bill gathered 9 co-sponsors.\nLater that year Sablan wrote the formal petition to Secretary Sebelius, signed by all the territorial representatives, laying out the case for her to allocate the full 0.5 percent of LIHEAP funding permitted by law. The insular areas have electricity costs as much as 4 times higher than the U.S. average, the representatives argued, and the need for home cooling year around; yet the Secretary was only granting the islands a bare minimum, 0.135 percent, of what the law allowed.\nSablan also called for a revision of the allocations among the territories based on income and population data in the 2010 Census, when it became available.\nSebelius replied in February, 2012 that \u201cHHS staff are currently working on identifying the information required to assess whether the needs of the territories are being appropriately addressed in the allocation of LIHEAP funding.\u201d\nWhen the Department had still not completed its promised analysis this year, Sablan and his territorial colleagues again wrote to Sebelius. They pointed out the long delay, asked for a date to expect completion of the work, and noted that 2010 Census data had been released showing that poverty levels in the islands were three to five times the national average. They also provided the Department with updated retail electrical prices for each of the territories.\nThis new data may have been what the Department needed. In describing the methodology used to make today\u2019s decision, Department officials explained that \u201cto determine whether it would be appropriate to increase the share of LIHEAP funds for territories, HHS compared state LIHHEE [low-income households\u2019 home energy expenditures] to an estimated territory LIHHEE using the most current and accurate data available.\n\u201cThe data indicates that the territories currently receive significantly less funding relative to need than states.\u201d\nThe Department, therefore, concluded it would \u201cincrease the territorial set-aside percentage up to the statutory cap of 0.5 percent.\u201d\nTerritorial cooperation\nCongressman Sablan, today, also issued thanks to his fellow territorial representatives for the joint effort. \u201cBecause the law treats the territories as a unit for LIHEAP, we had to approach Secretary Sebelius as a united group,\u201d Sablan said.\n\u201cWe had to gather the necessary data from our individual jurisdictions, verify it, and compile it to show the complete picture of income levels and energy costs for the territories as a whole. That required teamwork; and teamwork produced results that benefit people in all of the areas we represent.\n\u201cWe may not have a vote on the House floor, but that doesn\u2019t stop us from being effective advocates for our people.\u201d\nPuerto Rico\u2019s Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi made a similar point in his announcement of the HHS decision to increase LIHEAP for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Marianas. He thanked \u201chis fellow territory delegates for their joint efforts, especially Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan from the Northern Mariana Islands, who was instrumental in convincing HHS to increase the annual allocation to the territories.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://sablan.house.gov/press-release/major-breakthrough-liheap-funding-nmi"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.007849980145693, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}