Trip Report – U.S. Department of Interior Interagency Group on Insular Areas Working Group on the Guam Military Expansion – February 25-26, 2008


Overview of Actions:

-The third DOI IGIA sessions on the Guam Military Expansion was held on February 26, 2008 at the U.S. DOI building in Washington DC.  Since there was no action officer working group meeting scheduled with Guam counterparts, arrangements to meet with our federal working group was made for February 25th.  I met with the Health and Human Services (HHS) group; representatives from U.S. DOE, U.S. OPE, and U.S. DOI; and Congresswoman Bordallo and her staff.

-Meeting with HHS (Education portion). Requesting construction funding is not the direction the federal agency is headed.  Hospitals/schools of today are being built through a combination of partnerships, private funding, tribe funding, and fundraising.  Congresswoman’s office also reinforced this or education and recommended seeking HUD, Title III grants, and Job Course Centers tied to DOL.  

-Meeting with Education Representatives.  For Construction Funding, there is no alternate source of major funding besides CIP, Compact Impact, and grants.  It will take multiple sources of grants, partnerships, and fundraising to get the projects we identified for construction and collateral equipment.  There are two new grants Guam is qualified to apply against:  College Cost Reduction Act – 2-year grant for construction/ renovation in FY08/09, total $5m for applicants; and the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Grant – for FY08/09, total $5m for applicants.  U.S. OPE anticipates no more than 7 applicants for each.  They also recommended maximizing Title III and IV grants, and looking into a company called Connie Lee, a private insurance company who secures loans for applicants.  U.S. DOE mentioned that the process of consolidating grants under Title V has been removed (specifically impacts GPSS).  For Guam, this means that there is no more funding under this process and Guam will have to implement a new process in order to re-align funding through the grant processes.  Congresswoman Bordallo’s office was notified of this by us and they will monitor this action.  

-Meeting with U.S. DOI Representatives.  Representatives mentioned that the additional $10m requested for Guam did not make the cut out of DOI.  But, there may be $800K available from another project that has not been progressing in a timely manner.  With cut in funding at the federal level, all agencies will need to ensure their grants are on track or risk funding be diverted by DOI to other projects.  DOI will conduct a review of grants and project status in late spring/early summer (June/July).  DOI mentioned that Operational Maintenance Improvement Plan (OMIP) funding is for equipment only and some funding may be available.  If a request is submitted, it would be good to prioritize your list so that DOI representatives can assess needs if funding cannot cover the entire request.  DOI representatives also recommend that any construction/renovation requests should include collateral equipment even if the CIP does not cover collateral equipment.  This helps DOI make recommendations on where alternate funding sources could be available. 

 

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