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Friday, June 24, 2011

Making the Most of Federal Funding Opportunities

Federal funding is extraordinarily important for Puerto Rico. Its impact can be felt on every level and in every sector of the Island’s economy. Education, health, public security, infrastructure, social services, and municipal government functions all depend in large part on allocations from the federal government, which have already totaled nearly $6 billion in the current fiscal year.

Federal formula and competitive grants are a primary source of funding for many essential services delivered to our people, as are federal payments for Social Security beneficiaries, the elderly and veterans.

In the past two years, the federal government has allocated billions of additional dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These funds, which have exceeded $7 billion, have helped to stabilize the Island’s fiscal situation and to save or create jobs in both the private and public sectors. In addition, the federal health care reform legislation enacted in 2010 triples the funds that the government of Puerto Rico will receive over the next decade to provide health care to Island residents of limited means.

Notwithstanding these funding increases, changes were made at the start of the current 112th Congress that impact the manner in which state governments, municipal governments and non-profits can obtain federal funding. Previously, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees could “earmark” funds to particular projects in specific jurisdictions, but the current Republican majority in the House has generally prohibited this practice. This limits the opportunity to obtain federal funding outside the normal congressional appropriations process.

Moreover, the nation’s fiscal crisis has caused—or will soon cause—the federal government to significantly cut the formula and discretionary funds that federal grant-making agencies make available to states and territories. There is no doubt that these cuts will have an effect on the funding that Puerto Rico receives on an annual basis.

With less federal funding likely to be available, and with Congress having prohibited earmarks, it has become even more important for potential grantees on the Island to improve their capacity to identify, apply for, and obtain federal funding that is available under competitive grant programs.

The White House Task Force report expressly observed that Puerto Rico lacks capacity with respect to applying for competitive federal grants. My office has reached the same conclusion, having identified multiple grant programs where Puerto Rico has either not applied for available funding or has applied with limited success. The federal government has pledged technical support to help our state agencies, municipalities and non-profit entities in their efforts to obtain more federal resources. In order to benefit the people of Puerto Rico, it is imperative that we take full advantage of this offer of technical assistance.

This means that those individuals at state agencies, municipal offices and non-profits who are responsible for identifying and applying for federal competitive grants must be adequately trained. They should take advantage of the forums that the federal agencies in Puerto Rico offer, as well as the training sessions routinely offered by the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA). PRFAA and my office recently joined forces to send bi-monthly notifications to municipalities regarding federal grant opportunities through our electronic bulletin, “From Washington.” At the same time, I have proposed a cooperative initiative between my office, PRFAA, the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Issues (OCAM, by its Spanish-language acronym), the Federation of Municipalities, the Association of Mayors, and the principal universities on the Island to formulate common strategies to write grant proposals, ensure grantee eligibility and establish consortia to increase the chances that applications will be successful.

I recognize that information about available competitive federal funding opportunities can be difficult to find, especially since different federal agencies have different procedures when it comes to posting and publicizing information. Often, it is not clear whether funding is available under a particular grant programs in a particular year, who is eligible to apply, and what minimum requirements applicants must satisfy. For this reason, I have introduced legislation to improve the federal government website that lists grant opportunities. My bill would require federal agencies to post forecasts of their expected grants on that website, so that applicants can plan in advance which of those opportunities to pursue. The bill would also require the federal government to organize those grant opportunities by detailed subject area, to allow for easier searching. Currently, grant opportunities are listed only by very broad subject area, which can be extremely time-consuming to search.

This initiative, along with several others by my office, is designed to fulfill my pledge to support every effort that aims to improve the quality of life for our people. We are not asking for hand-outs, but rather simply taking maximum advantage of the federal funds that we have the right to seek and obtain as American citizens.