The Northern Mariana Islands is to receive an additional one million US dollars in food stamps by the federal government.
The United States President, Barack Obama, has signed a fiscal year 2012 appropriations measure, making it mandatory for the additional funding.
The US Congress has locked in just over 13 million US dollars in food stamp funding for the CNMI.
A Delegate to Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan says the appropriation measure makes mandatory what had been a discretionary addition of one million by US Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack to the CNMI food stamp funding.
During a July hearing of the Nutrition Subcommittee where Sablan is a member, the delegate spoke about food stamp benefit cuts in the CNMI and eligible families being wait-listed because of shortfalls in the block grant.
