Office of Insular Affairs

Statement
Of
Anthony M. Babauta
Assistant Secretary of the Interior - Insular Areas Department of the Interior before The House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Regarding H.R. 6040, to Approve The Agreement Providing Terms
September 10, 2012.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. –The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Tony Babauta has awarded $790,000 in Water and Wastewater grant funding to support water and wastewater infrastructure improvements serving the villages of Malojloj, Inarajan, Merizo, Umatac, and Agat.   More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas Tony Babauta today announced $1,085,000 in grants to Guam agencies for sustainable energy projects under the Office of Insular Affairs’s “Empowering Insular Communities” (EIC) grant program.   More

Governor Benigno Fitial of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Visits the Office of Insular Affairs .

Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, July 18, 2012)  - On Wednesday, July 18th, the Director of the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), Nikolao Pula, hosted Benigno Fitial, Governor of the CNMI, for a meeting on various issues of importance to the people of the CNMI.  Among these were the Tinian pier project and the dispute between the CNMI and U.S. Governments concerning taxation of Filipino and Korean non-resident aliens in the CNMI. The photograph above shows from left to right Nik Pula, Director of OIA, Norah LeDoux, OIA Intern, and the Governor and Mrs. Fitial.  The daughter of parents from Pago Pago, American Samoa, Ms. LeDoux is working in OIA as an intern from the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS).

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Visits Guam

Guam, July 16, 2012 - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Visits Guam - On Monday, July 16th, on Guam, Assistant Secretary Tony Babauta met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder while he was on Guam for meetings with the Governor of Guam and members of the Guam and Northern Mariana Islands Benches and legislatures.  Pictured in the photo from left to right:  Presiding Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands, Ramona Villagomez Manglona, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Guam, Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas Tony Babauta, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Alicia Garrido Limtiaco, Esq. 

Nikolao I. Pula, Director,
Office of Insular Affairs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Office of Insular Affairs Director Nikolao I. Pula today announced more than $1.2 million in technical assistance grants to support American Samoa programs in education, health, and conservation. More

Keynote Address by the Director of the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) at the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures (APIL).

(Saipan, CNMI, June 26, 2012) On Tuesday, June 26th, in Saipan before the Thirty-first General Assembly of APIL, Nik Pula, Director of OIA delivered the principal speech calling on the leaders of the Pacific to work with one another and with the U.S. federal government to battle financial hardships, to develop their economies and to protect their environment. Director Pula spoke about the work of the Office of Assistant Secretary Babauta over the last three years to help empower island economies to address high energy costs, to collect the first sets of economic data, to assess school needs and to pursue partnerships against a backdrop of significant budget slashes.

Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs Hosts Close-Up Visitors.

(Washington, D.C., June 13, 2012) On Wednesday, June 13th, one hundred seventy students and teachers from American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia paid a visit of more than two hours with the Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, Tony Babauta.  The students and teachers were visiting Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the Close-Up Foundation, part of whose federal funding derives from the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA).  The Assistant Secretary delivered remarks and answered students’ questions about his prior positions working for the Guam Legislature and on Capitol Hill and now as the highest-ranking Pacific Islander in the Obama Administration.