Northern Mariners Sports Association urges House to back $22.5 million Saipan appropriation

Alex Sablan, representing the Northern Mariners Sports Association, told the House on April 24 that he supports House Local Bill 24‑12, a proposed $22,500,000 appropriation from revenues collected under Saipan Local Law 11‑2. “My name is Alex Sablan. I'm here representing the Northern Mariners Sports Association. I'm rising in support of, 24 dash 12. I know that it is a local house legislative appropriation,” he said.

The request matters, Sablan said, because the funding would support transportation, programs and grassroots federations that allow youth in the Commonwealth to compete internationally and participate in interscholastic sports. He described NAMSA as “the governing body of sports, in the Commonwealth, and we have 18 members” and credited local school and education officials for helping expand interscholastic competition after the COVID period.

Sablan said the programs keep young people engaged and cited recent international results in badminton to illustrate competitive gains. “We have just seen the Commonwealth out of 7 countries represented in badminton came in under Australia and New Zealand,” he said, describing the delegation's performance as evidence of grassroots progress.

House Local Bill 24‑12 was formally introduced later in the session by Representative BJ Attau as a local appropriation of $22,500,000 from revenues collected pursuant to Saipan Local Law 11‑2. The clerk noted that introduced bills will be referred at a later time.

The House did not vote on the appropriation during the session; the bill was introduced and will follow the normal referral and committee process.