In the nation’s capital, the House Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing “Examining GAO’s Findings to Address Data Gaps and Improve Data Collection in the Territories.”

This comes after the Government Accountability Office’s recently released report indicating that there are challenges in securing sufficient data from the territories, and these gaps may result in a shortage of federal assistance.

CNMI congressman Gregorio Sablan and Guam Delegate James Moylan questioned the witnesses, with the former asking, "We all know the data policymakers take for granted the states data does not exist for the territories and the question is often why don’t we have that data for the territories. And in yours, it says it’s because of our small population."

Moylan added, "I’m glad to see there’s some action, but it’s really long overdue and Guam in particularly suffers from these effects. SNAP payments are based on the federal poverty and consumer price data and the approach not taken for any of the states. So this lack of data hinders our efforts to identify needed resources."

WATCH THE OVERSIGHT HERE