Bicameral conference committee still at a stalemate

The bicameral conference committee has yet to reach a mutually agreed budget bill for the CNMI government’s operations for fiscal year 2024 and will continue their deliberations tomorrow, Friday.

Sen. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Saipan), who chairs the Senate conference committee and presides over the meeting, said at the latter part of the meeting yesterday afternoon that five is the definite number that they will be suspending from the holidays.

“Whether or not Senate agrees, then the additional holidays can come into discussion. But, for now, to kind of speed things through since we’re not going to meet tomorrow, the fiscal analyst can determine the fiscal impact of those five holidays,” Manglona said.

He said five is the definite number that they are going to suspend and anymore is dependent upon the agreement with the Senate in regards to their support for any of these tax revenue bills.

“And so, if I can ask the fiscal analyst prepare the financial impact of what five holidays, how many hours that would affect our employees we were just spread out the 40-hour cut across all agencies throughout the whole fiscal year,” Manglona said.

He said with the fiscal analyst preparing his analysis as well as the Senate meeting tomorrow in session and discussing with the full body the understanding of these revenue generating bills, they will be in recess until 10am, Friday.