Previous Story
House, Senate offer different MLK holiday
|
Posted on Jan 29 2005
The House and Senate are both convinced of the need to have a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday but they have different takes on how to go about it.
The House leadership said that, unlike the Senate, it cannot sacrifice any existing CNMI holidays, especially the Covenant Day, which it describes as “a very important document in our history and political development.”
“Right now, we are of [the] opinion that MLK can stand as a separate holiday,” said House leadership spokesman Charles P. Reyes Jr.
The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that aims to merge the celebrations for the Covenant and Constitution Day on March 24.
“We would have to look at that very carefully and negotiate with the Senate,” said Reyes.
The CNMI currently has 14 legal holidays.
Adding MLK Day, according to Reyes, would still be comparable to Guam, which has 16 or 17 legal holidays, and other U.S. jurisdictions.
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial was set to introduce a bill allowing the creation of a separate MLK Day in the CNMI in a session last week. The session, however, was canceled for lack of quorum.
Last year, the Executive Office vetoed a Senate bill that proposed to replace Presidents’ Day with MLK Jr. Day.
The Babauta administration said it fully supports MLK Day in the CNMI but not at the expense of the Presidents’ Day, which, it said, has a very profound meaning for the Commonwealth.
