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Office of Washington Rep. faces House inquiry
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Posted on Feb 03 2000
Three House committees have scheduled a joint hearing on the Office of the Resident Representative to the United States as part of the legislative review on its budget and activities, according to a letter to Juan N. Babauta, CNMI’s representative to Washington.
It said the committees on Ways and Means, Federal and Foreign Relations as well as Judiciary and Government Operations will conduct the inquiry on Feb. 14 at the House chamber.
Chairs of the three panels, Representatives Antonio M. Camacho, Norman S. Palacios and Dino M. Jones, respectively, requested Mr. Babauta to provide documents in preparation for the hearing.
Among them are budget submissions for FY 2000 and FY 1999, annual reports of the office from 1995 up to the present, and audit reports made during Mr. Babauta’s tenure.
“In addition to questions about your Office’s budget, the committees will be most interested in hearing your assessment on legislation of high importance to the Commonwealth, particularly federal takeover bills and annual appropriation bills,” said the three lawmakers in the letter.
There are no other details provided in the letter, but House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial earlier he said the chamber would look into public expenditures in order to cut spending and streamline government operations.
“I have in mind several, including the budget of the Washington Representative. I cannot understand what that office does, but I do know that whenever I visit members of Congress or staff in Washington, they don’t seem to know much about our Representative or what he does,” Mr. Fitial told a recent meeting with the CNMI Bar Association.
