House passes $115.4M budget bill

With only Rep. Patrick H. San Nicolas (R-Tinian) voting “no,” the House of Representatives passed last night a bill that proposes a $115.4-million budget for the CNMI government for fiscal year 2024.

Seventeen House members voted “yes” to pass House Bill 23-66, in the form of House Substitute 1, or the Appropriations and Budget Authority Act of 2024. The bill now goes to the Senate for action.

Reps. Diego Vincent Fejeran Camacho (D-Saipan) and Vicente Castro Camacho (D-Saipan) were absent but excused from the regular session.

Before the voting, San Nicolas complained that Tinian is being penalized with a $2.7-million budget cut and is unfair when other offices will get no cuts under the administration’s proposal and one office will actually get 100% of its budget request.

“Right now, it’s kind of hard because something is not right. And because of that, Mr. Speaker, I respectfully, my colleagues, will not vote for the passage of this budget [bill],” he said.

Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and is the author of the budget bill, said this budget is very tough as there are no funds that they can move around.

“However, we did try to fund everything. We wish that we could fund the island of Tinian more, but we had to look at different priorities and address it accordingly,” he said.

Yumul said this is just the first step in the budget process as it is still going to the Senate.

“I’m sure the second senatorial district is way more in it now. And we should be patient,” he said.

Yumul then offered a substitute as he stated there were errors found and additional provisions were requested by the committee.