‘There will be no gov’t shutdown’

“Don’t worry, there will be no government shutdown”

This was the assurance given by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios in a statement to local media outlets yesterday.

Last Tuesday, the House of Representative passed the Legislature’s version of the fiscal year 2025 budget in the form of House Bill 23-115 House Draft 1, House Substitute 1, Senate Substitute 2.

In a statement from Palacios yesterday, he said that the budget has reached his table, and it is under thorough review adding that he hopes to sign and return the bill to the Legislature by Monday, Sept. 30.

“I’m waking up really early in the morning, reviewing that budget, we’ve gotten to work on it right away. It’s been two days since [the Legislature] passed [H.B. 23-115 HD1, HS1, SS1]. We’re finalizing our thoughts through the weekend and hopefully by Monday it will leave my desk,” he said.

Palacios said he wants to assure the public that there will be no government shutdown.

“The process is ongoing. I can assure you there won’t be a shutdown,” he said.

During a House regular session last Monday, the House of Representatives voted 18-1 in favor of passing H. B. 23-115, HD1, HS1, SS2. Only Rep. Marissa Flores (Ind-Saipan) voted against the bill’s passage.

The week prior, the Senate passed their version of the fiscal year 2025 budget with a few floor amendments on top of the amendments passed by the Senate Fiscal Affairs committee.

Following an over three-hour Senate regular session last Sept. 18, the full Senate body passed their version of the fiscal 2025 budget; or H. B. 23-115, HD1, HS1, SS2.

After nearly an hour of discussion, the Senate unanimously voted to pass HB 23-115 HD1 HS1 SS2 past 4pm.

As part of their discussion, the Senate passed six floor amendments to include the addition of Section 609 to cap salary increases to service-contract employees as well as amendments pertaining to funds collected from the Department of Public Lands to be transferred to the Marianas Public Land Trust.

These amendments are on top of the amendments proposed by the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee last Friday.

A week before the Senate body passed H. B. 23-115, HD1, HS1, SS2, the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee met to discuss the bill.

The committee voted in favor of passing the House Bill with amendments to include two additional amendments specifically to reporting requirements.

According to Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota), the proposed amendments to the House bill are to add additional sections requiring the Department of Finance to report any additional revenue collected that is not detailed in the FY25 budget if it exceeds $200,000; and to include language that penalizes government departments who don’t comply with budget reporting requirements.

“[The proposed amendments include] adding a section D that mentions that the secretary of Finance shall report any additional revenue in excess of $200,000 that have been received that are not identified by this act. As for the penalties for failure to report, it is proposed by the committee that we include similar language to was indicated in Section 713 by taking the same language and applying to 712 in terms of the violations of that section,” said Manglona.

The committee unanimously voted in favor of passing the amendments.