‘Part-time legislature initiative still on’
House members have agreed to calendar the part-time Legislature initiative for their next session in apparent acceptance of an opinion that the proposal can still be tackled on the floor although its committee report had been defeated.
The House failed to discuss House Initiative 14-8 last Tuesday after the minority bloc raised a legal question as to whether the same initiative can still be entertained on the floor when its committee report was already junked in a vote last month.
Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider had said that unless re-introduced, the initiative is now considered dead.
House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. said yesterday that the House legal counsels were ready to present a legal opinion Wednesday, supporting the leadership’s position that the proposal can still be taken up.
“They were ready to present and back up the position of the leadership that, in fact, it can vote on the bill although the report was shot down,” said Reyes.
Reyes said the minority during Wednesday afternoon’s session “backed off and said okay.”
“The minority just completely let go of their objection. That’s interesting because they made a lot of fuss the other day,” said Reyes.
Meantime, minority bloc designated spokesman Rep. Ray Tebuteb said that “we’ve not gotten anything from the legal counsel.”
On the issue of part-time legislature, Tebuteb asked, “Is it really about saving money or is it about politics?”
The initiative, authored by first-time congressman Clyde Norita, aims to amend Article II of the Constitution to get rid of lawmakers salary of $39,300 and reduce their operational funds from $155,000 to $75,000 each.
He said the measure would result in over $2 million annual savings for the government.
