Lawmakers accuse each other of sitting on bills

Senators are complaining that their bills are gathering dust at the House of Representatives due to delayed action by House lawmakers. A House member, on the other hand, feels that the Senate is sitting on his bills.

During a Senate session last week, Sen. Luis C. Crisostimo, D-Saipan, moved to defer the voting on House Legislative Initiative 14-1, which aims to amend the Constitution to limit the authority of the Northern Marianas College board of regents to NMC affairs and create a separate postsecondary education commission to handle privately funded postsecondary programs.

The measure is authored by a fellow Democrat, Rep. Justo S. Quitugua.

“This is again introduced by somebody in the House. There’s not even an input from the college here. I can’t vote on this without looking at it thoroughly,” said Crisostimo.

During the discussion, senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes also noted that he had authored a similar bill but it was rejected by the House.

“But to me, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. It’s a good bill,” he said.

“They love to shelve our bills. We don’t do that,” said Sen. Joseph Mendiola as he moved to incorporate Reyes’ original bill in HLI 14-1.

Crisostimo added, “I also sent a similar bill, but they’re sleeping on my bill, too.”

“Our bills are gathering dust there,” he said.

Meantime, House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. said that the House has had concerns, too, about the bills pending at the Senate.

“So it’s not unusual for members being concerned of bills not being passed in the other house. The House of Representatives has been addressing Senate bills but there are some that just need more time to pass.

“Some bills are [more] sensitive than others and in need of more deliberation so it’s important that members do their due diligence and arrive at a consensus,” he said.

Quitugua, meantime, said that he has a number of bills that have been pending in the upper chamber.

In fact, due to the Senate’s delayed action, his bill extending an important program, the postsecondary teacher education, had to be vetoed by the governor for passing it after the program had already expired.

“It stayed in the Senate for a long time so when it reached the governor, he can’t help but veto it,” Quitugua said.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta had disapproved in June this year House Bill 14-205, which attempted to extend for another five years the postsecondary teacher education program, which had expired on Sept. 3, 2004.

He said the bill would have been effective if enacted prior to the September 2004 expiration of the program.

Three bills authored by Quitugua were referred back to the committee. These included the HLI 14-1; House Bill 14-141, which aims to require poker license fees to be paid in full rather than quarterly; and HLI 14-2, which would allow government retirees to get re-employed as classroom teachers without losing their retirement benefits.