The House of Representatives began work yesterday with the words \u201cgracious day\u201d but tension occurred near the end of the proceedings when a lawmaker banged the table with his fist during deliberation with his colleagues.<\/p>\n
The session got underway with Speaker Arnold Palacios beaming as some lawmakers kept using the word \u201cgracious\u201d during the start of the session.<\/p>\n
Palacios also used the word \u201cgracious\u201d and Rep. Christina Sablan joined in, using the word when requesting to be heard.<\/p>\n
This prompted Rep. Victor Hocog, with his big voice, to declare, \u201cToday is a gracious day!\u201d drawing laughter from lawmakers and some people in the chamber.<\/p>\n
Serious deliberation, however, followed, focusing on a House bill that would require appointees to the Medical Professional Licensing Board to be confirmed by the Senate.<\/p>\n
Rep. Sablan asked for a short recess. While Speaker Palacios was asking her how much time she needs, Rep. Hocog asked for the privilege to speak. Hocog, the principal author of the bill, begged that he be allowed to say his piece before the power goes off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess the bill is self-explanatory, Mr. Speaker, and to move for another amendment\u2026\u201d said Hocog, who failed to finish his sentence when Rep. Sablan raised a question to Palacios.<\/p>\n
At this, Hocog banged his fist on the table. \u201cCongresswoman! Please\u2026I\u2019m speaking and I asked privilege to the speaker and she\u2019s speaking while I\u2019m talking,\u201d the Rota lawmaker said.<\/p>\n
Sablan quickly replied that she certainly has the right to privilege, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you have to ask permission before you talk!\u201d Hocog said.<\/p>\n
Sablan replied, \u201cPoint of order!\u201d <\/p>\n
By then, no one was mentioning \u201cgracious\u201d anymore.<\/p>\n
At that point, Speaker Palacios intervened. He asked the members to be very, very patient in order to have an orderly session. Palacios reminded the members to be recognized first by raising a hand before stating their piece.<\/p>\n
Hocog then moved to end debate on the issue. Majority seconded the motion.<\/p>\n
Hocog\u2019s bill was approved. Only Sablan objected to it.<\/p>\n
Palacios said that sometimes lawmakers tend to become very, very passionate with their position, but that he wants to have an orderly session.<\/p>\n
The smiling Palacios then asked Floor Leader Joseph James Camacho to call for a not-so-controversial issue. Camacho obliged, segueing to a bill on veterinarian liabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House of Representatives began work yesterday with the words \u201cgracious day\u201d but tension occurred near the end of the proceedings when a lawmaker banged the table with his fist during deliberation with his colleagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}