By a vote of 8-0 with one abstention, the Senate overrode yesterday Gov. Benigno R. Fitial\u2019s veto of a bill seeking to pay employees working on federally funded capital improvement projects at least the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.<\/p>\n
This is the Senate\u2019s third override of a governor\u2019s veto in less than three weeks.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 17-56, Senate Draft 1, now goes to the House of Representatives for action.<\/p>\n
Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), author of the bill, said that paying employees working on CIPs a federal minimum wage was done in the past, and gave resident workers an incentive to work on Section 702-funded projects.<\/p>\n
The CNMI\u2019s current minimum wage is $5.05 an hour.<\/p>\n
Of the nine senators, only Sen. Luis Crisostimo (Ind-Saipan) abstained from supporting the override.<\/p>\n
Fitial vetoed the bill on Monday, some two years after vetoing a similar bill. He said provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to the CNMI so it\u2019s unnecessary to have this bill.<\/p>\n
[B]Deadline extension[\/B]<\/p>\n
The Senate also passed a bill amending the law that requires the Department of Public Health to become a healthcare corporation by July 15, 2011.<\/p>\n
The amendment pushes back the transition date to Oct. 1, 2011, to coincide with the new fiscal year. This would allow the Executive Branch to address budgetary concerns.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 17-80, introduced by Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), passed by a vote of 9-0.<\/p>\n
Torres, in an interview, said another major reason for amending Public Law 16-51 is to create a \u201cgoverning board of trustees\u201d instead of an \u201cadvisory board.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will improve accountability and give more weight to the board\u2019s decision,\u201d he said. SB 17-80 now goes to the House for action. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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