{"id":266727,"date":"2017-12-19T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=266727"},"modified":"2017-12-19T06:00:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T20:00:08","slug":"hocog-signs-four-bills-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hocog-signs-four-bills-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Hocog signs four bills into law"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_266728\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-266728\" style=\"width: 611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Victor-Hocog-Photo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"611\" height=\"771\" class=\"size-full wp-image-266728\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-266728\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hocog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Acting governor Victor B. Hocog signed four bills into law last Friday, Dec. 15, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 House Bill 20-131, HD1, to appropriate $3,375,000 from the Tobacco Control Fund to support and supplement awareness, detection, and prevention programs relating to cancer and other tobacco related illness. Authored by Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan), the bill addresses concerns for the health of youth and the public as a whole. This bill becomes Public Law 20-32.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 House Bill 20-10, SD1, to establish the Settlement Fund Revolving Fund Account and the Bond Payment Revolving Fund Account. Authored by Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan), the legislation ensures and protects future payments to the CNMI retirees for each fiscal year. This bill becomes Public Law 20-33.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 House Bill 20-129, HD1, HS1, SD1, to address concerns of the Settlement Fund Trustee and to reserve funds generated from the Casino Gross Revenue Tax. Authored by Rep. Francisco S. Dela Cruz (R-Saipan), this act earmarks the first $22 million of the CGRT for the payment of the 25 percent of class members full benefits, as well as bonuses. This bill becomes Public Law 20-34.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 House Bill 20-145, which appropriates $22,000,000, set aside in the Casino Gross Revenue Tax, for the payment of the 25 percent of the Settlement Class Members full benefits and payment of a bonus to all retirees and beneficiaries. Authored by House Speaker Rafael S. Demapan (R-Saipan), appropriated funds shall not lapse and are available for expenditure without fiscal year limitation.<\/p>\n<p>The appropriation is as follows:<br \/>\n\u2022 $3.5 million to be distributed equally to all Settlement Class Members receiving an annuity; with the remaining balance to pay for the 25 percent of Settlement Class Members full benefits. <\/p>\n<p>This bill becomes Public Law 20-35. (PR) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting governor Victor B. Hocog signed four bills into law last Friday, Dec. 15, 2017&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":266728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[194,1275,19490,19491],"class_list":["post-266727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-house-bill","tag-public-law","tag-settlement-class-members","tag-tobacco-control-fund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266727","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}