{"id":310317,"date":"2019-10-18T06:06:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=310317"},"modified":"2019-10-18T06:06:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:06:02","slug":"house-mulls-overriding-budget-vetoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/house-mulls-overriding-budget-vetoes\/","title":{"rendered":"House mulls overriding budget vetoes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
House Clerk Linda Mu\u00f1a approaches House floor leader pro tem Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan) for a clarification during the House session last Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0(ERWIN ENCINARES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The House of Representatives would be discussing at a Monday session the budget vetoes of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres on the fiscal year 2020 budget, with the goal of either clarifying some housekeeping matters or even overriding some of those vetoes.<\/p>\n

In last Tuesday\u2019s House session, Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan) asked House speaker pro tem John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) to keep on the House\u2019s agenda the governor\u2019s message informing the House that he had enacted Public Law 21-8, or the fiscal year 2020 budget bill, for discussion in their session this Monday.<\/p>\n

He noted that there might have been a misunderstanding pertaining to the governor\u2019s veto of Section 710(k) of House Bill 21-64, HD2, SD1, which states that the Executive Branch will pay for the Group Health and Life Insurance expenses of the Legislature\u2019s and Judiciary\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n

Blanco noted that previous letters from the Office of Management and Budget, which is under the Governor\u2019s Office, had stated that the Executive Branch would take care of the GHLI expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026We had received email communication and verbal assurance from OMB during the budget process that\u2026the Executive Branch will include those payments in their budget allocation,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I requested speaker pro tem John Paul Sablan to [put] the governor\u2019s veto message on our calendar to discuss the matter, and discuss avenues to resolve the matter at the earliest possible time,\u201d Blanco said. \u201cI understand there might have been a miscommunication\u2026and I want to stress that the Legislature is going to work with the Judiciary and especially the Executive Branch to resolve this matter at the soonest.\u201d<\/p>\n

If no resolution is reached on this matter, Blanco said he might even consider asking the Legislature to override the governor\u2019s veto.<\/p>\n

In order to do that, the motion to override must be supported by at least two-thirds of both the House and Senate. With 20 members in the House and nine members in the Senate, a veto must garner at least 19 votes from both chambers to take effect.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan) supports discussing the governor\u2019s veto anew.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026It\u2019s very much a concern for our [CNMI] employees that [GHLI expenses] have been line-item vetoed. We definitely need some clarity. \u2026There seems to be some disconnect in the administration, and we should really get to the bottom of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sablan noted that the possibility of introducing a new bill mandating the Executive Branch to pay for the GHLI expenses is a possibility, but \u201cgiven that we are already two weeks into fiscal year 2020 and noting the urgency of the issue, a veto might be the most efficient and expeditious route.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting requirement<\/strong><\/p>\n

The budget bill, H.B. 21-64, HD2, SD1 had also set stricter and more frequent reporting requirements for the Finance secretary. However, in the governor\u2019s Sept. 26, 2019, transmittal letter, he also vetoed that particular section and Sablan believes the more onerous reporting requirements were necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Legislature did insert more reporting requirements on top of what would normally be imposed in previous budget acts, but\u2026we have been requesting for information from this administration and we have not been getting the information that we need to really keep an eye on the government purse,\u201d Sablan told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we should consider overriding that [veto] as well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

According to Torres\u2019 transmittal letter on the enactment of the fiscal year 2020 budget bill, he is not against imposing stricter reporting requirements on the Finance secretary but he recommends amending the Planning and Budgeting Act, instead of embedding the new requirements into the budget bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy administration fully recognizes that the need for transparency and accountability is critical for the monitoring of our government\u2019s fiscal health. Nevertheless, this monthly reporting requirement inefficiently imposes unnecessary burdens onto the secretary of Finance and his staff,\u201d he had said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House of Representatives would be discussing at a Monday session the budget vetoes of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[20,65],"class_list":["post-310317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-budget","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310317","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}