{"id":376732,"date":"2022-09-28T06:06:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=376732"},"modified":"2022-09-28T06:06:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T20:06:18","slug":"partial-shutdown-a-possibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/partial-shutdown-a-possibility\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Partial shutdown a possibility\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, left, and Gilbert Birnbrich, counsel for the Office of the Governor, held a press conference yesterday morning about the administration\u2019s preparation for a possible partial government shutdown. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres yesterday morning warned the community about the possibility of a partial government shutdown and that he is fully blaming it on the House of Representatives\u2019 leadership for taking so long to pass the budget for the government\u2019s operations in Fiscal Year 2023.<\/p>\n

Torres made the warning at a press conference held in the Governor\u2019s Office, or a few hours before the House rejected the Senate\u2019s version of the budget bill.<\/p>\n

The governor said he wants to inform the community that if the House is going to reject the Senate\u2019s version of the budget bill that leaves him a couple of days to review it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am legitimately warning the community that there might be a potential shutdown and I am\u00a0 100% blaming it on the leadership of the House because it took them this long to pass this budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres has until Oct. 1, 2022 to enact a new budget bill into law or risk a partial shutdown of government operations in an election year.<\/p>\n

The governor said it is not fair for any government employee\u00a0 to be worrying whether there\u2019s going to be a shutdown or not. \u201cI want all the government employees to know that I\u2019m very disappointed with the House leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres said this budget proposal has been given to the House on April 1, 2022 and it took them all the way to Aug. 27, 2022, a Saturday, to pass it.<\/p>\n

He said the House transmitted that budget bill to the Senate on Aug. 29, 2022.<\/p>\n

The governor said the Senate unanimously passed their version of the budget Friday, or less than a month after receiving it from the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I want to give them [senators] praise and praise all of them that it took them less than a month to come out\u00a0 with their version and they passed a budget that is best for the community and best for the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres said it is not fair for the House to hold this budget bill and to pass it in late August and then expect the governor to just sign it in a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very negligent on their part. And I want to thank the Senate for passing a balanced budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the partial shutdown, Torres said they have to go back to the definition on what or who are essential employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know on top of my head the actual number, but based on the definition, I think public health offices continue to move forward and law enforcement [officers] continue as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres said under the shutdown, there is a definition on who are essential employees and if they are not part of the essential then they don\u2019t report to work.<\/p>\n

Gilbert Birnbrich, counsel for the Office of the Attorney General, disclosed at the same press conference that they are beginning\u00a0 preparations for a potential\u00a0 shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be prepared for that. We have certain procedures,\u201d\u00a0 said Birnbrich, adding that they are meeting with a group of government officials and staff to review and go over\u00a0 the list of essential government employees.<\/p>\n

Torres said if the Legislature does not have the authority to\u00a0 reprogram or even program American Rescue Plan Act funds, that should be first out of the question.<\/p>\n

He said the second big issue is the Compact Impact funding, which the Legislature does not have the authority to appropriate as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy compromise is that the Senate passed the budget. Whether I agree with it 100%, but it\u2019s definitely more balanced than what the House passed,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

He said how the House majority acted on ARPA is illegal as they have no authority to reprogram or program or decide what percent to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the biggest part, the biggest issue here,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres yesterday morning warned the community about the possibility of a partial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":376733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376732","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}