{"id":377019,"date":"2022-10-04T06:06:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T20:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=377019"},"modified":"2022-10-04T06:06:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T20:06:06","slug":"rep-babauta-says-house-stood-firm-on-4-contentious-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/rep-babauta-says-house-stood-firm-on-4-contentious-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Babauta says House stood firm on 4 contentious issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Reps. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) and Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) are all smiles after the House of Representatives adjourned their emergency session Friday afternoon, in which they unanimously approved the bicameral conference committee\u2019s product and thereby passed a budget bill for the government\u2019s operations in Fiscal Year 2023. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) said on Friday that there were at least four contentious issues that the House of Representatives\u2019 conferees knew they were not willing to concede to during their conference committee\u2019s meeting with the Senate\u2019s conferees in resolving differences in the budget bill for the government\u2019s operations in Fiscal Year 2023.<\/p>\n

Speaking shortly after\u00a0 the House unanimously approved the bicameral conference committee\u2019s product and thereby passed the budget bill, Babauta disclosed that the House conferees stood firm\u00a0 that the approximately $881,000 in Cabinet\u00a0 salary increases be distributed to the municipalities.<\/p>\n

Babauta, who was a member of the House conference committee, said the Senate conferees agreed and accepted their position.<\/p>\n

She said the House conferees called on the Senate conferees\u00a0 to stand down on their suggestion to create a new liaison office for medical referral under the Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n

Babauta said the Senate conferees yielded to their request.<\/p>\n

As to the retirees\u2019 25% pension benefits, the lawmaker said the House conferees were adamant and insisted that a funding source be identified.<\/p>\n

She said they insisted and the exact amount be identified by the secretary of Finance to fully fund the 25% of retirees\u2019 pension not just for a quarter, but for the entire fiscal year. \u201cAnd along with that, it took care of any reprogramming language that the Senate inserted and the Senate acquiesced\u00a0 to this request,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

She said the House conferees were also firm that the funding source for the local match of the Medicaid be identified\u00a0 by the secretary of Finance to fully fund the entire fiscal year, not just the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker said they also required Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig to provide documentation of his assurance of the funding and he delivered that letter late Thursday night to the conference committee<\/p>\n

Babauta said many other concessions\u00a0 were made on both aisles and the product put forth is really a concerted effort by the members of the conference committee.<\/p>\n

She said both had the same goal in mind\u2014lay down arms and go to the conference committee to negotiate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in any negotiation, one must give up in order to gain. As a bipartisan party, the conference committee sacrificed our priorities so that our people\u00a0 would gain. They\u00a0 are our priority and the bipartisan budget that we just adopted and passed is a testament to that,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

She said they have included more funding for the municipalities and averted a government partial shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took care of the retirees\u2019 full pensions for an entire year. And that\u00a0 to me is a win-win situation for the community\u00a0 we served,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

She thanked House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) for allowing her the opportunity to participate in that process, and also the understanding with the fellow conferees\u00a0 both on the Senate and House side.<\/p>\n

Babauta said House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota), who chairs the House conference committee, took charge of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything went smoothly.\u00a0 There was absolutely\u00a0 no resistance from the Senate counterpart, so I want to thank them as well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Commending the Senate for its swift action, while expressing utter disappointment in the House\u2019s majority for failure to expeditiously pass the budget bill, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signed the budget bill into law Saturday morning, averting a partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) said on Friday that there were at least four contentious…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":377027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-377019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377019","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=377019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}