{"id":405141,"date":"2024-02-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=405141"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"House-OKs-bill-to-authorize-DLNR-secretary-to-OK-licensed-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/House-OKs-bill-to-authorize-DLNR-secretary-to-OK-licensed-vets\/","title":{"rendered":"House OKs bill to authorize DLNR secretary to OK licensed vets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The House of Representatives unanimously passed Friday a bill that will authorize the Department of Lands and Natural Resources secretary to approve and issue licenses to veterinarians to address the persistent lack of animal care services in the CNMI.<\/p>\n<p>House members adopted during their session the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee report that recommends that House Bill 23-83 be passed. All 20 House members voted \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill now goes to the Senate for action.<\/p>\n<p>Authored by floor leader Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan), H.B. 23-83 proposes to amend the Commonwealth Code to clarify that the DLNR secretary is authorized to approve a licensed veterinarian.<\/p>\n<p>Under the legislation, the DLNR secretary may authorize a licensed veterinarian professional associate and a foreign licensed veterinarian.<\/p>\n<p>The JGO Committee chaired by Rep. Marissa Renee Flores (Ind-Saipan) finds that the CNMI lacks sufficient veterinarian services needed to sustain the welfare and well-being of the community.<\/p>\n<p>According to the JGO Committee report, although CNMI animal health clinics such as the Saipan Humane Society currently handle hundreds of patients monthly, the CNMI continues to face a shortage in veterinarian services. Thus, the committee finds that there is a need to amend the current laws to increase access to veterinarian services in the CNMI.<\/p>\n<p>The committee finds it appropriate to provide the DLNR secretary the power to approve and issue licenses to practice veterinary medicine and surgery in the CNMI.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the committee finds it appropriate to provide the DLNR secretary the power to authorize foreign veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and veterinary professional associates to practice in the CNMI under the direct or indirect supervision of an approved veterinarian.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/c1ea87657edf54a429e4b2e6bf7dce61.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>House of Representatives Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) presides over a session in the House chamber on Friday. One of the bills that the House passed that day was a legislation that will authorize the secretary of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to approve licensed veterinarians.<\/p>\n<p>-FERDIE DE LA TORRE<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House of Representatives unanimously passed Friday a bill that will authorize the Department of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405141","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}