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Pete A. seeks continued funding of Wash. office
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Posted on Sep 17 2008
Washington Resident Rep. Pete A. Tenorio has urged the Legislature to fund his office until it shuts down with the installation of the CNMI’s first-ever congressional delegate in 2009.
Tenorio previously sought a budget of $360,000 for his Washington and Saipan offices for the period between Oct. 1, 2008 and Jan. 2, 2009.
In a letter to legislative leaders, he asked that the Washington Representative’s Office be given a separate budget. His request is in response to a plan by the House Ways and Means Committee to grant the Executive Branch a lump-sum appropriation. Under this plan, the governor will be free to decide how all government agencies, except the Public School System, Northern Marianas College, the Legislature, and the Judiciary, will be funded.
“It is critical that the WRO continue operations without fear of budgetary interruption until January when it ceases to exist,” Tenorio said. “There is a multitude of work that needs to be completed before the premises in both D.C. and the Saipan District Office can be secured for closure. With just three months remaining until my staff vacate, there is still so much to do.”
He said this work includes converting into digital form close to three decades of historical documents in the Washington office.
Tenorio was elected to serve as the CNMI resident representative to Washington, D.C. until January 2010. But the recently signed bill, which grants the Northern Marianas a delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, will cut his term short by one year. The new delegate, to be elected in November, will take office on Jan. 3, 2009.
The Commonwealth expects to save $1 million a year from having a delegate to the U.S. Congress. This is equivalent to the annual budget of the resident representative’s office. The federal government will pay for the expenses of the Northern Marianas delegate, including the delegate’s salary which is currently at $169,300 a year.
