Legislators seek to settle ‘lack of action’ on bills

The heads of the House of Representatives and Senate of the 19th Legislature have initiated moves to address the apparent lack of action on both sides on a number of bills.

Senate President Victor C. Hocog (Ind-Rota) said he and House Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) will sit down and meet with committees heads to discuss the matter and expedite action on some bills.

After a Senate session last Thursday, Hocog noted that the Senate has currently passed 16 bills, all of which are still awaiting House approval.

Hocog said as far as the Senate is concerned, their respective Senate committees are now “looking into” some House bills. “We do our work, and hopefully they [House of Representatives] will do theirs,” Hocog said.

Members of the House of Representatives in a House session also on the same day last week passed 10 bills, which will then be transmitted to the Senate.

Some bills focus on infrastructure funding, tourism, and utilities, among others.

The House session last week also tackled two bills that the House Committee on Ways and Means recommended for passing.

One was H.B.19-5, which seeks to “grant the Secretary of Finance or his or her designee the authority to classify new products for taxation purposes; and for other purposes.”

Another is H.B. 19-7, seeking to amend the CNMI’s “Developer Infrastructure Tax Act.”

Reviving HB 19-21
Rep. Blas Jonathan “B.J.” T. Attao (Ind-Saipan), meanwhile, said he will continue to push for House Bill 19-21, which is currently still with the Ways and Means Committee.

Attao said he plans to revive the bill at the next House session.

Attao’s bill cites that the actual distribution of the casino license fee as stated in Public Law 18-56 is not enough to make up for the 25 percent cut in the pension of all government retirees.

“The Commonwealth needs approximately $17 million to pay in full the 25 percent reduction that was included in the Settlement Fund. Additionally, the Commonwealth will not receive the license fee on the fifth year, which means that retirees will again lose the entire 25 percent of their pension,” Attao explained.

He said H.B. 19-21 “replaces the fifth year with the 40th year of license payment, which will be a plus for the casino [since] GDP calculations and the dollar value in the future will increase and a plus for the retirees as their pensions will be a continuous payment from the license fee.”

Explaining the license fee distribution, Attao said the distribution of the first $30 million includes approximately $25 million to make up for the 25 percent that was deducted from the retirees’ pensions to include the back payment for fiscal year 2014, $2 million to the First Senatorial District, $2 million to the Second Senatorial District, and $1 million to the Third Senatorial District.

He said his concern is that “retirees’ pension payment as stated above will not be the complete 25 percent, which is the intent of Public Law 18-56.”