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House adopts 3 new bills
Members of the House of Representatives adopted three new bills in a special session on Capital Hill yesterday.
The discussions were uneventful, with a majority of the lawmakers giving their nod on the three bills.
Authored by Rep. Antonio P. Sablan (Ind-Saipan), House Bill 19-41 requires all vehicles belonging to tour companies to be registered with the Department of Commerce.
The bill noted that some tour operators “are maximizing their profits by only registering the minimal number of vehicles under the name of the company but utilize more vehicles for the services they provide.”
All 19 representatives voted “yes,” while Rep. Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) voted “no.” He said one of his reasons is that certain recommendations by the Department of Commerce “were not followed.”
Another bill passed by the House was H.B. 19-15, authored by Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan).
The bill gives a substantial discount to CNMI veteran who apply for an operator’s license. The bill said the veteran’s license fee should be 25-percent lower than the usual $40 license fee.
All 20 representatives voted “yes” to H.B. 19-15.
The lawmakers also gave their unanimous “yes” vote Senate Bill 19-20 authored by Sen. Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan).
S.B. 19-20 proposes a member of the Hotel Association of the Northern Marianas Islands to have a seat at the board of directors of the Marianas Visitors Authority. The bill also proposes that the HANMI representative will be appointed by the governor.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, decided not to act on S.B. 19-5, a bill prohibiting telecom operators in the CNMI to impose an expiration date to unused cellular prepaid credits.
The bill, authored by Sen. Teresita A. Santos (R-Rota), will be subject to further review.
