House rejects Senate budget version

The House of Representatives rejected Tuesday the Senate version of the proposed CNMI government budget for fiscal year 2016.

“There are a lot of issues with it so we rejected it,” Rep. Antonio P. Sablan (Ind-Saipan) said without disclosing specific details.

The Senate earlier approved a budget of $145 million—the same amount as the House’s—but with significant changes in terms of allocations.

According to Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian), some $5.6 million have “been moved around” so that more can be given to law enforcement agencies, particularly the Department of Public Safety.

Hofschneider is chairman of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, which conducted the budget review after the Senate received the House version of the budget.

Conference committee

As with previous legislatures, the budget will now be discussed by a conference committee that will seek to hammer out a compromise budget. The committee will have representatives from both Senate and House of Representatives.

Senate President Victor C. Hocog (Ind-Rota) earlier said if the House rejects the Senate version, then there might be a need to form the committee.

According to House Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), he will soon appoint members of the conference committee in consultations with the Ways and Means Committee chairman.

The budget that will be approved by the conference committee will then be sent to both the House of Representatives and the Senate before being transmitted to Gov. Eloy S. Inos for signing.

No new budget proposal
Lawmakers also discussed the possibility of scratching the proposed budget altogether and drafting a new one. The motion, however, was quickly squashed.

Deleon Guerrero said the concern of drawing another budget due to the anticipated impacts of Typhoon Soudelor is a “legitimate concern.”

The suggestion was brought up by Rep. Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan) of the minority bloc.

However, the House speaker said time is of the essence and that information on the financial impact of the disaster has yet to be known.

The Legislature needs to pass the budget and it should be signed before or by the end of fiscal year 2015, which is Sept. 30.

Deleon Guerrero also said the CNMI Constitution mandates that the budget be passed, with or without a disaster.

If the budget is not passed by Sept. 30, there is the potential of a government shutdown.

“We do not want this to happen, while we’re still addressing the effects of this disaster,” he said.