Hofschneider appoints Hocog to lead Senate conferees

Jude U. Hofschneider

Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) has appointed four senators that will represent the Senate on the bicameral conference committee that will be tasked with hammering out a mutually acceptable budget bill for the CNMI government operations in fiscal year 2022.

Sen. Victor B. Hocog (R-Rota) will lead the group as the Senate chairperson, while Sen. Justo S. Quitugua (R-Saipan) will be the vice chairperson, Sen. Francisco Q. Cruz (R-Tinian) will be a member, and Sen. Karl R. King-Nabors (R-Tinian) will be the alternate member.

There is no schedule yet on when the conference committee will meet.

Hofschneider made the appointments after the House rejected last Aug. 31 the Senate’s proposed version of the budget bill, House Bill 22-74, HD3, SD1.

Hofschneider also instructed Senate legal counsel Jose A. Bermudes, fiscal analyst Dave Demapan, and legislative assistants Jolyn B. Duenas-Tagabuel and Tiarra R. Blanco to assist the Senate conferees.

“I am confident that our Senate conferees will work cooperatively to resolve any differences with the House conferees in a timely manner to formally act on the FY 2022 CNMI budget,” Hofschneider said in a letter to House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) dated Aug. 31.

Villagomez has already named Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) as chairperson of the House conferees. The other House conferees are Rep. Christina E. Sablan (D-Saipan) as vice chairperson, Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan) as member, and Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) as an alternate.

A conference committee refers to a joint committee appointed by the House speaker and the Senate president to resolve disagreements on a specific bill. In this case, the conference committee will be working on a deadline to ensure that they come up with a budget bill that the Legislature will pass and bring to the table of Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, 2021.

Victor B. Hocog

Without a budget for the new fiscal year, the CNMI government will be forced to have a partial shutdown.

At the Aug. 31 House session, 15 representatives present voted to reject the Senate’s version of the $144.84 million budget bill for fiscal year 2022. Only Rep. Patrick H. San Nicolas (R-Tinian) voted “no” to the rejection.

During discussions, Manglona said while they appreciate the Senate’s speedy review and approval of certain provisions that the House had proposed, based on his committee’s response to the Senate version, there are several provisions that they would like to address in the conference committee, particularly the salary adjustments for Cabinet members.

From the $144,848,801 total identified budgetary resources for FY 2022, minus debt service, this leaves the government $98,897,301 that’s available for appropriation. Including the $4,487,022 budget for the Department of Public Lands, the grand total revenue available for appropriation is $103,384,323.

Adding to that $175 million in federal funds, senators appropriated a total of $278,384,323 in combined general local funds and American Rescue Plan Act funds.