‘Senate leaders must stop using retirees in political game’

Expressing disbelief over the pre-filing of another joint resolution for the payment of $1,000 government retirees’ bonuses, Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) said yesterday that the Senate leadership needs to stop using retirees in their political game.

“Let’s give them what we promised them,” said Manglona, referring to government retirees.

He said the Senate leadership could have appointed the conferees to the conference committee since early last week and these $1,000 retirees’ bonuses should have been issued already.

Manglona

The senator said he does not understand why the Senate leadership want to continue prolonging the issuance of the $1,000 retirees’ bonus checks.

In a separate news release from the House leadership yesterday, is quoted House Speaker Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) as saying that the latest Senate proposal “once again misses the mark.”

“I thank the senators for their removal of the 100% reprogramming authority, but their latest proposal still does not identify funding sources and still contains a fundamental flaw that prevents our retirees from getting their bonus,” Villagomez said. “Even if it was proper to create a business unit via joint resolution, absent any funding in that business unit, nothing can be reprogrammed into it. The business unit is just that, a business unit that’s inactive. ”

Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) and five other Republican senators pre-filed Monday Senate Joint Resolution 22-09 to approve Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ request to create a new program and business unit for the $1,000 bonuses.

The joint resolution also approves Torres’ request to reprogram $2.6 million from within the Executive Branch for the payment of the retirees’ bonuses.

The other senators who co-sponsored the joint resolution are Justo S. Quitugua (R-Saipan), Vinnie F. Sablan (R-Saipan), Victor B. Hocog (R-Rota), Karl King-Nabors (R-Tinian), and Francisco Q. Cruz (R-Tinian).

The joint resolution does not include any language about giving the governor 100% reprogramming authority, which was why the House Democrat representatives balked at and rejected a previous Senate version of the bill for retirees’ bonuses.

Manglona said yesterday he thought the Senate leadership already understood clearly the legality question over the lack of a business unit. Manglona said the Senate leadership agreed already to work on House Bill 22-91, as amended by the Senate.

The House earlier chose not to act on a previously approved Senate joint resolution (22-05), choosing instead to pass a House bill (22-91, HD1) that proposes to amend the fiscal year 2022 budget law to establish a business unit and allocate $1.3 million to pay $500 bonuses for each government retiree.

Manglona said the House went further to identify the funding source and that what the House did was reasonable as the Senate just needed to appoint three conferees to meet in a joint conference and come up with a compromise measure.

“Why all off a sudden they want to go back to square one, using a resolution, is anyone’s guess,” Manglona said.

The Senate later approved House Bill 22-91, HD1 to allocate $1.3 million in local funds to pay $500 bonuses for each government retiree but it inserted some amendments, including increasing the bonus payout to $1,000.

The House then rejected the Senate’s version of the bill. Democrat representatives opposed a language in the Senate’s version that will give Torres’ 100% reprogramming authority over the budget. The House agreed to the creation of a conference committee that will hammer out with the Senate a mutually acceptable bill for retirees’ bonuses.

The House’s three-member conference committee subsequently filed a substitute bill that will re-appropriate $2.62 million in local funds from sources that are already identified, including provisions that were originally passed by both the House and Senate but line-item vetoed by Torres.

Hofschneider did not appoint Senate conferees and instead filed Monday Senate Joint Resolution 22-09.